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Zambia + 6 more

JRS Dispatches No. 204

(Extract)

Twice monthly news bulletin from the Jesuit Refugee Service International Office

REFUGEE NEWS BRIEFINGS

Venezuela: displaced families still without state protection

Sixty-two families, forced to flee their villages in mid-October after receiving threats from a left-wing Colombian guerrilla group operating in the area, remain unprotected by the Venezuelan state.

The Colombian and Venezuelan families were living in Santa Ines and Caño Gaitan villages on the western border with Colombia between El Nula and Guasdualito in Alto Apure State. JRS Venezuela, in cooperation with Caritas Venezuela and the UN refugee agency, continues to meet their emergency needs.

On 11 October, one armed group ordered more than 100 people, 32 families in all, to leave the Santa Ines village without offering any reason. They were summoned to a meeting and one of the men was tied up. The rest were ordered to leave within 20 days. The man, a member of one of the families, was then publicly assassinated in order to intimidate the rest of the local population. A little more than a week later, 25 families from Caño Gaitan village fled violence caused by fighting between Colombian guerrilla groups.

"The health centres in the area are closed after armed Colombian rebels assassinated two Venezuelan nurses caring for the local population. Local health workers are frightened and have asked the International Red Cross and Medicins sans Frontières or MSF for assistance", JRS Coordinator for El Nula, Jes=FAs Rodríguez SJ, told Dispatches on 14 November.

"We are worried that armed groups continue trying to recruit children as soldiers. There are areas where the school drop-out rate is reaching scandalous levels", said JRS Venezuela Director Merlys Mosquera.

ZAMBIA: HOPE OF RETURN PRODUCES CONCRETE QUESTIONS FROM REFUGEES

The results of the presidential run off in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), due to be announced by 19 November, are being closely followed throughout southern Africa, but particularly in places like Mwange Refugee Camp in northern Zambia.

In Mwange, there are 21,000 Congolese refugees, most of whom come from the eastern Katanga province. They normally keep up-to-date on events by means of shortwave radios and letters from friends who have returned home. But if they are willing to walk a few kilometres to where there is a mobile phone signal, they can receive calls and text messages from the DRC.

"A new mobile phone tower under construction in Mporokoso, some 30 kilometres from Mwange, should be able to provide coverage for the camp and anyone within an 80 kilometre radius. If that is true, this is very good news for Mwange and for the mobile phone company which will find many new subscribers!" Father Cyprien Nkoma, JRS chaplain at Mwange, told Dispatches on 12 November.

"The refugees are hopeful of a peaceful transition of power so that they can return home soon. Repatriation is very much on the minds of the people in Mwange", said JRS Southern Africa Regional Advocacy Officer, Michael Gallagher SJ.

"I spoke with community leaders recently and the questions they were asking were much more concrete than in the past. For instance, one woman leader asked me how much luggage they would be permitted to take with them on their return. Another person asked which groups of people would be repatriated in which order. These are very specific concerns. Fortunately, at JRS we have had the recent experience of facilitating the return home of Angolan refugees. It helped us respond to their specific questions", added Fr Gallagher.

Father Michael agrees with Father Cyprien that extending mobile phone coverage to the camp will make it easier for refugees to judge for themselves when conditions are right for return.

"There has been a lot of spontaneous repatriation. The camp population has dropped by 3,000 in the last two years and many of those who have gone back took mobile phones with them. Once the signal reaches the refugee camp, the returnees can expect calls and messages from their former neighbours in the camp", said Father Gallagher.

CôTE D'IVOIRE: SLIDE LIKELY TO CONTINUE DESPITE NEW PEACE PLAN

The UN Security Council passed Resolution 1721 on 2 November, backing the African Union call to prolong Côte d'Ivoire's most recent attempt at peace. Despite intending to clear the obstacles holding up last year's plan, it appears the most likely effect the new resolution will have on the country's crisis will be to perpetuate the conditions that continue to impoverish the population.

