On October 1, 1990, rebel groups calling themselves the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) moved from the country's southern regions to the northeast, capturing a tourist camp and police headquarters in Kabiro on the way. These units were the armed forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group formed by Tutsi and Hutu refugees who had been forced to leave their homes. However, soon the Rwandan army, acting on the side of President Juvenal Habiarimana, stopped the RPA's advance. After retreating, the rebel forces concentrated in high-altitude forests near the Virunga volcanoes, which are located along the border with Uganda. There, under the leadership of a Ugandan intelligence officer, Major Paul Kagame (Tutsi, current President of Rwanda (since 2000), b. 1957 - editor's note), who recently returned to the country after studying at one of the US military colleges, they regrouped their forces. A long civil war broke out. Periodically crossing the border, the rebels raided the surrounding areas of Rwanda, whose population was forced to flee wherever they looked. Entire refugee and displaced person camps soon sprang up. This is a situation that, in the language of the UN Charter, is designated as a " threat to international peace and security." This definition implies the need for international intervention. Rwanda's neighboring States, as well as donor countries, have begun to take measures aimed at overcoming the current crisis. President Mwini of Tanzania and President Mobutu of Zaire organized a stakeholder summit. France and Belgium have taken diplomatic steps. These countries, as well as Zaire, sent troops to Kigali. However, these intervening States, which had purely humanitarian goals, were soon faced with a number of intractable problems: how to achieve and then preserve peace; how to get the warring parties to sit down at the negotiating table; and, finally, what international forces should do to ensure the long-term preservation of peace in this count ... Read more