Over 300,000 refugees by end 1998

Tanzania hosted some 330,000 refugees by the end of 1998, according to a new report by the US Committee for Refugees. The 'World Refugee Survey' said of that number, 260,000 were from Burundi, about 60,000 from the DRC, 5,000 from Rwanda and 4,000 from Somalia. It says Tanzania also hosted more than 100,000 persons whose refugee status was "unclear" but who lived in "refugee-like" circumstances. This category comprised some 5,000 Rwandans whose entitlement to full refugee status remained "undetermined" pending possible future screening, and approximately 100,000 Burundians and some Rwandans who fled to Tanzania in previous decades and continued to live there in 1998. Most of the Burundian refugees live in eight camps along western Tanzania's 320 km border with Burundi. Burundian government officials claim that the refugee camps in Tanzania serve as rebel military bases, a charge denied by the Tanzanian authorities and UNHCR. "Inspections of the camps by US government officials and independent human rights researchers concluded that the camps were not used for significant military activity," the report said. It added however that some of the camps were "highly politicised with competing political factions".