UNHCR terms accord a “considerable disappointment”

Meanwhile, UNHCR on Tuesday termed the deal a “considerable disappointment”. “We had hoped that all participants would sign an agreement, which would have represented an important first step towards peace and raised hopes for an eventual repatriation in safety and dignity of over 330,000 Burundi living in exile,” UNHCR spokesman in Geneva Kris Janowski told journalists. The agency has participated informally in the Arusha talks during the past two years, reminding participants of the humanitarian cost of the conflict and seeking to include refugee representatives in the peace process. Until October 1999, UNHCR was operating small, voluntary repatriation convoys from western Tanzania to northeast Burundi. “About 1,000 people per month were choosing to go home even as more refugees fled areas of southern Burundi,” UNHCR noted. After the killing that month of two UN aid workers, the programme was suspended and fighting between rebels and the army spread to every eastern province. It noted that the refugee population in Tanzania had grown “steadily” since. In both December and January, more than 20,000 Burundians sought asylum in western Tanzania. The numbers declined until June this year. However, in the following weeks UNHCR staff registered an increase as negotiations continued in the preparation for the signing on Monday. Through last Friday, 25 August, a total of 5,900 refugees had been registered for the month. “UNHCR will not organise repatriation to Burundi until the hostilities in the country cease, but we continue to prepare for that eventuality,” Janowski said. “Field staff believe that only a clear endorsement of a peace plan by all parties will send a sufficiently positive message to refugees,” he added.