ACT appeals for US $268,684 for refugees in Tanzania

Faced with dwindling funds for its work with Burundian refugees in Tanzania, Action by Churches Together (ACT) has said it must make "drastic cuts" in its provision of education and its efforts to render the refugees self-sufficient and to bring about peace and reconciliation. It, therefore, appealed on Tuesday to international donors for US $268,684 to enable it to persevere with its humanitarian task.

In its appeal, the Geneva-based NGO said its lack of funding had reached the point at which the "basic needs provision had dipped below the generally accepted humanitarian standards".

Therefore, ACT said, its local affiliate, the Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service (TCRS), was proposing an aid programme comprising activities vital to upholding refugee wellbeing and dignity, as well as to promoting the healing of the root causes of the conflict between Hutu and Tutsi in Burundi.

The proposal aims at bringing about the replacement of deteriorated water and sanitation facilities and of worn-out cooking utensils, setting up information and resource centres on the situation in Burundi, and facilitated repatriation. Other essentials proposed are peace education and conflict transformation; advocacy - rights of refugees in Tanzania and returnees to Burundi; and enhancing the skills of TCRS' national partners.

The Tanzanian NGO, in collaboration with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has been running the Kanembwa and Mkugwe camps since 1994. TCRS set up two other camps respectively at Mtendeli and Nduta in 1996, and at Karago in 1999. Its present caseload at these camps, all of which are in Kibondo District in northwestern Tanzania, is some 150,000 refugees.

Under pressure from the Burundian and Tanzanian governments, UNHCR has been facilitating "voluntary repatriations" to the more peaceful northern part of Burundi. UNHCR tells the refugees, however, it is not "promoting" repatriation. Most refugees in Kibondo are from the southeastern areas of Burundi, which are considered unsafe for repatriation.

The refugee emergency in Kibondo started in early 1994, after an attempted coup the previous year in which Burundi's democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, was killed. The ensuing ethnic violence prompted the flight of tens of thousands of people into Tanzania.

"The life of the refugees remaining in the camps is filled with constraints and hardship," ACT reported in its appeal.

Considered "temporary residents of Tanzania, the refugees are confined within a radius of four kilometres from the camps, and are "totally dependent on hand-outs for their basic survival needs," ACT said.

[For more on the appeal visit http://www.act-intl.org]