GREAT LAKES REGION: DRC takes over leadership of the Great Lakes Region

                     
Professor Alphonse Lumu Ntumba Luaba from the DRC was  unanimously elected by the council of ministers meeting at Munyonyo  to head the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) secretariat in Bujumbura-Burundi.

 Luaba takes over from Tanzania’s Ambassador Liberata Mulamula under whose five year-term the regional bloc was established and achieved great successes. The office of the executive secretary is the technical arm and coordinating body of the ICGLR process.

Its functions include: Ensuring the implementation of the decisions of Summit and the Inter-Ministerial Committee, and reporting on it, Ensuring implementation of the Pact and execution of the Programs of Action, Projects and Protocols, organizing the meeting of the Summit, the Inter-Ministerial Committee and of the other conference structures and forums.

Other functions are; harmonizing of co-operation with the partners and relevant regional economic communities and establishing a work program and budget relating to its activities ensuring of their implementation.

Luaba is a former Human Rights minister in President Joseph Kabila’s government and is the current deputy executive secretary for the Economic Community for the Great Lakes countries which includes Rwanda, DRC and Burundi.

The DRC candidate beat two other candidates to win the regional top seat. The candidates were Kenya’s Philip Okanda Owade, a career diplomat working as Minister of Local Government and Sudan’s Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdelghaffar also a career diplomat and accomplished academician currently at the University of Khartoum.

In a Telephone Interview, Luaba said he welcomed the decision of the ministers .

 “Once I assume office, I will tackle seriously the issues of sexual gender based violence and try as much as possible to eliminate negative forces that carry out these crimes,” he said.

Luaba who is a law professor has served in different capacities in the DRC governments since 1990. He was an advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office from1990 to 1993, member of the Constitutional Commission and Legislative Assembly in 2000, Vice Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs from 2000 to 2001, Minister for Human Rights from 2001 to 2003, Secretary General of the Transitional Government from 2004 to 2006 and National Director of National Unit of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Social Reinsertion Programme from 2007 to 2009.

 Commenting on the election of Luaba, outgoing executive secretary Mulamula said it was a sign that the Region has confidence in the leadership of Congo.

 “This shows that the region has matured and is ready to take over the security of its people. The region is the most relatively stable area in Africa and we want to maintain it at that. He has the task of keeping us together,” Mulamula told journalists.

 “We don’t want to go back to war and genocide, the ICGLR has the mandate to keep us safe,” She added.
Delegates said DRC leadership of ICGLR would steer the region in the right direction considering that eastern DR Congo has been and still is hideout of about half a dozen negative forces that have terrorized the region.

The office of the executive secretary is held on a rotational basis by member countries, but a country that has been holding and one assuming the chairmanship of the bloc is not eligible to produce a secretary.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is assuming the chairmanship of the Bloc today as 11 heads of state and government met in Kampala for the ICGLR summit. They will discuss issues of Sexual gender based violence, democracy, good governance and security in the region.
Source:  NewVision,  Dec 17, 2011

Author: Catherine Bekunda