Determined to coax Rwandan refugees to return home before neighboring nations force them out, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter opened a summit on Saturday to tackle Africa's most pressing crisis.
With Carter serving as a moderator, the presidents of Rwanda and neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire began the closed-door talks, which are to run through Monday. Carter, 71, did not address reporters.About 1 million Rwandan refugees are living in camps along the Zairian border. About 700,000 others are in Burundi and Tanzania. Most are Hutus who have resisted efforts to return them to Rwanda, where the government is now controlled by the rival Tutsi ethnic group.
Hutu militias largely were responsible for the 1994 slaughter of some 500,000 Rwandans. The refugees say they fear retaliation for the killings. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front has taken about 70,000 political prisoners.
Carter, who has gained a reputation for being a tireless peacemaker, has mediated an end to conflicts in Haiti, North Korea, Somalia and Sudan. But even his own aides concede he'll have his hands full trying to persuade the exiled Rwandans it is safe to go home.
"We won't solve all the problems, but we think an advance will be made," said Marion Creekmore, overseeing the initiative for the Carter Center, the organization Carter founded to promote democracy and human rights. "These presidents are coming together and putting their own reputations on the line."
At a similar summit last fall in Egypt, leaders from central Africa pledged to create the conditions that would have 10,000 refugees returning every day. But few refugees have gone back to Rwanda.