Rights body protests against violence

Representatives of civil society in Burundi, DRC and Rwanda met under the auspices of the Ligue des droits de la personne dans la region des grands lacs (LDGL) in Gisenyi, northwestern Rwanda, from 13 to 15 December to discuss the problems of peace and security in the Great Lakes region. An LDGL press release reaching IRIN on Wednesday contained resolutions adopted by the participants of the conference, in which they condemned “resorting to violence as a solution to conflicts” in the region and demanded the “immediate cessation of war and hostilities, the full withdrawal of foreign troops stationed in the DRC” and “the disarmament of armed groups”.

The resolutions called on “foreign powers to stop their meddling intended to favour continuing war” and stressed the determination of the conferees “to fight against the impunity of genocide” and related crimes. They demanded that people guilty of such crimes be tried before “a common international panel tribunal”. In this respect, the conferees called on Burundi, the DRC and Rwanda to immediately ratify “the statute for the International Penal Court”.

They demanded that the UNHCR ensure that refugee camps were not “transformed into training fields and politico-military activism”. In conclusion they called for the early convening under the auspices of the UN and the OAU of “an international conference on peace and security” in the region and invited the region’s governments and the international community to support this LDGL initiative.