Burundi

In 1996, following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the presidents of Africa’s five Great Lakes nations asked former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to help negotiate a peace initiative for the region that aimed to combat the climate of genocide, repatriate 1.7 million Rwandan refugees, and curb violence that was rooted in long-standing ethnic tensions. After two summits, the five presidents made important concessions and agreements. But with little support from the international community, the peace initiative did not hold.

Legacy

Conflict Resolution

In 1996, the presidents of Uganda and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) asked President Carter to facilitate a meeting between themselves and the presidents of Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania — countries collectively known as the Great Lakes region — to negotiate a regional peace initiative. President Carter was joined in this effort by former Tanzania President Julius Nyerere, former Mali President Amadou Touré, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Summits with the five Great Lakes presidents were held in Cairo and Tunis.

Impacts

After the summits, the presidents agreed on important points, including:
- To prevent cross-border raids
- To halt arms flow to rebel groups
- To return military equipment to its country of origin
- To turn over individuals indicted for genocide crimes to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- To allow 300 human rights observers in Rwanda to work with returning refugees
Despite these important commitments and strenuous efforts to implement them, there was little support from the international community, and most refugees finally returned to Rwanda only when full-scale violence broke out in Zaire in October 1996.

This project ended in 1996.