SADC committed to peaceful solutions

LUANDA - Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on Thursday that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was committed to peaceful solutions to conflicts and had an obligation to promote dialog because the use of war and violence will only cause damage to nations.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos made the remarks at the closing ceremony of the 31th summit, which was held under the theme "Consolidating the bases for regional integration, developing the infrastructures to facilitate commercial exchange and economic liberalization."

The Angolan leader called on NATO to cease the military intervention in Libya, and urged parties concerned to negotiate a political solution without preconditions, adopting the road map proposed by the African Union (AU) to solve the crisis in Libya.

He also appealed to countries in the region to pay attention and express solidarity with the people of Somalia who were affected by armed conflicts and now coupled with hunger.

President Eduardo dos Santos said most of the countries in the region concluded that peace and security are the cornerstone to build up the region.

He said the community was aware of the current situation in Zimbabwe, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), and were taking efforts aimed at a peaceful solution to bring stability, safety and peace to each of the countries by fair and free elections.  

The two-day Luanda summit was attended by presidents of Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and DR Congo, king of Swaziland, prime minister of Lesotho, vice presidents of Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and over 600 delegates from member countries.