Rwandans slowly trickling home

Groups of Rwandan refugees are slowly trickling home from Zambia amid caution over what awaits them nine years after the genocide and its aftermath that sent them fleeing for their lives. In January the governments of Zambia and Rwanda and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signed a tripartite agreement facilitating their return, on the grounds that peace had returned to the country. Following the January agreement, the UNHCR started an information campaign telling the 5,000 Rwandan refugees in Zambia that they could return. So far, 52 people had been repatriated, UNHCR spokesman in Zambia, Kelvin Shimo, told IRIN on Thursday. "Since the first convoy in April the numbers have been small, but people are leaving and it is a signal that they are opening up [to going home]," Shimo said. "Remember that these are people who were traumatised when they arrived and they have expressed fear ... Some fear that it is not normalised back home." However, Shimo said word was getting back from returnees that it was safe, and this was being supported by the government of Rwanda as well as by the UNHCR. In Rwanda's genocide in 1994 about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, and some two million Hutus - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighbouring countries. "Officials from Rwanda have come to Zambia to sensitise them and allay their fears," Shimo said. He explained that on arrival by air in Rwanda, they would spend a few days in a transit camp and be given a "reintegration package" consisting of food, farming implements and other items to help them start a new life. Then they would be transferred to their area of origin. Zambian spouses and children could also travel to Rwanda but would be subject to Rwandan immigration requirements, he said. Landowners could apply to a special commission to have ownership of their properties restored to them. The UNHCR was also translating children's birth certificates and educational qualifications gained in Zambia into French, to make it easier for them to continue their education. Shimo emphasised that the repatriation was voluntary. However, the UNHCR could eventually decide to revoke a cessation clause which declares that the conditions of danger no longer exist in Rwanda, and that they would no longer be recognised as refugees. "The host country then decides how to proceed, in terms of their own immigration laws," Shimo explained. More details on the genocide tribunal