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A three-day symposium on the Great Lakes region opened on Monday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, news organisations reported. Inaugurating it, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the tragedies of countries in the Great Lakes region were the result of ideological obscurantism, manipulation by colonialists to divide and rule, and the failure by colonial and post-colonial regimes to transform their countries industrially, Radio Uganda quoted him as saying.
The radio said the symposium, jointly organised by the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and the Ugandan government, and supported by the Tanzanian government, was dedicated to the former president of Tanzania, the late Julius Nyerere, for his contribution towards eliminating colonialism in southern Africa and neo-colonialists like former Ugandan president Idi Amin.
The theme of the symposium is reinforcing the region's solidarity by setting a regional agenda for a culture of peace, unity and people-centred development. It brings together Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The New Vision government-owned newspaper reported that Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Botswana and South Africa would also be represented.
It said 28 papers would be presented for discussion, and these would centre on six key themes, namely peace and security, regional stability and democratic governance, participation, empowerment and people-centred development, regional food security, and nutrition and health care.
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