This report is based on research conducted in Tanzania in May and June 1998 and October and November 1999 by Rumbi Mabuwa, researcher with the Women's Rights Division; Binaifer Nowrojee, senior researcher with the Africa division; and LaShawn Jefferson, deputy director of the women's rights division. Rumbi Mabuwa wrote the report with contributions from Binaifer Nowrojee and LaShawn Jefferson. It was edited by LaShawn Jefferson, deputy director of the women's rights division; Regan Ralph, executive director of the women's rights division; Cynthia Brown, then program director of Human Rights Watch; Malcolm Smart, program director of Human Rights Watch; and Dinah PoKempner, general counsel of Human Rights Watch. Specialized readers included Rachael Reilly, refugee policy director of Human Rights Watch; Binaifer Nowrojee; and Alison DesForges, consultant to the Africa division. Kerry McArthur, Laura Rusu, and Tejal Jesrani, associates with the Women's Rights Division, provided invaluable production assistance.

Our special thanks go to Mary Diaz, executive director of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, for her invaluable editorial contributions. Also, the research assistance of intern Sue Robinson, an Australian lawyer, is gratefully acknowledged.

Human Rights Watch thanks unhcr and its staff in Geneva and Tanzania for their assistance in arranging our November 1999 mission to Tanzania. We also owe a special debt of gratitude to the ngos that helped us logistically in Tanzania. We are grateful to the groups, donor governments, and the Tanzanian government, who helped us craft recommendations to unhcr at their Executive Committee (excom) Standing Committee meeting in Geneva in February 1999. Our thanks go to the African Office for Development and Cooperation, Care International, Caritas International, the International Council on Voluntary Agencies, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the International Save the Children Alliance, the Jesuit Refugee Service, Lutheran World Federation, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, Pro Femmes-Twese Hamwe (Rwanda) (Women Together as One), the Women's Commission on Refugee Women and Children, the World Council of Churches, and Union Aid for Afghan Refugees.

We would also like to thank our funders, without whose continuous support and generosity we could not do our work. In particular, the Moriah Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Shaler Adams Foundation, the Sandler Family Supporting Fund, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation should be acknowledged for their commitment to supporting improved protection of women's rights in a refugee context.

Most of all, we would like to thank the Burundian women refugees interviewed for this report, the Tanzanian women's groups, and all of the organizations working with the refugees who gave us their invaluable cooperation.