Official denies recruitment of Burundi refugees

The government of Tanzania has denied press reports alleging it has admitted that Burundi rebels have been recruiting from five refugee camps in the country. An official in the home affairs ministry, Patrick Tsere, who was quoted by a news agency, told IRIN on Friday he did not say “anything like that”. “The journalist asked me whether there was military activity going on in the camps,” he explained. “I told him that he had visited the camps and talked to the inhabitants and seen for himself the kind of people the refugees were, what was going on in the camps and how they lived,” he said. “I told him that there was no military activity in the camps, because the camps are suppose to be civilian in nature.” “There is no recruitment in the camps whatsoever because the war is on Burundian territory,” he added.

UNHCR officials contacted by IRIN said they were “puzzled” by the news report. “We do not know of any recruitment going on in the camps,” an official from the agency’s Kigoma office said. “UNHCR is concerned about the civilian nature of the camps and that is why it supports the ministry of home affairs and the police in all the camps.” She added that the police had been working hard to control refugee movements and ensure discipline in the camps.