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DATE=1/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=UNHCR / ANGOLA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257997
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-
C-R, reports intensified fighting between Angolan 
government and UNITA rebel forces has prompted 
thousands of refugees to flee to neighboring 
Zambia.  Lisa Schlein in Geneva has this report.
TEXT:  The U-N Refugee Agency reports that since 
the beginning of the year, more than seven-
thousand, 500 refugees from Angola's southeastern  
province have arrived in the Zambian town of 
Sijembela.
The refugees, mainly women and children, have 
been arriving on foot.  The U-N agency says they 
are in poor health with several cases of 
diarrhea, malaria and skin diseases.  Some 
refugees reportedly have gunshot wounds.
Millicent Mutuli of the U-N-H-C-R says the new 
arrivals are currently being sheltered in schools 
and other government buildings.  But she says the 
U-N agency is setting up a transit center in 
Sijembela to take care of more than seven-
thousand refugees.
            /// MUTULI ACT ///
      The transit facility is being set up 
      because we can't immediately move them up 
      to a camp where we already have other 
      Angolans.  We have a camp called 
      Mayukwayukwa.  And because of the rains, 
      access to this camp is very difficult. 
      We can't go through.  And the rainy season 
      only ends in May.  So we would have to hold 
      them in this facility for another four to 
      five months before we can take them up some 
      600 kilometers to Mayukwayukwa. 
            /// END ACT ///
That camp is already home to over six-thousand 
refugees, mainly from Angola.  Since October, 
when the fighting between Angolan government 
forces and UNITA rebels intensified, more than 
20-thousand have gone into neighboring Zambia.
Sijembela is a very remote part of Zambia, about 
five kilometers from the Angolan - Zambia border.  
Ms. Mutuli says the biggest problem aid agencies 
face is access to the area.
            /// 2ND MUTULI ACT ///
      We didn't have offices close by.  The 
      nearest site is 600 kilometers (away).  If 
      we do not have access, we do not have good 
      information.  So, that is our first major 
      handicap, to make sure that we have a good 
      presence down there.
            /// END ACT ///
The U-N Refugee Agency sent a mission to the area 
last week.  It is sending staff members to 
Sijembela. Ms. Mutuli says they will interview 
the refugees in detail to learn more about the 
conditions that forced them to flee Angola. 
(Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/KL 
12-Jan-2000 11:29 AM EDT (12-Jan-2000 1629 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.