Curfew could trap Angolan refugees - UNHCR

A dusk-to-dawn curfew along a 450 km stretch of the Kavango river could prevent Angolans fleeing intense fighting between government and rebel forces in Angola's southeastern Cuando Cubango province from seeking asylum in Namibia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned. The Namibian government imposed the curfew along the river-border with Angola on 17 October, citing the risk of night incursions by Angolan rebel movement UNITA. In terms of the curfew, no one can travel within 200 m of the river bank between 18H00 and 06H00. A report on UNHCR's website on Friday said the refugees crossing into Namibia mostly tried to cross the border at night or at unofficial crossing points to avoid Angolan government and UNITA patrols, making them particularly vulnerable. When the curfew was imposed, the Namibian military said those who violated the restrictions would be shot. David Nthengwe, UNHCR assistant field officer and public information officer in Namibia, told IRIN on Monday that the agency had discussed its concerns with the Namibian authorities. "We would like to believe the government is imposing the curfew because of security concerns it has expressed before. However, this could have some unintended consequences in that refugees may be affected. "We would like to believe very strongly that the authorities have put in mechanisms to ensure refugees get safe passage, and that Namibian security forces will exercise every caution so that civilian refugees crossing at night will be looked after and taken into Namibia and accepted as refugees," he said. Thousands of Angolans from the provinces of Moxico and Cuando Cubango have fled to safer areas in Angola, and to Zambia and Namibia in recent months as Angolan government troops intensified their offensive against UNITA. The government offensive, prompted by a belief that UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi and his senior leadership continue to hide out in the region, has led to increased fighting and instability in Moxico and in Cuando Cubango. The UNHCR report said the number of Angolan refugees in Namibia had increased by 60 percent last year and by another 9.5 percent so far this year, reaching 30,380 people by the end of September. "Namibia, which in late 1999 reaffirmed its support for the Angolan government in its fight against UNITA, has since intensified controls in border areas and arrested illegal immigrants suspected of belonging to Angola's UNITA rebellion," it said. The report added that UNHCR had repeatedly asked for the rights of legitimate asylum seekers to be respected in Namibia and that in the first six months of 2001, the agency secured the release of about 300 Angolans found to be genuine refugees among about 1,800 people arrested by Namibian authorities. "Early last year Namibia established special tribunals for illegal immigrants, granting UNHCR observer status. The UN agency has also obtained regular access to those detained in order to identify genuine asylum seekers among them, and was able to participate in hearings of the tribunals taking place in several towns," it said. In its recent report to the Security Council, the United Nations Monitoring Mechanism on Sanctions against UNITA said it was concerned about allegations that senior UNITA leaders and their families were living in and operating from refugee camps along the Zambian side of the border. No such claims were made about camps in Namibia, but a humanitarian source told IRIN on Monday that the claims would probably prompt Namibian authorities to tighten up the already stringent screening of asylum seekers. Nthengwe told IRIN that the agency was still involved in discussions with the Namibian government over moving the Osire refugee camp which was opened in 1992 to a different site. The camp built to accommodate up to 4,000 people held about 20,000 Angolan refugees, he said, and the government was looking for a new site. Meanwhile, in a related development, UNHCR in Zambia said on Friday that it was sending trucks to the Angolan border to transport about 400 new refugees to a transit centre near the Nangweshi refugee camp in Zambia's Western Province. The transit centre was built as an extension to the camp to accommodate the increasing number of refugees. UNHCR said the Nangweshi camp was full, with about 15,700 Angolan refugees, and that the new transit centre already housed 4,700 refuges, prompting concern that it too, could soon reach full capacity.