End of preliminary meeting to restore peace

The first preliminary meeting for a new international effort to bring peace, stability and development to the Great Lakes region ended on Friday in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura. The key is tolerance, the UN Special Representative to the Great Lakes, Ibrahima Fall, said at a news conference on Friday at the end of the meeting. "By not creating frustrations and exclusion, we will pave the way to good governance and democracy," he said. Participants to the meeting also recommended strengthening security on common borders and find joint ways to fight so-called "negative forces" active in the region. The participants on the meeting were key members of national preparatory committees of seven core countries - Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia - as well as various experts on the region. They discussed the themes of peace and security, democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration, and humanitarian and social issues throughout the five-day event. "By democracy we mean political, economic and social democracy," Fall said. Unresolved aspects are to be discussed further in preparatory meetings due to take place in Kampala, Uganda; Arusha, Tanzania; and Kigali, Rwanda. Further meetings will take place in Kinshasa and Nairobi before a regional heads of state conference in November 2004. The final conference is set for May 2005 in Nairobi. Civil society representatives are also taking part in the meetings as well as representatives from UN agencies, the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, The East African Community, the Southern African Development Community, The Great Lakes Youth League, the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, the New Partnership for African Development, the African Development Bank, the Group of Friends of the Great Lakes region and the European Commission.