Bangkok--Sep 30--eTurbo news
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTurboNews) -- Fifteen presidents from the Great Lakes region and its neighboring states met for two days in Tanzania and signed the "Dar es Salaam Declaration" in presence of the United Nations Secretary General Dr. Kofi Annan, committing themselves to the creation of a peaceful region and ending decades of war and bloodshed.
The declaration was a product of the International Peace Conference on the Great Lakes which brought together friends and enemies, warring and factional groups from the war-torn states in the region and those with political instability. The Great Lakes Region covers countries sharing the waters of the African great lakes of Victoria and Tanganyika.
Dr. Annan witnessed the signing of the 82-point declaration by 12 designated regional presidents last Saturday , and shortly after the signing warned that Africa has buried too many. "The job is far from over," said the UN Secretary General.
Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, who was the host of the conference, said there must be a censure of defaulting states in the region and stop thinking of non-interference policies so as to avoid more bloodshed. "The world must take action," he said.
Nigerian President Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also the chairman of the African Union, said it was shameful that the Great Lakes Region has generated over 6.2 million refugees and observed four million others killed in civil strife and genocide.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is also the current chairman of the Great Lakes Region, said, "The world will not open its eyes to observe another genocide to hit the region."
However, international observers and foreign journalists brushed away the conference declaration on the grounds that, the Great Lakes Region has been a headache to the international community because of civil unrest propelled by tribalism, greedy, corruption, nepotism and poor political misrule.
Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been the centre of civil unrest during the past 10 years and have shadowed the entire region, even scaring tourists from the United States, Europe and the Far East from visiting Africa.
The region has been badly publicized by the bloody killings in Rwanda and Burundi which left millions dead, and if a tourist visit these small interlocutrice states today, the most probable things to hit are the hundreds of thousands of human skulls collected and preserved to show the signs of the four-year tribal genocide.
Peace process in Burundi has until now, been a paradox, though the world's most respected leaders, including the former US president Mr. Bill Clinton, former Tanzanian president the late Dr. Julius Nyerere and Africa's most revered leader and former South African majority president Mr. Nelson Mandela, spent their best time to negotiate peace there, but their wisdom fell on the deaf ears of the Burundians.
When Peace Reigns
When peace becomes a reality and reigns in Africa's Great Lakes Region, no doubt at all, the region rich with biodiversity would probably stand as the most tourist attractive and a single safari destination in the entire African continent
Great Lakes Region is on top among the world's leading tourist attractive areas, posed with unique and natural heritages ranging from the natural and untouched Congo Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), rare Mountain Gorillas communities in Uganda, Congo and Rwanda, the River Nile in Uganda and Sudan, cultural heritage in Rwanda and the rich flora and fauna in Congo.
Congo forest is the biggest natural habitant in Africa. A big part of this forest has remained untouched since the creation of the earth. Endemic and rare wildlife species especially the apes are the permanent residents in this forest. Indigenous peoples - the pygmies resides deeper in the forest.
Misrule and permanent civil wars have destroyed the natural beauties of the Great Lakes Region and brought it back to an extent that visitors to this region would be tempted to contemplate on inhuman atrocities, if not scared away.
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