DATE=1/25/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N-H-C-R / ERITREA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258412
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations says it will resume
operations in Eritrea after a suspension of more than
two-years. Lisa Schlein in Geneva has this report.
TEXT: The United Nations Assistant High Commissioner
for Refugees and Eritrean government officials reached
an agreement during talks in the capital, Asmara. The
Refugee Agency says it is pleased that it will be able
to resume its operations after such a long break.
Eritrea expelled the agency from the country in May
1997.
U-N-H-C-R spokesman, Kris Janowski, says the Eritreans
were upset with the agency's insistence that thousands
of refugees in Eastern Sudan be allowed to return
home. Under the newly brokered agreement, he says the
U-N-H-C-R will restart its operations next month.
Mr. Janowski says two staff members will go to Asmara
to re-open the office. And then more staff will
follow.
/// JANOWSKI ACT ///
The two will go to Asmara to draw up a
repatriation plan for Eritrean refugees
registered in camps in Eastern Sudan. And, then
more staff will follow to take care of the
repatriation. The agreement, needless to say,
is a breakthrough or at least a promise of a
breakthrough on the stalemated issue of the
return of Eritreans from Eastern Sudan, which
has now been blocked for five-years.
/// END ACT ///
About 147-thousand Eritrean refugees are registered in
camps in Eastern Sudan. They fled there in the 1980's
during the time of Eritrea's war of independence from
Ethiopia.
Mr. Janowski says many of these refugees have been
living in exile for more than a decade and the agency
is anxious to bring them home as quickly as possible.
He says these returns will not happen overnight. He
says many things have to be worked out before the
repatriation operation can resume.
/// OPT /// For example, he says the Agency has to
make sure communities are willing to accept the
refugees back and plans will have to be made to help
the local population inside Eritrea prepare for their
return. /// END OPT ///
Mr. Janowski says he hopes repatriations can begin in
the next month or two. He adds the Agency's Assistant
High Commissioner will go to the Sudanese capital,
Khartoum, early next month to work out the
repatriation operation with Sudanese officials.
(SIGNED)
NEB/LS/GE/RAE
25-Jan-2000 09:39 AM EDT (25-Jan-2000 1439 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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