UN agency says it will repatriate up to 150,000 refugees

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expects to repatriate up to 150,000 Burundian refugees by the end of 2005, an official of the agency said on Thursday. The agency's public relations officer, Catherine Lune Grayson, told a news conference in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, that out of 8,524 refugees who have returned home so far this year, the agency had assisted 7,776 of them. She said the rate of refugee returns would depend on economic, social and political conditions in the country. The agency assists the returnees by providing transport, coordinating their provision of food and non-food relief, constructing and rehabilitating classrooms and health centres, as well as homes, for the returnees. Grayson said the agency had helped with the building of 300 classrooms, 24,000 homes and 19 health centres since the beginning of this year. It had also provided support to income-generating activities for the returnees. "A former farmer, for example, is taught another craft like carpentry, masonry, fishing and so on," she said. She added that training activities had been carried out, mostly in the northeastern province of Ruyigi. She said apart from refugees, the UNHCR also supported internally displaced persons and other vulnerable people. This accounts for 10 percent of the entire UNCHR assistance in the country. The agency also provides aid to Congolese refugees in Burundi, notably those at Gasorwe in the northeastern province of Muyinga and at Gihinga, in central province of Mwaro, as well as those in Ngagara, in the northern part of the capital, Bujumbura. Grayson said the total aid needed for the agency's operations in the country was estimated at US $50 million, but it had so far received only $10 million. At the same news conference, the head of the UN World Food Programme in Burundi, Zlatan Misilic, said at least 20,000 households were in need of food aid, following drought in northern Burundi. He said WFP had suspended its activities in Ruyigi and Cibitoke provinces, following disruptive incidents during food distributions, involving the compilation of falsified lists of those in need of aid. Milisic called for the dismissal of administration officials involved in the compilation of such fraudulent lists. He said the WFP had also suspended activities in the commune of Kabezi, Bujumbura Rural Province, where armed groups had intimidated its workers and beneficiaries of relief. The suspension would remain in force until protection was ensured, he added.