DATE=8/16/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=UNHCHR / ANGOLAN REFUGEES (L-ONLY) NUMBER=2-265540 BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN DATELINE=GENEVA CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-C-R, says the situation in Angola is worsening. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the U-N-H-C-R has just completed a survey of the refugee situation in the region that shows an increase in the number of Angolans fleeing to neighboring countries over the last nine months. TEXT: The United Nations refugee agency reports one of the largest influxes of Angolan refugees has been to Zambia. It says renewed fighting between government and UNITA rebels has caused 28-thousand Angolans to seek asylum in Zambia over the last nine months, pushing the total number of refugees in the country to 220-thousand. Delphine Marie of the U-N-H-C-R says the refugees, mainly women and children, arrive in miserable condition. She says many have not eaten in days and few have any belongings. She says the refugees are transferred to one of several camps in the northern and northwestern provinces of Zambia. She says each Angolan family receives a little plot of land to farm. /// MARIE ACT /// These settlements are very spread out. One of them is spread out over an area of 720 square kilometers, holding some 40-thousand refugees. That means that each of them have something around one hectare, perhaps a bit more, of land to farm. These refugees then can be self- sufficient and start farming casava, various vegetables, etc. until they can return to their country. /// END ACT /// The U-N refugee agency reports more than six-thousand Angolans have fled the civil war to neighboring Namibia since last November. This brings the number of refugees in Namibia to 22-thousand. The agency says young men suspected of supporting UNITA have to go through a screening process before they are granted asylum. Congo-Kinshasa, which produces hundreds of thousands of its own refugees, also is one of the largest recipients of refugees from Angola. More than 100- thousand Angolans have taken refuge in three provinces -- Bandundu, Katanga and the Bas-Congo. Ms. Marie says 20-thousand Angolan refugees are in two camps in the Bas-Congo and another 20-thousand are receiving some sort of assistance in villages. /// MARIE ACT /// U-N-H-C-R is trying to regroup these people into the camps firstly because in villages it is more difficult to identify them and to provide them with assistance. And, secondly because they constitute a security risk both to themselves and for the country because this can lead to incursions from UNITA into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, either looking for people to recruit or going on revenge attacks or whatever can take place. /// END ACT /// Ms. Marie says many refugees are hiding in the forest. She says many others are inaccessible because of damaged bridges and bad roads in the region. She says there are few resources and many of the refugees are living without proper water and sanitation. (Signed) NEB/LS/GE/JP 16-Aug-2000 09:34 AM LOC (16-Aug-2000 1334 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
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