The just concluded Forum of Parliaments of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (FP-ICGLR) in Khartoum, Sudan has agreed to establish their headquarters, in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This was revealed yesterday by Senate president, Dr. Vincent Biruta while addressing the press on his return from Khartoum where he chaired the three-day session.

"Among points agreed upon, is that the forum will have its head offices in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda was requested to nominate candidates from whom the forum’s Executive Secretary will be chosen,” he said.

The Khartoum session also focused on the Forum’s organs and defining its functioning modalities.

Rwanda is the current chair of the FP-ICGLR which was established during a conference held in Kigali, in December 2008. This was consequent to the Nairobi declaration of December 2006 in which leaders of the Great Lakes Region signed the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region.

Although he visited Rwandan troops serving in the AU-UN hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), in Khartoum, Dr. Biruta said the recently leaked "malicious” draft UN report was not a highlight in the meeting, even though he acknowledged somewhat mentioning it.

"We did not focus on a report which has not been officially published or any problems in individual member countries – but we talked about the bad practices by certain international organizations, including those affiliated to the UN.”

ICGLR legislators are looking to participate in the implementation of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region. 

The 11 ICGLR member states are Rwanda, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

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