Official on mission to review UNHCR operations, repatriation prospects

A senior official of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has began a six-day mission to Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to review the agency's operations and repatriation prospects, the agency reported on Tuesday. UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin visited on Tuesday some 1,500 Angolans living at a refugee site in Napassa, near Kahemba, south of the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. UNHCR reported that the mission, which began on Monday, would provide the first opportunity for Chamberlin to assess the agency's programmes in the field since she took over from Mary-Ann Wyrsch in January. Chamberlin met senior government officials on Monday in Kinshasa, including one of the four vice-presidents, Azarias Ruberwa, and Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba Fundu, UNHCR reported. She welcomed the creation of the National Commission of Refugees two weeks ago. The UNHCR reported that the commission was due to establish a presence across the country and work closely with UNHCR, especially in areas of return in South Kivu and Katanga, where about 80 percent of Congolese refugees in Tanzania and Zambia come from. There are an estimated 380,000 Congolese refugees living in the region and beyond. Ruberwa, who is also the head of the Commission for Policy, Defence and Security, told Chamberlin that everything would be done to make conditions conducive to repatriation to the Congo, including an improvement of security in areas of return in anticipation of the elections planned for June 2005, UNHCR reported. The presence of central state authorities countrywide, security and progress towards the holding of elections are the essential pre-conditions for the return of the refugees, Chamberlin said. "We now have the opportunity to bring Congolese refugees back, but we want to ensure that they come to a safe environment," she was quoted as saying. "I appeal to the Congolese government to create the necessary security conditions so that return is sustainable." These conditions involve the demobilisation of armed groups – now being undertaken by a newly-appointed national coordinator at the central government level – and the creation of an integrated army, UNHCR reported. Some 80,000 Congolese refugees living in villages bordering the Ubangui River, in the north of neighbouring Republic of Congo, could be the first to benefit from a return and reintegration programme, Chamberlin said, provided the government reinforced security guarantees for humanitarian activities in northern Equator Province, a region formerly controlled by Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC) rebels. UNHCR reported that Chamberlin would visit Rwandan refugee assembly points in Goma in the eastern province of North Kivu, on Wednesday, before heading for the Angolan capital, Luanda, on Thursday.