Great Lakes encounter; Frederic Chavanne reports on a meeting of people from one of Africa's most turbulent regions.

'WAR IS born in the human spirit. And it's in the human spirit that the ramparts of peace must be erected,' said Ibrahima Fall, echoing the preamble of UNESCO's constitution. As Kofi Annan's Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa, Fall is coordinating the international conference on the peace, security and development of the Great Lakes region which will take place in November, organized by the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union.

Fall was in Caux to take part in a meeting of lofC's Great Lakes programme, which for the last four years has sought to support peace initiatives in the region. Fall expressed his wish for cooperation between lofC, the national committees preparing the November conference and civil society in the Great Lakes region.

The meeting at Caux began on 13 August, the day when 160 Banyamulenge refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo were massacred in a camp in Burundi. This weighed all the more on the exchanges at Caux because a member of the affected community was taking part. The international community has condemned the killings and has committed itself to finding and punishing the perpetrators. But, as a Congolese participant commented, 'It is all of us Congolese who are responsible. In so far as we do not cure the politics of exclusion which made the Banyamulenges into pariahs, condemned to living in camps outside our country, we allow such massacres to happen.'

lofC believes that, if the UN/AU/EU conference is not to turn into a vast tribunal with everyone accusing each other, delegates should go through a process of examining the past--so that they can understand the reasons for the madness which has plunged their countries into torment. Suspicion, fear, frustration--both within and between the countries--must be overcome, particularly in the three countries which since the early 1960s have formed the epicentre of the main explosions of violence. Every Burundian, Rwandan and Congolese must look at the things in himself which have hurt, thwarted or humiliated the other, so that a frank and sincere dialogue can take place.

These days in Caux made a modest contribution to creating trust and understanding between people returning to these countries in conflict.