DATE=7/11/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO-KINSHASA / REFUGEES (L-O)
NUMBER=2-264299
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-N refugee agency says it will close its
last camp of Rwandan and Burundian refugees in Congo-
Kinshasa next month. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports
the refugee agency says the 15-hundred camp
inhabitants will be integrated into nearby local
communities.
TEXT: The United Nations says the refugees who fled
the 1994 Rwandan genocide have been in the camp since
it opened three-years ago. The camp - Mbuji Mayi - is
in Congo's Eastern Kasai province.
The refugee agency says the 12-hundred Rwandans and
300-Burundians have been reluctant to return home as
hundreds-of-thousands of other refugees have done. U-
N-H-C-R spokeswoman Delphine Marie says the agency has
been negotiating a solution for the refugees with
local authorities.
/// MARIE ACT ONE ///
Thanks to their cooperation, the cooperation of
the local authorities, we have been able to find
some land that has been allocated by the
provincial governor and the traditional chiefs.
This land is situated about 130-kilometers south
of the Mbuji Mayi camp and this land will be
given to the Rwandan and Burundi refugees in
order for them to settle permanently in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
/// END ACT ///
The U-N agency will begin transferring the refugees
out of the camp by truck and rail by the end of this
month. It says it expects the operation to be
completed before the beginning of the next planting
season in mid-August.
Ms. Marie says the agency will provide the refugees
with farming tools, basic relief items, and a one-time
three-month food ration. She says the provincial
governor and traditional chief have allocated land in
four-villages in the Mwene Ditu area, and the refugee
agency will give support to schools and health centers
in these communities.
With the closure of the camp, Ms. Marie says the only
refugees left to assist in the area include a group of
unaccompanied Rwandan and Burundian children in the
capital, Kinshasa, and about 200-refugees in Bukavu
city.
/// MARIE ACT TWO ///
U-N-H-C-R has closed its office, as well as a
refugee site, in Bandaka on the 30th of April
this year after flying the last 65-unaccompanied
Rwandan-refugee children to Kinshasa. Obviously
now, the most important issue remaining is to
try and reunite these children with their
families.
/// END ACT ///
The refugee agency says an estimated 60-thousand
Rwandans and 20-thousand Burundians remain in
inaccessible areas of eastern Congo. It says it is
difficult to locate the refugees because they move
around through the forests and bush in areas where
fighting continues. (SIGNED)
NEB/LS/JWH/RAE
11-Jul-2000 09:30 AM EDT (11-Jul-2000 1330 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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