UN "taken by surprise" over refugee relocation

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says it was not informed of an operation to relocate Sudanese refugees from a camp in western Uganda to another one further north, close to the Sudanese border. Scuffles broke out at the Kiryandongo camp in Masindi district in the early hours of Monday morning when the local authorities started forcibly loading the refugees onto trucks. According to UNHCR, two people were injured in the fighting and required hospitalisation. Eyewitnesses claimed six people had been killed by flying bullets after armed men in uniform entered the site. “They attacked us from all corners of the camp,” Robert Nyeko, one of the camp’s leaders, told IRIN. “They forced us to assemble in the middle, then the trucks came in the early hours of the morning [Monday].” “I’ve personally seen six dead bodies and many people who sustained bullet wounds,” he added. The Ugandan government has denied that anyone died in the operation. The refugees were originally moved to Kiryandongo after they were attacked by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Acholi Pii, Kitgum district, three years ago. But the camp is appallingly overcrowded, and it was decided to move the refugees further north to Madiokollo and Ikafi camps, in West Nile district. The refugees fear a repeat of Acholi Pii because, they say, the new camps are so close to rebel territory. UNHCR's regional information officer Kitty McKinsey told IRIN on Tuesday the refugee agency was taken completely by surprise. "We knew in principle the relocation was going to happen but no date had been specified," she said. "The Ugandan government took it upon itself to provide the logistics and transport for the transfer." She said that if UNHCR had been given adequate warning it would have been able to monitor the operation. Furthermore, she noted, the Ugandan government was in breach of international agreements under which UNHCR must be given access to all refugees. She also noted there had been a worrying development, in that UNHCR staff who arrived at Kiryandongo camp were prevented from entering by the security forces who said they could not guarantee the safety of the employees. "We are very concerned about this situation," she stressed. She added that 1,500 people had been taken from Kiryandongo and the first trucks had started arriving at Madiokollo camp which was, however, only able to accept 500 refugees. "They are coming at a greater rate than anticipated and the camp will be overwhelmed," she pointed out, adding that the refugee agency was in discussions with the government on how to monitor the operation. Asumani Mugenyi, Ugandan police spokesman, acknowledged that the police had been called in to move the refugees. “I’m aware we had been contacted in this particular exercise,” he said. “But I don’t have details of how the exercise was done. The policing of refugees is done by the local authorities. We only come in to support.”