ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA, 19 - 22 NOVEMBER
Early on Friday morning, 19 November, Secretary-General Kofi Annan left Nairobi for Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar-es-Salaam, where he attended the International Conference on Peace, Security and Development in the Great Lakes Region.
The meeting, which took place in a large tent in a garden overlooking the city, was attended by representatives of 17 countries, many of which were represented by heads of State.
Following opening remarks by the host, President Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania, the Secretary-General told the audience that a declaration to be adopted at the next day’s summit would be a major step forward. Especially, he added, since it comes a few years after a “bloody conflict in which several of your countries were involved, it symbolizes a new-found political will to adhere to fundamental principles, to put in place confidence-building mechanisms and to promote a spirit of mutual trust”.
The Great Lakes, the Secretary-General said, has the potential to be an African powerhouse, but for decades it has remained impoverished, its political and economic development stunted. But today, he declared, there is a glimmer of hope as the region’s leaders have made a strategic decision to pursue peace.
He told the assembled leaders that it is in their power to give their people hope by demonstrating a commitment to live as good neighbours and by taking steps to bridge the suspicion gap. What is at stake, the Secretary-General said, is nothing less than a new era for millions of African men, women and children who have been through a lot, who have buried too many relatives. “We cannot afford to write this process off as a theoretical exercise”, he stressed. (See press release SG/SM/9606.)
On the margins of the Great Lakes Conference, the Secretary-General held meetings with several of the African leaders in attendance, including the Presidents of South Africa, Burundi and Sudan.
After he met with South African President Thabo Mbeki, the Secretary-General discussed the transitional process in Burundi with that country’s President, Domitien Ndayizeye. The Secretary-General reinforced United Nations support for that process, and he also stressed the need for increased donor support for Burundi’s rebuilding process.
The Secretary-General then met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and told him, as he told the Security Council a day earlier in Nairobi, about the urgent need to complete the Naivasha peace process.
A successful conclusion of the Naivasha process would not only benefit north and south Sudan, he said, but would also be an essential step in moving forward the peace process in Darfur. The President accepted this premise. They also discussed the situation on the ground in Darfur.
On Friday evening, the Secretary-General and other leaders attended a State Dinner hosted by President Mkapa.
On Saturday, the Secretary-General began his day with a meeting with the current Chair of the African Union, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. They were later joined by a group of representatives of the European Union.
At the closing ceremony of the Conference, the Secretary-General hailed the final document as being the product of compromise and dialogue which embodies a commitment to work together as good neighbours in addressing common vulnerabilities and seizing common opportunities.
“No one has got everything they wanted from this process”, he told the assembled heads of State and government, “but everyone has got what they need: a real chance for peace stability, democracy and development” in the Great Lakes.
But, he warned, work was far from over to bring security, stability and development to a region in which millions have suffered for too long. “While the declaration may feel like an end”, he said, “it is not -- it is not even the beginning of an end. It is the beginning of the beginning”. (See SG/SM/9609.)
The 11 heads of State or government of the Great Lakes region then signed the declaration (Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia). Seven other heads of State, or their representatives, also signed as witnesses (Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe). The Secretary-General, as well as a representative of the African Union commission, also signed as witnesses.
At a press conference afterwards, the Secretary-General, who was joined by Presidents Mkapa and Obasanjo, said the signing of the agreement was an important step towards peace in the region. “Today, at last, we can glimpse a better future on the horizon”, he told journalists.
While Africa and the international community have a duty to help the countries in the region, he said in his opening remarks, this process belongs to the Great Lakes countries and they bear the primary responsibility for consolidating the peace. He stressed, however, that the United Nations would continue to put its entire machinery behind this effort.
Asked about the recent Security Council meeting in Nairobi on Sudan, and the fact that the situation in Darfur did not appear to be improving, the Secretary-General said that he had spent over an hour on Friday with President Bashir, his Foreign Minister and Minister of Finance, and that they had informed him that they want to finish the Darfur negotiations, perhaps even before Naivasha.
He added that the international community had made it clear to all the parties in the Sudan that if they succeeded in concluding the agreement there would be lots of help on the way and they would finally see the peace dividend for which they had been waiting so long. “Without peace”, he concluded, “nobody is going to put money in Sudan because nobody invests in a bad neighbourhood.”
The Secretary-General left Dar-es-Salaam shortly after the conclusion of this press conference.