BY UGAMEDIA
From scratch Amb. Liberata Mulamula and her team today leave a land mark achievement—leaving the Great Lakes a more stable region after five years of dedicated service.
In 2006, when 11 countries from the Great Lakes came together to form the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, an organisation tasked with stabilising the region, there was a lot of skepticism on whether and how such an organisation would achieve its goals.
But because of the 19994 genocide in Rwanda that shocked the world the African Union and the United Nations took up the initiative to formulate the pact on peace, stability and development which was the foundation of the ICGLR formation.
The UN was particularyly concerned that even after signing a total of eight peace treaties there still was no little peace, less stability and minimal development in the Great Lakes especially in countries like Burundi, Rwanda, the DR Congo, Uganda and Sudan.
This process of integrating the Great Lakes countries , which recognised the interconnectedness of the region's populations, its security and economies, and the imperative of seeking regional solutions, culminated in the signing of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development by 11 states in the Great Lakes Region.
That historical initiative, according to a number of analysts, paved way for a peaceful and more stable region, which can be collaborated by the ICGLR Executive Secretary Amb. Liberata Mulamula.
“The region was very insecure five years ago. However, one could say it is stable apart from a few incidents,” said Mulamula, who winds up her term of office this year.
Ambassador Mulamula says as part of their mandate to instill peace in the region they have frustrated activities of most negative forces in eastern DR Congo that have been fighting different governments except the ragtag ones like the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (presently holed up in CAR) and Sudan rebel groups in Darfur.
Early December the ICGLR dispatched a peace and security team to meet Sudan’s senior security officials and traveled to northern Darfur.
The mission resulted in acknowledgement of presence of negatives forces which are supposed to be dealt with. Should the Sudan rebels be neutralized disputes between South Sudan and Khartoum are bound to cease.
Secondly, in regard to stability ICGLR Ministers of Defence have asked for an expeditious implementation of the organization's protocol on non-aggression and mutual defence in the Great Lakes Region that partly requires member states not to harbour rebel groups fighting the other countries.
The ICGLR has also supported regional cooperation initiatives curbing proliferation of illegal guns by the Regional Centre on Small Arms and the Small Arms and Light Weapons and disarmament of armed nomadic pastoralists in north western Kenya, north eastern Uganda, south eastern Sudan and south western Ethiopia.
The ICGLR has in addition been able to fight illicit mineral trade within the region. Today, it is becoming difficult for mineral dealers to sell their minerals from conflict zones because of the ban initiated by the Great Lakes Region. Such an initiative is bound to discourage warmongers from starting conflicts that have led to gross human rights abuses like sexual and gender based violence.
On the part of democratization, ICGLR has started observer missions, which have partly reduced election disputes because political leaders particularly candidates are engaged at early stages of the election period to pre-empt any disruptive efforts. For instance, the organization deployed observers in about nine countries in the last two periods.
In addition, a think-tank that is supposed to promote democracy and good governance was started. The Levy Mwanasa Regional Centre for Democracy, Good Governance, Human Rights and Civic Education based in Zambia is expected to influence policies that favour Africans using indeginously generated research data.
It is therefore agreeable to say that five years down the road Amb. Mulamula has left the Great Lakes region a better place to live in except a few areas like terrorism by members of the Al Shabaab, proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons, budget constraints, continued presence of negative groups and human rights abuses.
But overall the consolidated efforts by the region to fight sexual and gender based sexual violence could yield peace in the 11 member states and more after the admission of South Sudan and Somalia.
From scratch Amb. Liberata Mulamula and her team today leave a land mark achievement—leaving the Great Lakes a more stable region after five years of dedicated service.
In 2006, when 11 countries from the Great Lakes came together to form the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, an organisation tasked with stabilising the region, there was a lot of skepticism on whether and how such an organisation would achieve its goals.
But because of the 19994 genocide in Rwanda that shocked the world the African Union and the United Nations took up the initiative to formulate the pact on peace, stability and development which was the foundation of the ICGLR formation.
The UN was particularyly concerned that even after signing a total of eight peace treaties there still was no little peace, less stability and minimal development in the Great Lakes especially in countries like Burundi, Rwanda, the DR Congo, Uganda and Sudan.
This process of integrating the Great Lakes countries , which recognised the interconnectedness of the region's populations, its security and economies, and the imperative of seeking regional solutions, culminated in the signing of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development by 11 states in the Great Lakes Region.
That historical initiative, according to a number of analysts, paved way for a peaceful and more stable region, which can be collaborated by the ICGLR Executive Secretary Amb. Liberata Mulamula.
“The region was very insecure five years ago. However, one could say it is stable apart from a few incidents,” said Mulamula, who winds up her term of office this year.
Ambassador Mulamula says as part of their mandate to instill peace in the region they have frustrated activities of most negative forces in eastern DR Congo that have been fighting different governments except the ragtag ones like the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (presently holed up in CAR) and Sudan rebel groups in Darfur.
Early December the ICGLR dispatched a peace and security team to meet Sudan’s senior security officials and traveled to northern Darfur.
The mission resulted in acknowledgement of presence of negatives forces which are supposed to be dealt with. Should the Sudan rebels be neutralized disputes between South Sudan and Khartoum are bound to cease.
Secondly, in regard to stability ICGLR Ministers of Defence have asked for an expeditious implementation of the organization's protocol on non-aggression and mutual defence in the Great Lakes Region that partly requires member states not to harbour rebel groups fighting the other countries.
The ICGLR has also supported regional cooperation initiatives curbing proliferation of illegal guns by the Regional Centre on Small Arms and the Small Arms and Light Weapons and disarmament of armed nomadic pastoralists in north western Kenya, north eastern Uganda, south eastern Sudan and south western Ethiopia.
The ICGLR has in addition been able to fight illicit mineral trade within the region. Today, it is becoming difficult for mineral dealers to sell their minerals from conflict zones because of the ban initiated by the Great Lakes Region. Such an initiative is bound to discourage warmongers from starting conflicts that have led to gross human rights abuses like sexual and gender based violence.
On the part of democratization, ICGLR has started observer missions, which have partly reduced election disputes because political leaders particularly candidates are engaged at early stages of the election period to pre-empt any disruptive efforts. For instance, the organization deployed observers in about nine countries in the last two periods.
In addition, a think-tank that is supposed to promote democracy and good governance was started. The Levy Mwanasa Regional Centre for Democracy, Good Governance, Human Rights and Civic Education based in Zambia is expected to influence policies that favour Africans using indeginously generated research data.
It is therefore agreeable to say that five years down the road Amb. Mulamula has left the Great Lakes region a better place to live in except a few areas like terrorism by members of the Al Shabaab, proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons, budget constraints, continued presence of negative groups and human rights abuses.
But overall the consolidated efforts by the region to fight sexual and gender based sexual violence could yield peace in the 11 member states and more after the admission of South Sudan and Somalia.
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