UN official praises Kampala, Kinshasa ties

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary–General for the Great Lakes Region, Ibrahima Fall, congratulated the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda on Wednesday for re-establishing diplomatic relations. The move lends more credence to the Declaration of Principles on Good-Neighbourly relations and Cooperation adopted in September by the governments of Burundi, the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda in New York, Fall said in a statement. The two countries issued a statement on Tuesday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, committing themselves to resuming full diplomatic ties and establishing direct air links. Ugandan Foreign Minister James Wapakhabulo and Congolese Regional Cooperation Minister Mbusa Nyamwisi, who was visiting Kampala, issued the statement. "We shall not allow rebel groups to use our territories to wage war," Uganda’s state-owned newspaper, The New Vision, quoted Wapakhabulo as saying. In his statement, Fall said the diplomatic links would pave the way for peace and security in the region and encouraged the two countries to work closely towards regional integration. Fall has been the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to the Great Lakes Region, based in Nairobi, since July 2002. He is charged with the organisation of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region to which Uganda and the DR Congo are core members. The preparatory process of this conference was launched in June in Nairobi with the first meeting of the national coordinators of Burundi, the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.