DATE=8/1/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N-H-C-R / ERITREA (L-O)
NUMBER=2-265012
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-N refugee agency says it is speeding up
its program to return home tens-of-thousands of
Eritrean refugees in Sudan. Lisa Schlein reports from
Geneva.
TEXT: The U-N refugee agency reports nearly 12-
thousand people have returned to Eritrea since it
began a voluntary repatriation program one-week ago.
An estimated 90-thousand Eritreans fled to Sudan to
escape recent fighting with Ethiopia.
U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says he expects the
repatriation to speed up now that the agency has more
trucks to carry the refugees home. He says the agency
has quadrupled its truck fleet to nearly 400.
Mr. Janowski says most of the refugees are taken to a
reception center in the Eritrean border town of
Tesseney.
/// JANOWSKI ACT ONE ///
Most of them have to go through the transit camp
because onward transportation is organized from
the transit camp. Very few people have their
own means of transportation, so they have to
rely on our trucks to take them to Tesseney.
And, then from there, they are taken by trucks
to wherever they are going. Some of the places
where they are going need to be checked out.
There probably are security problems. There may
be a mine problem in some of the places, which
were recently vacated by Ethiopian troops. So,
there certainly are security problems in certain
areas.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Janowski says each returning refugee receives a
two-month food ration.
The U-N-H-C-R spokesman says that before Eritrea's
latest war with Ethiopia, the agency was about to
begin repatriating about 150-thousand Eritrean
refugees who have been in Sudan for decades. He says
that repatriation has been put on hold.
/// JANOWSKI ACT TWO ///
It is more urgent to take the fresh refugees
back because they are in vulnerable conditions.
The others are not in ideal conditions, but they
have been there for, sometimes, close to 30-
years. So they are quite well established. The
camps are organized, and so on and so forth.
These people (the newer refugees) are really out
in the open with really very basic shelter, with
scarce food supplies. So, the top priority is
to get these people back and then turn to the
old refugees and bring them back as well.
/// END ACT ///
The U-N refugee agency also is continuing to assist
several-hundred-thousand people displaced by the war
inside Eritrea. (SIGNED)
NEB/LS/JWH/RAE
01-Aug-2000 09:42 AM EDT (01-Aug-2000 1342 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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