ABSTRACT
There is a tradition of movement in the Great Lakes region of Africa dating back several hundred years. As a result, the populations of the countries bordering on Rwanda and Burundi all speak similar languages, and have similar traditions of cultural contact and movement. Since the 1960s, refugees from the new modern states of Rwanda and Burundi resettled in Uganda, Zaire, Tanzania, and Burundi, with different degrees of involvement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In September-October 1993, Burundian refugees left Tanzania, many spontaneously and others as part of an official UNHCR-sponsored program, to rejoin the civil society in Burundi Lemarchand described. Plans were also under way to repatriate Mozambicans. In May and June 1994, the refugee population in Ngara was the darling of the international media and relief community. The UNHCR was coordinator of all refugee relief operations.
