By Christophe Parayre and Esdras Ndikumana
Dar El Salaam, Tanzania - Foreign ministers from 11 African countries on Thursday approved a historic declaration aimed at underpinning efforts to stabilise the resource-rich powderkeg bordering the Great Lakes region of central Africa.
A year after the end of Africa's worst war, in which up to three million people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the declaration forms part of a major international attempt to turn the Great Lakes into a region of peace and progress.
The declaration was to form the basis of a communique at a summit meeting here on Friday and Saturday, attended by a dozen regional heads of state and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, as well as leaders from farther afield.
The document is short on specifics about how to disarm dissident groups threatening peace in the region but it marks the beginning of dialogue among countries that until recently were at one another's throats.
It "opens a space for dialogue", said Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande, whose country twice sent troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo to support rebels against the government.
His opposite number from Burundi, Therence Sinunguruza, said the very fact the leaders were here "to see one other, to speak of the problems and to envisage solutions, is already a positive development in itself".
Raymond Ramazani Baya, the foreign minister of the DRC, said his aim was to obtain a global settlement. "I wouldn't say there are no more problems, but we want to turn the page on a decade of incomprehension," he said.
During their preparatory meeting, the foreign ministers discussed issues under four headings: peace and security; democracy and good governance; economic development and regional integration; and human rights and social issues.
Nine chiefs of state had arrived by late Thursday, including President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who also poured troops into the DRC in support of the rebels.
A key question facing the summit leaders will be disarming, demobilising, repatriating and resettling the armed dissident groups in the region.
Burundian president Domitien Ndayizeye made it clear he would seek help in "annihilating" the last rebel groups still operating in his country, which is seeking to emerge from a decade of civil war.
But even as ministers spoke of peace, the guns spoke again on Thursday as Rwandan Hutu rebels hiding out in the eastern DRC reportedly launched a rocket attack against Rwanda, injuring three people.
The extremist Hutus, who actively participated in the Rwandan genocide in which upwards of 800 000 people were slaughtered, have long been a major factor of instability in the DRC.
Despite the continuing violence and instability, the European Union's special representative for the Great Lakes, Aldo Ajello, said, "One has the feeling that with this summit a page has been turned," even if practical solutions still lie in the future.