Meeting held of voluntary repatriation of refugees

Representatives of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Tanzanian government are meeting those of the Burundi and Rwanda governments this week to discuss the voluntary repatriation of refugees from Tanzania.

The first three-day meeting began on Sunday in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura. The second, a two-day conference, is due to begin on Thursday in Kigali, the Rwandan capital. The purpose is to discuss the prospects for voluntary repatriation of refugees from Tanzania, the UN agency reported on Friday.

Both meetings bring together the Tripartite Commission on Voluntary Repatriations of each country and their Technical Working Groups. The Bujumbura meeting is reviewing domestic developments in Burundi since the installation of the transitional government on 1 November 2001 and their influence on spontaneous repatriation, UNHCR reported. The second will examine the recent increase in cross-border visits, information campaigns and other issues related to encouraging the repatriation of Rwandan refugees.

Meanwhile, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa told diplomats in Dar es Salaam that the strain of the refugee presence on Tanzania was becoming "unbearable", one of the city's newspapers, The Guardian, reported.

Burundians constitute by far the largest group of refugees in Tanzania. UNHCR is aiding almost 350,000 Burundians in western Tanzania and 24,400 Rwandans. Another group of about 470,000 Burundians reside in Tanzanian settlements and villages but are not receiving help. Some 200,000 of these have been in Tanzania since the 1970s.

"Rebel violence, including abductions of school children and teachers, clashes with Burundi military forces, and increasingly common vehicle ambushes that often result in the death of innocent civilians, have dampened prospects for immediate refugee repatriation," the US Committee for Refugees reported on Tuesday.

"Refugees will not come home until there is true peace in Burundi, and Burundi will not know true peace until all refugees are home," the Committee reported, quoting an official of the Burundi Ministry of Reintegration and Resettlement of Displaced People and Repatriates.