KAMPALA - Defence and security experts from an 11-nation member regional organization have agreed to strengthen bi-lateral and multilateral co-operation to help address the problem of negative forces holed up in some of their territories.

During a meeting in Kampala, delegates at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) agreed to adopt and implement non-aggression and common defence pacts for effective management, prevention and peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region.

This was during a four-day workshop on peace and security called to propose concrete action areas, realistic timeframes and budgets, as well as responsibility centres and partners.

Ambassador Richard Sezibera, the special presidential envoy to the Great Lakes region, who led the Rwandan delegation, told The New Times: "For the first time we have a non-aggression and common defence pacts that will help us address the problem of negative forces. Before, we didn’t have a legal framework to criminalize these negative forces."

"And also we didn’t have a law that punishes a state that tries to destabilize the security of another state. Though implementation may take time, we are optimistic it will help address our security problems," he added.

"Rwanda’s biggest security problem remains Interahamwe. We still have a threat of Interahamwe though the Government has managed to reduce their numbers steadily. We are still waiting for the Government of DR Congo to take action as promised," he said in reference to last November’s Nairobi Communiqué between Rwanda and DRC in which the latter committed itself to disarm Interahamwe militias and ex-FAR. The two groups – largely blamed for the killing one million people during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide – are currently known by a collective name of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), one of the groups blacklisted by regional countries and the US as terrorist organisations.

Other notorious rebel groups include the infamous Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (Uganda), and Agathon Rwasa’s FNL–PALIPEHUTU, the only remaining armed group fighting the Government of Burundi.

The Non Aggression and Mutual Defence is among the ten protocols of the Dar es Salaam Declaration of 2004 where ICGLR member states agreed to criminalize aiding and abating activities of negative forces in the region.

The pact has so far been ratified by Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. The pact needs one more country to ratify for it to come into force. The Kampala workshop on Peace and Security that ended on Friday brought together defence and security experts from 11 core countries of the ICGLR including senior military, police and intelligence officers, as well as diplomats from development partners and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

The upcoming gatherings are Democracy and Good Governance workshop in Lusaka, Zambia, Regional Integration and Economic Development Cluster in Kigali, the Social and Humanitarian Affairs Cluster in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Cross–Cutting Issues in Bangui, Central Africa Republic.

Ends