Regional presidents to meet in Uganda

Burundi President Pierre Buyoya, Tanzania’s Benjamin Mkapa and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni are to meet in Kampala on Thursday for talks on issues affecting the region, ahead of the UN Security Council debate on the DRC conflict in New York on 24 January. Uganda’s Presidential Press Secretary Hope Kivengere confirmed to IRIN on Wednesday that the visiting presidents would arrive in Kampala and begin deliberations in the afternoon. “They will be discussing regional matters, particularly peace efforts and security,” she said. The talks were due to continue until midday on Friday, Kivengere added. The leaders were afterwards expected to issue a joint statement and address a press conference. Meanwhile, Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano has taken advantage of the fact that many regional leaders would be in Maputo for his inauguration as president for another five-year term to call an extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for 16 January on the conflict in DRC, the PanAfrican News Agency (PANA) reported on Tuesday. The meeting would “evaluate the work carried out by the commissions instituted under the Lusaka accord” with a view to “taking appropriate measures for the rapid normalisation of the situation” in DRC, one of the newest SADC members, PANA quoted a Mozambican foreign ministry press release as saying.