Curfew continues in refugee camps

A curfew imposed a month ago after several nights of violence in two Burundian refugee camps in western Tanzania continues, IRIN learnt on Thursday. Calm has returned to the Mtabila and Myovosi refugee camps, near Kasulu, but the 20:00 to 06:00 local time curfew imposed by the Tanzanian authorities is still in place. Seventeen Burundians were arrested on 6 March following the violence at the camps that resulted in the rape of four women. "This was a very well organised and serious group of armed people," Ivana Unluova, spokeswoman in the Tanzanian Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN. "However, thanks to the good cooperation between UNHCR and government authorities, 17 Burundians have been arrested on charges that include rape, possession of firearms and armed robbery." The motive for the violence remains unclear. Some refugees believe the attacks might have been politically motivated, while others put them down to banditry. "These people came to intimidate people, not steal," an eyewitness in Mtabila refugee camp told IRIN. "They came into the camps, drank and paid for several beers and then went on the rampage." The eyewitness said the group targeted the Tanzanian police, the "Sungusungu" - refugees that are responsible for security in the camps - and the wives of the Sungusungu, leaving behind pamphlets intimidating the refugees. "They might have been trying to destabilise the camps so much that people would return to Burundi," the eyewitness suggested. Refugees in the camps are still confused and afraid. Some continue to sleep outside their houses for fear of more attacks. Although the curfew is still in place and aid agencies leave the camps before 15:00 local time for security reasons, aid workers say the situation has improved considerably. Unluova told IRIN that UNHCR initially thought the events were politically motivated because there was evidence of an increase in rebel incursions into the camps. However, UNHCR now believed banditry was behind the attacks.