Church alliance in plea for $2.3-million aid

An alliance of churches and related agencies, Action by Churches Together (ACT), has appealed for US $2.3 million to support their humanitarian activities in Burundi, which include educating returning refugees on the risk of landmines. In a statement issued on Friday in Geneva, the alliance said it had initially appealed for approximately $3.5 million for its operating budget in the country. However, it had so far received only one third of the amount. The alliance said it had revised its appeal to donors to include a mine risk education programme, administered by DanChurchAid, targeting Burundian refugees in camps in western Tanzania. It reported that landmines and unexploded ordnances (UXO) would pose a significant problem for some refugees returning to the provinces of Bujumbura Rural, Bubanza, Cibitoke, Ruyigi and Makamba. ACT said landmines that have been laid in some provinces during Burundi's decade-long civil war should be cleared "to avoid accidents when most of refugees return from exile". Since the signing of a power sharing agreement between the transitional government of Burundi and the former main rebel group, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) in November 2003, thousands of Burundians have returned home. Most of the refugees had been living in camps in Kibondo District, western Tanzania, where an estimated 127,000 remain. Of these refugees in Kibondo, about 40,000 people originate from mine contaminated areas in Burundi. ACT reported that most of the refugees in Tanzania had not received mine awareness or mine risk education. "Also because there is no exact data on mine contamination in Burundi the MRE [Mine Risk Education] activities should refrain from giving messages that would be too general so that they do not unnecessarily scare people from returning," ACT said. "It should nevertheless be made clear to the refugees that in some areas mines and UXO do pose a problem and what is the proposed behaviour." ACT is a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide. [Additional information on the ACT appeal is available online at: www.act-intl.org]