DATE=10/8/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BURUNDI / U-N (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254815
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-C-R,
reports four-thousand new Burundi refugees have fled
to Western Tanzania in the past two weeks. Lisa
Schlein in Geneva reports the agency says the refugees
are running away from heavy fighting between
government forces and rebels.
TEXT: The U-N Refugee Agency calls this sudden
upsurge of Burundian refugees into Tanzania very
worrisome.
U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says the four-
thousand new arrivals come on top of an already-
existing refugee population of 40-thousand Burundians
in Tanzania.
/// JANOWSKI ACT ///
This is mostly caused by more intense military
activity in Burundi between rebel forces and the
military. There is also an effort inside Burundi by
the military to forcibly move the civilian population
into camps, to apparently prevent recruitment of males
for rebel service.
/// END ACT ///
The U-N Refugee Agency is urgently expanding a refugee
camp in Tanzania to accommodate the new influx.
The refugees have told aid workers they expect many
more Burundi civilians to cross into Tanzania. Since
fighting erupted between the military and rebels in
mid-September, the Tutsi-led government has forcibly
moved an estimated 250-thousand Hutu civilians into
dozens of camps outside the capital, Bujumbura.
United Nations relief agencies have just visited 14 of
the 35 refugee camps. They describe conditions in the
camps as deplorable, with people lacking food, water,
shelter and latrines.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program says
most of the people pushed into the camps had no time
to pack and so arrived with nothing. She says more
than 180-thousand people are in urgent need of aid.
/// BERTHIAUME ACT IN FRENCH, ESTABLISH, THEN FADE ///
Ms. Berthiaume says health conditions in the camps are
not good. She says aid workers saw many cases of
diarrhea and measles. They also saw signs of
malnutrition among the children. She says aid
agencies are getting together to bring assistance
quickly to these people. (Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/WTW
08-Oct-1999 13:06 PM EDT (08-Oct-1999 1706 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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