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DATE=3/24/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BURUNDI REFUGEES (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260556
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-
C-R, says the government of Burundi has mined its 
border with Tanzania, thus preventing refugees 
from fleeing the fighting between government
and rebel forces.  Lisa Schlein has more from 
Geneva.
TEXT:  The U-N refugee agency says there has been 
a significant drop in the number of Burundian 
refugees arriving in Tanzania.  Since the 
beginning of the month, the agency reports, 
three-thousand Burundians have arrived in 
Tanzania.  This is down from a total of 22-
thousand last month.  
U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says the 
refugees report the border is mined.  And he says 
the rebel groups that used to guide refugees 
across the border to Tanzania have now withdrawn 
from the area.  
            /// JANOWSKI ACT ///
      The border area is heavily guarded by 
      Burundi soldiers.  There is still an 
      ongoing mopping up of military operations 
      inside Burundi with the military going 
      through villages, searching homes, often 
      destroying homes and driving more and more 
      people out of their homes.  Some of them 
      are hiding in the forest afraid to cross 
      and unable to remain in their homes. 
            /// END ACT ///
Mr. Janowski says there are no reports of people 
having been injured or killed by the mines.  But 
because of the fear of landmines, he says, the 
number of refugees crossing into Tanzania has 
dropped tenfold.  At the same time, he says, 
refugees who arrive in Tanzania report that the 
trouble is continuing in Burundi.  And the number 
of internally displaced people inside the country 
is rising.
Mr. Janowski says the U-N refugee agency is 
protesting the mining of the border to Burundi 
authorities.  Otherwise, he says, the agency is 
powerless to do anything.
            /// 2ND JANOWSKI ACT ///
      Their argument is that they're doing it for 
      military reasons to hamper rebel operations 
      and so on and so forth.  But, it also 
      basically is preventing people from 
      fleeing, people who are actually terrified 
      and driven from their homes.  
            /// END ACT ///
Since 1993, fighting between Hutu rebels and the 
Tutsi-dominated army has killed at least 200-
thousand people, most of them Hutu civilians.  At 
the same time, hundreds of thousands of people 
have been made homeless and some 350-thousand 
refugees from Burundi have fled to Tanzania.  
(Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/KL 
24-Mar-2000 09:55 AM EDT (24-Mar-2000 1455 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.