GASABO - Differing in levels of political commitment among member states may paralyse progress of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), a top presidential aide has said.

Dr. Richard Sezibera, the Presidential Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region and the national Coordinator of ICGRL, was speaking on Friday at Hotel Novotel Umubano during a meeting of religious leaders on the implementation of ICGLR’s pact on security, stability and development.

The meeting aimed at ensuring that religions contribute towards the implementation of the pact among the eleven member of  states.

Sezibera told the clergy that there are a number of challenges that, if nor dealt with, could stall the progress of the pact.

Among other challenges he mentioned include acquisition of sustainable funding to implement the pact. He called upon religious leaders to sensitise their followers and the society at large to participate in activities that promote peace and security.

"Although religious leaders can act as a negative tool by dividing the masses, they are very important in building the peace process and should put more effort in doing so,” Sezibera said.

In a bid to end instability, conflict, insecurity, human suffering and other regional problems in the Great Lakes region, Heads of State and Government of the member states of ICGLR – Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia – signed the pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great lakes Region in December 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya.

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