Rwanda

How It Started

Following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the presidents of Uganda and Zaire (now the DRC) asked President Carter to facilitate a meeting between them and the presidents of Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Their goal was to negotiate a regional initiative to combat the climate of genocide, repatriate 1.7 million Rwandan refugees, and curb violence in the area.

Our Work and Methods

• President Carter joined forces with former Tanzania President Julius Nyerere, former Mali President Amadou Toumani Touré, and South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu to find solutions.
• In March 1996, summits were held in Cairo and Tunis.

Impacts

After the summits, the presidents of Uganda, Zaire, Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania agreed to:

• Prevent cross-border raids
• Halt the flow of arms to rebel groups
• Turn over individuals indicted for genocide crimes to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
• 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. Most refugees finally returned to Rwanda only when full-scale violence broke out in Zaire in October 1996.