After lengthy debate, the UN Security Council passed a resolution which keeps President Laurent Gbagbo in office for another twelve months while granting interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny "all the necessary powers" to reunify the country and organise elections before 31 October 2007.

Even though Resolution 1721 contains stronger language and clearer references to what powers the prime minister is supposed to wield, the text is substantially similar to last year's UN Resolution 1633. There is little to suggest that the newly adopted resolution will avoid the fate of its predecessor.

One Western diplomat described the new resolution as most likely to produce "more of the same," that is, halting progress towards disarmament and voter registration, with frequent attempts to stall the process when it challenges important vested interests.

"We see a lot of people in difficult situations. What concerns us most is the steady downward slide the country is facing. As the peace process stalls and resolutions pile up year after year, poor Ivorians are being forced to carry heavier burdens, and their numbers are growing", JRS Côte d'Ivoire Director Robert Boedeker told Dispatches on 10 November.

For further information see www.jrs.net/reports

because their land has long been confiscated and it would be almost impossible to recover.

Tanzania: resettlement for 1972-camp Burundians

On 17 October, the US government announced plans to interview approximately 13,000 Burundian refugees languishing in camps in Tanzania since 1972 with a view to their possible resettlement there.

The offer is being made to refugees who fled Burundi in 1972, to escape widespread massacres largely perpetrated by the ethnic Tutsi-dominated government against members of the Hutu majority and to their descendants. Up to 250,000 people were killed, while an estimated 150,000 people fled to neighbouring Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Group resettlement is the only durable solution on offer to this group of refugees. For one reason or another they have been unable to integrate into the local society and are unable to go home", Beatrice Gikonyo, JRS Eastern Africa Communications Officer, told Dispatches on 10 November.

The Burundians who fled in 1972 and ended up in Tanzania were seen as having fewer realistic prospects for a return and sustainable reintegration in Burundi than those who fled a second wave of violence during the mid-1990s. These 1972 exiles were forced to flee for a second time in the 1990s from their first country of asylum to Tanzania as fresh violence swept the Great Lakes region.

A number of very important criteria define this group. They fled Burundi in 1972 and were also forced to flee their countries of asylum. Most have spent almost all their lives in exile and many were born in exile. Nevertheless, they have had very little opportunity to integrate into their local host communities and are either unable or unwilling to return home. In fact, for many, returning home is not an option because their land has long been confiscated and it would be almost impossible to recover.

SRI LANKA: WORLD TURNS A BLIND EYE TO SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS

On 8 November, 45 men, women and children lost their lives as a direct consequence of an artillery attack on a camp for displaced persons by the Sri Lankan armed forces, while thousands of others were forced to flee the camp.

"People trapped in Sri Lanka's war zones are facing shelling, starvation and death amid fear and despair but they seem to be largely forgotten by the rest of the world", JRS Sri Lanka Director Vinny Joseph SJ said to Dispatches on 10 November.

This week saw (far) more bloodshed when clashes between the Sri Lankan army and the separatist Tamil rebels, the LTTE, led to the killing of dozens of displaced people by army fire in Vakarai in east Sri Lanka. This is just the latest in a series of attacks by both sides since major fighting erupted last November. Despite sporadic peace talks, nothing durable has been achieved for the people of Sri Lanka.

"Blatant attacks on civilians by any of the parties to this conflict are deplorable. An immediate and solemn resumption of peace talks between the warring parties is the only way to prevent further bloodshed of innocent people", said JRS South Asia Regional Advocacy Officer Paul Newman during a meeting of JRS advocacy and programme staff in Rome on 10 November.

Speaking on 11 November Fr Joseph expressed concern about the lack of information coming from the conflict zones. No information about JRS staff or beneficiaries had been received in two days. He described the situation in Vakarai as really critical. NGOs and other agencies are not allowed to go there and food rations have not been distributed for at least 10 days.

Since August, more than 3,000 have been killed and 35,000 displaced by fighting between the rebel LTTE and government forces, on top of 65,000 killed and 350,000 displaced since 1983.

For further information see www.jrs.net/alerts.