Over 2,300 "persons at risk" sent out

An international "contact group" on protection of persons at risk in the DRC has organised the evacuation or repatriation of over 2,300 Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian nationals, as well as Congolese Tutsis, since the start of the conflict, a UN report said. A total of 489 people were repatriated to Rwanda and Burundi while 1,848 were evacuated to other countries, it said. The most recent operation took place in February when
152 people were evacuated to Cameroon for eventual resettlement abroad. Thousands of people of Tutsi origin or appearance were rounded up by the authorities following the outbreak of conflict in August 1998 and interned in government protection sites in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. The contact group is composed of embassies, the ICRC, OCHA and the Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights. As of last month, there were still 637 persons at risk in Kinshasa, of whom about 150 were believed to be in hiding, the report said.