Regional leaders meet to sign declaration of peace

Following months of preliminary meetings with national delegations, heads of state in and around the war-ravaged, Great Lakes region met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Friday in what is touted as the first summit of its kind. "At last a glimmer of hope," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a speech at the summit. "The regions leaders have made a strategic decision to pursue peace." On Saturday, the summit ends with the signing of the Dar es Salaam Declaration for Peace, Security, Democracy and Development in the Great Lakes region. The final draft of the declaration was already approved on Thursday by the foreign ministers of the 11 core countries. The 13-page document includes a preamble in which participants agree on the various causes of conflict in the region. It is followed by a "vision" in which the parties to the declaration announce their commitments. The declaration lays out "priority policy options and guiding principles" in areas of peace and security, democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration and humanitarian and social issues. It concludes with a section called "follow up mechanisms". "We cannot afford to write this process off as a theoretical exercise," Annan told the heads of state present. "It falls to you now to transform the declaration. What is at stake is nothing less than a new era for millions of African men, women and children." GREAT LAKES: Gathering of leaders may signal new regional approach IRIN interview with Rodolphe Adada, foreign minister to the Republic of Congo IRIN Interview with Anne Leahy, Canadian Ambassador to the Great Lakes