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afrol News / SARDC, 13 February - By Munetsi Madakufamba. The President of the Tanzanian autonomous island Zanzibar has urged the countries of the Southern African Development Community to use their abundant capacity to resolve the many conflicts that afflict the region. He refers both to Zanzibar and Congo Kinshasa (DRC). Addressing a three-day SADC Council of Ministers Meeting which opened in Zanzibar 13 February, Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume said: "Let us as Africans show more compassion for our suffering brothers and sisters, and as members of SADC show more genuine concern to solving regional conflicts." With particular reference to Congo Kinshasa (DRC), he said the people of that country have "suffered enough." He urged Africans to solve their own problems. "I am a firm believer in the philosophy that we Africans have a great capacity to secure home-made solutions to our own problems. Let us exercise this resource," he said. The meeting, which is attended by about 200 ministers and senior government officials from all 14 SADC countries, is reviewing the regional economic and socio-political situation as well as house-keeping matters relating to the operations of the Botswana-based SADC Secretariat. The meeting, which ends 15 February, will be immediately followed by another two-day ministerial meeting to discuss the agenda of the SADC-US forum to be held in Washington next month. Other issues under discussion include the current restructuring of SADC institutions that has already seen the creation of two of the four new directorates at the Secretariat. The restructuring exercise is transferring the management of all 20-plus sectors previously coordinated by member states, to a central position at the Gaborone-based SADC House (Botswana). Various ongoing projects that were currently supervised by sector co-ordinators will await the outcome of an audit exercise before a decision can be made on those programmes which will move to Botswana, and what will remains with the host member state. Lilian Patel, Malawian Foreign Affairs Minister and chairperson of the Council, said the implementation phase of the restructuring exercise is on course. She however, expressed concern at the slow pace in establishing SADC national committees, with only three countries having done so to date. The committees will act as a link between the Secretariat and member states. She lamented the worsening poverty situation in the region and the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS but she hailed the beginning of the African Union and its New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) which, she said, is critical in meeting most of the continent's challenges. "SADC has welcomed the development since it is compatible with the region's common agenda." African unity is of critical importance in resolving the continent's problems and the choice of Tanzania as venue of the SADC meeting is of great significance for many reasons. The first meeting that discussed the formation of a regional organization to reduce economic dependence on apartheid South Africa was held in Arusha, Tanzania, in July 1979. The organization became a reality the following year in Lusaka when leaders of independent southern African states formed the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC). This was later transformed into a "Development Community" in 1992. SADC is an organization that seeks to promote regional and continental unity. Tanzania, which was born out of the unification of mainland Tanganyika and Zanzibar Islands, is indeed a symbol of African unity. As Karume said: "It is a union that sets a practical example of the determination of the African people to unite." By Munetsi Madakufamba, SARDC
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