Military

DATE=12/10/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=AFRICA/REFUGEES (L-Only)

NUMBER=2-321078

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

HEADLINE: UN Refugee Agency Makes Billion-Dollar Appeal

INTRO: The U.N. refugee agency is launching an appeal for more than one-billion-dollars to assist about 17-million people next year. Nearly half of the budget is allocated for programs in Africa. Lisa Schlein reports from the Geneva headquarters of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

TEXT: The U.N. agency cares for millions of refugees in all regions of Africa. Operations in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Zambia have been going on for decades. But the biggest and single most expensive operation is caring for the 200-thousand refugees who fled to Chad from Sudan's war-torn province of Darfur.

For the past 22 months, war has been raging in Darfur between the Sudanese-backed Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, and two rebel groups. UN spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis says the refugees are living in appalling conditions in Chad.

/// PAGONIS ACT ///

"They are living in camps in an amazingly hostile desert environment. They are very worried and concerned about their future. . They do not know what is happening to them. There is a level of anxiety. There is, of course, tension with the local population, who supported them when they first came in. But, now, that welcome has worn thin, and they feel that the refugees are getting a better deal than they have."

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// Ms. Pagonis says part of the money budgeted for the Chad operation will go toward helping local communities, to reduce tensions between them and the Sudanese refugees. She says local people have been included in supplementary feeding programs for children and women. Improvements have been made in the water supplies of local communities, and hospital centers have been upgraded.

The U.N. spokeswoman also says the agency is preparing for a possible influx of more refugees from Darfur, should the situation continue to deteriorate. /// END OPT ///

/// OPT /// The UNHCR funds appeal also is to finance sizable repatriation operations. More than 100-million-dollars has been budgeted to help many of the nearly three-million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and Iran to go home. /// END OPT ///

Ms. Pagonis says the agency is running an unprecedented number of repatriation operations throughout Africa. One of the biggest, she says, is in Liberia, where some 340-thousand refugees and internally displaced, or IDPs, are expected to go home.

/// 2ND PAGONIS ACT ///

"This is a country, which has been absolutely ravaged by war, completely destroyed in many areas, a tremendous number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) uprooted from their homes and living in very dire conditions. I think that Liberia could well be one of the bright spots, we hope. Refugees have been returning home of their own accord, even under very dangerous and risky conditions."

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// A peace agreement ending more than two decades of war is expected to be signed this month between the Islamic government in north Sudan and rebels in the Christian and Animist south. If the deal goes through, the UNHCR says it expects many of the 600-thousand refugees who fled southern Sudan will need help to return. /// END OPT ///

The U.S. government has pledged 125-million-dollars to help fund the agency's programs. (SIGNED)

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