REFUGEE NEWS BRIEFINGS
TANZANIA: MANDELA URGES REFUGEES TO PREPARE TO RETURN

The facilitator of the Burundi peace talks, Nelson Mandela, urged Burundian refugees in Tanzania to "forget about the past" and "to prepare to return home". In his address to refugees during a one-day visit to Lukole A camp in Tanzania's Ngara district on 27 February, Mandela expressed his optimism that Burundi will soon be a peaceful country and he appealed to the refugees to be ready to return. His words have been met with alarm, given a recent upsurge in

by James Hider

BELGRADE, March 7 (AFP) - A war in Macedonia spurred by Albanian nationalism is seen as the worst nightmare for the Balkans, NATO and Europe, analysts said Wednesday.

In a bid to stave it off, the international community has rallied behind Skopje's attempts to smash a group of up to 150 Albanian gunmen fighting Macedonian troops along the border with Kosovo.

But analysts say the group's links with other Albanian rebels controlling a buffer zone between Kosovo and southern Serbia's Presevo Valley underscores the need for a regional approach to

KINSHASA, March 7 (AFP) - Armed UN troops will begin deploying in war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo in three weeks in line with the Lusaka peace accord signed in 1999, the UN mission in the country announced in Kinshasa Wednesday.
A total of 1,562 soldiers from Uruguay, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia will take up positions in six DRC cities from the end of March, said Lieutenant Colonel Regis Barman, spokesman for for the mission, known by its acronym MONUC.

The soldiers will be charged with guarding UN facilities and equipment in the DRC, Barman said.

by Sandra H. Botero
COLOMBIA: International Women's Day will be celebrated worldwide on March 8th. But in Colombia many displaced women who are the head of their families will be sad because they don't have jobs that allow them to feed their children.

In an attempt to generate work for these women, World Vision Colombia has implemented the program: "Walking Together", for displaced Colombian women who live near the "Altos de Cazuca" ADP, located in south-eastern Bogotá, capital of Colombia. (There are more than 6,000 internally displaced people in this area).

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, March 7 (AFP) - More than 1,000 Albanians from Macedonia have fled the trouble-hit northern region of Tanusevci following increased conflicts between Albanian guerillas and government forces, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Wednesday.

Since February 12, the UNHCR and other aid agencies have registered 871 refugees arriving in southern Kosovo, while another 240 have found shelter with their relatives in Macedonia itself, officials said.

In Kosovo, most of the refugees have remained in the village of Debelde, just a few kilometers from Tanusevci,

ZIMBABWE: Parliamentary committee says broadcasting act is unconstitutional
A Zimbabwean parliamentary committee has said the Broadcasting Act gazetted last year using Presidential powers is illegal and violates sections of the country's constitution.

News reports on Wednesday said the finding of the committee was contained in a report expected to be debated in parliament on the same day. In response to the report, Jonathan Moyo, minister for information and publicity, was quoted as saying: "It smacks of an ambush because I was not consulted. No one said anything to me. I only

Over 2,000 Tanzanian refugees from Unguja and Pemba in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar have gone on a hunger strike in the coastal Kenyan town of Shimoni to protest the Kenyan government's plans to transfer their leaders to a refugee camp in the country's North Eastern Province, UNHCR reported on Tuesday.
"This follows the Kenyan Government's announcement that it was willing to allocate a temporary site nearby for the 2,254 refugees on condition that between 30 and 40 leaders of the Civic United Front (CUF) are separated and relocated to Dadaab refugee camp,"

NATO intervenes along the Macedonian border in a bid to curb escalating violence in the region
By Nehat Islami in Debeldeh on the Macedonian border

Sporadic mortar fire and bursts from automatic rifles reverberated around the frontier village of Tanusevac, where the Macedonian army is battling against members of the Albanian guerrilla movement, the National Liberation Army.

As the fighting raged, a contingent of American NATO troops stepped up its monitoring of the crisis. KFOR tanks rumbled into the nearby village of Debeldeh on the Kosovo side of the border.

By Callum Newman
AZERBAIJAN: World Vision this week signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Médécins Sans Frontiers (MSF) Belgium to continue providing health care in local communities near the town of Sumgait.

MSF has been operating in Azerbaijan since 1995, but is closing its operations at the end of March 2001, in respect of the organisations mandate to provide emergency, but not long-term health assistance.

Since 1995, MSF has provided health care to poor families in areas where World Vision provided shelter and sanitation assistance.

A Health Action Group, incorporating

UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci

LIBERIA: UN Security Council decides to impose sanctions

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to impose a 12-month ban on diamond imports from Liberia and restrict travel by senior Liberian government and military officials and their spouses.

The measures are in response to evidence of Monrovia's involvement in arms and diamonds trafficking with Sierra