Identifier | Created | Classification | Origin |
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09BUJUMBURA531 | 2009-10-06 06:18:00 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Bujumbura |
VZCZCXYZ0663 RR RUEHWEB DE RUEHJB #0531/01 2790618 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 060618Z OCT 09 FM AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1761 INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE |
UNCLAS BUJUMBURA 000531 |
1. (SBU) (Summary) The International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) is preparing a November 5-6 Roundtable and Summit in Bujumbura, to be preceded by a November 4 "Friends of ICGLR" for donor countries. At an October 3 preparatory meeting, ICGLR Ambassador Liberata Mulamula said that the upcoming Roundtable would take stock, and assess the developing capacity of the three year old Secretariat. Diplomats in attendance urged the ICGLR to focus on a few key priorities and find its niche among the plethora of other regional organizations in eastern Africa. (End summary.) 2. (U) Ambassador Mulamula hosted the October 3 breakfast meeting to outline preparations for the Roundtable for the Bujumbura diplomatic corps, the World Bank and the African Development Bank (which manages the ICGLR's funding.) She delivered an overview of the ICGLR's history, reminding the diplomats that the organization grew out of the 1996 Conference on Great Lakes, mandated in the wake of the Rwandan Genocide and the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC, to develop a mechanism for the region's states to resolve their own proliferating and intertwined conflicts. The ICGLR now includes eleven member states: an organization map shows a wide swath of contiguous countries spanning the continent from Sudan to Angola. An additional seven "coopted" countries, including some as far afield as Egypt and Mozambique, provide additional support. A "Pact" ratified by ICGLR member states in 2008, articulates four programs of action for the region: peace and security; democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration; and humanitarian social and environmental issues. Ambassador Mulamula turned the floor over to Peace and Security Program Officer Stephen Singo who describe these ambitious programs in greater detail. Singo said that ultimately their success would be measured not just by savings of UN peacekeeping costs, but also the use of natural resource revenues for human development, and the transformation of fragile states into effective states. Singo also took note of the three operating principles of the ICGLR, which he described as "international partnership, regional ownership, and national stewardship." 3. (SBU) Ambassador Mulamula said that among its activities, the November 5-6 Roundtable would take stock of how the ICGLR had developed to date, and assess the effectiveness of the ICGLR Secretariat, established in 2007 to manage ICGLR activities on a daily basis. She recognized that the ICGLR needed to focus on a few key priorities. Ambassador Mulamula hoped that partner countries would pledge increased support at the November 4 session of the "Friends of the ICGLR" just prior to the roundtable. She noted that the ICGLR was working closely with the World Bank to identify "bankable" projects. 4. (SBU) The diplomatic corps was supportive of the ICGLR's aspirations, but not entirely without reservations. Beginning with the Charge d'Affairs from the Netherlands (which co-chairs the Friends group with Canada) a series of diplomatic speakers took note of the ICGLR's ambitious agenda, but urged the ICGLR to find its niche and identify its value added in a field that was already crowded with overlapping regional organizations. The German Ambassador said that natural resources management, primarily the control of illegal minerals, was a reasonable area for ICGLR endeavor. The Norwegian representative suggested that the regional integration was not an appropriate venue of activity since other organizations such as the EAC and COMESA have already made significant advances in this area. The strongest words came from the top ranking UN official, the Executive Representative of the Secretary General Youssef Mahmoud, who heads the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi, BINUB. Mr. Mahmoud suggested that the regional transformation the ICGLR sought needed to come from within. He said the organization should therefore reverse the order of its three principles: only if its member states first demonstrated competent national stewardship and the ICGLR assumed regional ownership would partner states have the confidence to provide the organization additional financial support. The ICGLR, Mr. Mahmoud said, needed to demonstrate to the partners that it could put its money where its mouth was. He noted that some member states such as Angola and DRC were capable of providing the resources for the ICGLR's operation, and should do so. 5. (SBU) The representatives of the ICGLR who were present put up a vigorous defense of the organization. Ambassador Mulamula noted that the member states had themselves offered up the initial "seed money" to establish the ICGLR. Furthermore, the member states continued to pay all of the Secretariat's operational costs through a system of proportional assessments. Program Officer for Peace and Security Singo made an eloquent defense of the organization's priorities. He emphasized that resolution of the region's conflicts could not be taken in isolation from issues such as border management, food security, government corruption, or illicit trafficking in minerals. All of these cross-border issues had to be dealt with, in order to establish the conditions for a sustainable peace in the region. Singo reminded his interlocutors that, unlike other organizations in the region, the ICGLR did not implement projects. Rather, the role of the ICGLR was to identify a course of action, facilitate member states activities in implementing it, and hold member states accountable for doing so through the ICGLR Pact. The Ambassador from ICGLR member state Tanzania was somewhat less helpful with an intervention that suggested that the international community owed the ICGLR its support, and should pay fully on its pledges, in order to compensate for Western colonial exploitation of Africa over the past century. 6. (SBU) Comment: The ICGLR, still a young organization, appears to have a clear understanding of the region's deeply intertwined conflicts, and a clear vision of the end state of regional stability and human development it aspires to achieve. The evidence suggests that ICGLR has not yet fully developed a workable mechanism that can take the region to there from here. The November 5-6 Roundtable could provide the push the ICGLR needs to set it on the right path. End Comment. Twining |