Rwandan refugees to assess conditions for repatriation

A group of Rwandan refugees in Namibia will embark on a "go and see" mission to their home country to assess conditions for their proposed voluntary repatriation. This visit is being organised to allay the concerns of the nearly 500 Rwandan refugees over their safety once they return. In April a group of Rwandans fled Namibia's Osire refugee camp and told the local Namibian newspaper that they did not want to be repatriated. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman in Namibia, Esegiel Xamseb, told IRIN that a delegation of officials from the Rwandese government and UNHCR's Great Lakes Coordinator Wairimu Kagaro had visited the Osire camp on Wednesday and met with the remaining Rwandese refugees. "The meeting was basically just an information sharing opportunity, the refugees were informed about the conditions in Rwanda and the political developments there," Xamseb explained. According to a tripartite agreement between the UNHCR and the governments of Namibia and Rwanda, signed in September last year, some 612 Rwandan refugees were expected to be voluntarily repatriated in June this year. However, after the flight of refugees wishing to avoid repatriation, there is no guarantee that repatriations will begin as planned. "Maybe after the go-and-see visit the repatriations will begin - this is a process [which could take time]," Xamseb told IRIN. Of the 612 Rwandese refugees who were counted in the camp when the tripartite agreement was signed, only 489 remain. The whereabouts of the more than 120 who have fled is unclear. "We are not aware of [what happened to them], this is something the tripartite commission is going to look into," Xamseb added. In a bid to address the fears of those still in Osire, a number of Rwandese refugees who had already been repatriated would be asked to visit the camp "and address the refugees here". Last month IRIN reported on the reluctance of some Rwandan refugees in Zambia to return home. Zambian officials said that despite continued assurances of peace in Rwanda, some Hutu refugees had raised concerns of alleged persecution by the authorities and the local community. In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, in which, according to government statistics, at least 937,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus died, hundreds of thousands of mainly Hutu refugees fled the country.