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HELSINKI PROCESS: Pushing For Progress in the Great Lakes Region

Francis Kokutse

DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) - Continued strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has dealt a blow to those hoping for peace in Central Africa. However, Liberata Mulamula, executive director of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), remains optimistic about the future of this part of the continent.

"We believe that the ICGLR has set the stage for a better future for the people," she told IPS, at the third conference to take place under the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy. This joint initiative of Finland and Tanzania is intended to encourage North-South dialogue, in recognition of the fact that problems linked to globalisation require broad-based solutions.

The Nov. 27-29 gathering is taking place in Tanzania&#39s financial capital, Dar es Salaam, under the theme &#39Inclusive Governance – Bridging Global Divides&#39.

The ICGLR, a process rather than a single gathering, was established in 2000 in response to the numerous problems in the Great Lakes.

This region is still overcoming the effects of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which upwards of 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

It was also hard hit by the 1998-2002 war in the DRC, which involved Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, amongst others – causing the death of millions and allowing widespread plunder of natural resources in the east of the country. Elections last year have not managed to quell conflict in this state: in eastern DRC, the army is battling rebel General Laurent Nkunda, who claims to be protecting Congolese Tutsis from ethnically-motivated attacks.

Dar es Salaam served as the venue, in 2004, for the first summit of leaders of the 11 ICGLR member states: Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo, the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

A second summit was held last year in Nairobi, Kenya. The secretariat of the conference is located in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura.

"We realised that the troubles that have come up were mainly due to poverty, which was a result of the ravaging of the national resources," said Mulamula, noting that lack of good governance was also to blame, along with ethnic divisions.

"Accordingly, we set in motion a programme of action which took a year and led to the signing of the protocol on non-aggression by member states," she added.

"This effort has worked because of the punitive measures that have been put in place against countries that breached it," Mulamula continued. "We have also been able to bring together the DRC and Rwanda to see that military options are not the only means to solve differences, and they have been able to solve their difference without the use of force."

The ICGLR has further established a protocol on the illegal exploitation of resources. "There are also the protocol on genocide and protocol on the internal displacement of persons and how to deal with them. With all these in place, we have set the stage for the future development of the region."

In addition, "We have taken steps to create opportunities for capacity building in order to entrench good governance."

The conference has sought to assist in poverty reduction through co-ordination and implementation of various initiatives.

According to Mulamula, there are efforts "to empower the people through micro-finance measures that are being supported by the African Development Bank and the Preferential Trade Area Bank."

She noted the Great Lakes countries "have the capacity to exploit their vast resources by attracting foreign investment."

But, "As it is now, the insecurity has made some of the countries in the region unattractive, and we want to change all that."