Ndayizeye threatens to expel ICRC, refugee agency

Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye threatened to expel the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday, accusing them of aiding Rwandan asylum seekers whom the government has denied refugee status. "I will give [the aid agencies] 24 hours to leave Burundi" if they continue without our administration's consent, Ndayizeye told senior army officers at a meeting in the capital, Bujumbura. It was inadmissible, he said, that ICRC and UNHCR continue to transport the asylum seekers inland from the border to the provinces of Muyinga and Cankuzo. Some 8,000 Rwandans have fled to Burundi since late March, mostly to the northern province of Ngozi. Many said they feared prosecution by the local 'gacaca' courts, which the Rwandan government has established to bring to trial thousands of people suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Initially, the Burundian government accepted the Rwandans as refugees and the agencies began relocating them inland. However, the Rwandan government accused Burundi of harbouring possible genocide suspects and the Burundian government suspended the relocation operations. The governments of the two countries met in April and a joint committee was set up to convince the Rwandans to return home. Around 3,600 have been repatriated. However, on 13 May, UNHCR expressed concern that the asylum seekers may have been intimidated into returning to Rwanda. Since last week, a new influx of Rwandans has reportedly arrived in Ngozi. Ndayizeye said on Tuesday that all the asylum seekers should return home. He added that Burundi had an acute problem of land and was struggling to accommodate the thousands of its refugees who were returning home. "No one could understand Rwandans being given land instead of Burundians," he said. He added that the Rwandans could jeopardise his country's upcoming elections and exacerbate the current food shortages in the provinces that are meant to host them. "The refugee agency says it will assist them, but will it feed the visitor and forget the host?" he said. When contacted on Thursday, the UNHCR in Bujumbura declined to comment Ndayizeye's declaration while an ICRC official, who requested anonymity, said the organisation could not have helped the asylum seekers if they did not fall within its mandate. The relocation of the asylum seekers from Ngozi to Cankuzo had angered Rwandan authorities, who accused Burundi of harbouring fugitives from justice. Since last weekend, a new influx of asylum seekers was reported in Ngozi, including those who had gone back to Rwanda. A UNHCR official in charge of protection, France Law, said on Thursday in Bujumbura that by Monday the number of the asylum seekers in the country was 8,745. Apart from 1,213 Rwandans transferred to Cankuzo and 930 to Songore in Ngozi, farther inland from the border, all the others were in four transit sites also in Ngozi but near the border with Rwanda.