ABSTRACT
Violent social conflict within a state is rarely confined within its own borders. Thus the problems of Burundi and Rwanda became locked into the broader question of sub-regional stability. By late 1996, the African Great Lakes region was in crisis. By mid-1997, the scenario affecting the sub-region, even if not a formal settlement, was beginning to emerge. The simplistic Western agenda of well-ordered peace talks based on a cease-fire, with military intervention considered only for humanitarian purposes, was overtaken by a fast-moving African-dictated agenda, using both violence and psychology.
