Regional lawmakers to exert pressure for security pact implementation

Members of Parliament from the Great Lakes Region have vowed to push their governments to implement the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the region. The agreement was reached at the just concluded third meeting of the Executive Committee of the Forum of Parliaments of Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (PF/ICGLR) held in Kigali. “It is necessary and important for the legislators to engage their executives in the implementation of the pact,” said the Executive Secretary of ICGLR, Liberata Mulamula. She appealed to the lawmakers to pressure their governments to honour their pledges to the implementation of the Pact on Security and Stability in the region. So far, only five of the eleven member-countries have honoured their financial pledges. Rwanda contributes about US$70,000 annually and has effectively honoured its pledges on time. In a dramatic twist, regional lawmakers were supposed to adopt a communiqué which had already been drafted and circulated, but they rejected it on the basis that it was drafted in French and that there was no English version. Rwandan Senator Valens Manyabagisha, who moderated the meeting, withdrew the statement and promised a translation. The communiqué will be adopted on the eve of the first plenary of the regional parliamentary forum scheduled to take place in September in Khartoum, Sudan. Part of the communiqué calls on regional governments to take appropriate measures on security threats in the Great Lakes and also instructs States to honour their pledges towards the implementation of the security pact. Ends

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Regional lawmakers to exert pressure for security pact implementation