Confronted by victims’ skulls and survivors’ horrifying tales, former President Carter held back tears Sunday during his facti-finding mission into Rwanda’s genocide and its refugees.

At a church memorial in the capital of Kigali, Carter’s hosts showed him dozens of decomposed bodies in the chapel and thousands of skulls stacked outside, evidence of three weeks of terror there in April 1994.

Carter’s visit lays the groundwork for Nov. 27 talks in Cairo on the region’s refugees. Leaders of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire asked the former president to mediate the talks.