I am happy to see that the UN is proposing an international conference that will consider a regional solution in the conflict between Burundi, Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. For some time I have thought that this would be necessary. Previous conferences dealt only with one country at a time: the guerillas sent in from other states, the refugees, the pilfering of natural resources, etc. By dealing with all these problem one nation at a time, all the problems resembled issues of national sovereignty and infiringements thereof. What was wrong with this approach is that these problems were interconnected. Racial politics in Congo and Burundi affected Rwanda. The genocidaires who went into Congo and set up camp in the eastern provinces stirred the population against the government. Etc.

This report promises nothing new other than engagement, which is itself welcome. My only problem with the report is that it justifies the timing of the conference by saying that conditions are ripe:

I believe that the stage has now been set for the preparations for the conference to proceed as planned. There is a new momentum in the region on which it is important to capitalize: a Transitional Government has been set up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the Burundi peace process continues to move in the right direction; and general elections have been held in Rwanda. The holding of the conference would therefore undoubtedly consolidate national peace processes, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, and would add a regional dimension to building peace, security, economic development and regional integration in the whole region.

What I think is wrong with this statement is that the situation in the three states are still tentative, and a regional peace conferenc is necessary in order to give depth and meaning to the creation of civil order and peace.