Members of parliament from the region have held meetings this week in Kigali, in what in a way comes off as a continuous effort to play a leading role in resolving outstanding issues in the region especially in regard to security and conflict.

The AMANI forum conference that opened this week, seeks to find solutions to the problem of ethnocentrism according to media reports quoting deputy speaker Dennis Polisi.

The meeting that ended yesterday came just two days after another meeting that brought together house speakers from the region, resolved to restore peace and work to ensure stability in the Great Lakes region.

The speakers  who met under the auspices of the Forum of Parliaments of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region member States (FP-ICGLR), discussed issue to do with peace and security in the region.

In attending the meeting that was aimed among others to discuss security and peace, house speakers Vital Kamerhe of DR Congo, Burundi Senate President Gervais Rufyikiri and Kenya’s Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim and their counterparts from both chambers of the Rwandan parliament, were in a way reinforcing their commitment of the legislatures in the region to work to restore peace in the region.

The parliamentarians from eleven countries in the Great Lakes have met on several occasions to develop a common understanding after the signing of the December 15, 2006 Nairobi Pact on Security, stability and development for the region.

They have a role

The presidential envoy to the Great Lakes region Ambassador Joseph Mutaboba says that parliamentarians have a role in bringing about stability and finding solutions to the security situation in the region. He explains that the Nairobi pact calls for their involvement in the process of realizing security in the region.

"As representatives of people with constituencies, they have a role in the stability of the region.”

They envoy further says that issues of stability and security in the region are of concern to everyone. He explains that even non-state actors like members of the civil society like youth and women groups also have something to offer in finding lasting solutions to the security situation in the region.

The pact was aimed at finding lasting solutions to the seemingly endless conflict situation in the region. A number of achievements have been registered since then. 

DR Congo and Rwanda have held a series of meetings at ministerial level, and endorsed a joint plan to deal with the issue of the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Burundi, which is emerging from a long civil war, appears to be on the brink of total peace as the last rebel group of Agathon Rwasa, known as FNL-Palipehutu, has signed a peace pact with the government and acknowledged that it can not be registered under the PALIPEHUTU tag. This in a way is a sigh of progress in efforts to end conflict in the region.

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