Foreign troops in quartering areas

At least 560 foreign soldiers, mostly Congolese and Rwandan, who had fought alongside UNITA rebels are in Angola's quartering areas awaiting repatriation, the state news agency has reported.

General Francisco Furtado, spokesperson of the Joint Military Commission (JMC) overseeing the demobilisation of UNITA forces, told the news agency ANGOP that the foreign troops were receiving the same treatment as UNITA soldiers and would be repatriated in accordance with international law.

Catherine Gendre, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the agency had volunteered its services to the government, but had not yet been approached by the JMC.

The Rwandan embassy in South Africa told IRIN that although it had no details of the Rwandan nationals in the quartering areas, they "can only be Interahamwe [Hutu extremist rebels] guys operating with Savimbi [the former UNITA leader]".

Gendre said that the ICRC had no information on the foreign soldiers, but once invited by the JMC, the agency would interview them in the quartering areas to determine whether they wanted to be repatriated, "and submit the results to the government".

She told IRIN that because Rwanda and Angola were involved on opposite sides in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Rwandan soldiers were protected by international humanitarian law and could not be forced to return home.

General Abreu Muengo Kamorteiro, UNITA's chief of general staff, was quoted this week by the state daily, Journal de Angola, as saying that the issue of the foreign troops was "a very delicate matter".

According to data released by the JMC at the end of March, the Congolese and Rwandan soldiers were quartered in demobilisation sites in Angola's northern provinces of Uige, Zaire, Malanje, Lunda Norte. A small number were also reportedly in UNITA's former southern stronghold of Cuando Cubango.

Meanwhile, the Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Kamel Morjane, is to visit Angola next month to discuss with the government the refugee agency UNHCR's role in the future repatriation of Angolan refugees.

The 10 to 14 June mission would also review the situation of some 12,000 refugees, mostly Congolese, currently hosted in Angola and for whom "durable solutions" need to be found, a UNHCR statement said.

UNHCR is providing protection and assistance to more than 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Angola. UNHCR has also been assisting more than 200,000 internally displaced persons, mostly in Luanda, Zaire and Uige provinces.

With the return of peace, the UNHCR statement said it expected that most of the more than 450,000 Angolan refugees hosted in neighbouring countries would progressively opt to repatriate once basic infrastructures and services are restored in their areas of origin.