High Commissioner in South Africa:
The High Commissioner, Mrs Sadako Ogata,
is currently in South Africa, where she will today address the South African
Parliament. Yesterday she held talks with President Mandela which
focussed on the situation in the Great Lakes. Mrs Ogata expressed
concern that many thousands of refugees were suffering in the region, particularly
women and children and that lack of access and insecurity made it impossible
for UNHCR to assist them. She asked for President Mandela's support
to help gain safe access to these people. The President and the High
Commissioner also discussed South Africa's efforts to help broker a peaceful
settlement in Zaire, including talks held between South Africa's Deputy
President and President Mobutu.
During her speech to the Parliament, which took place after the briefing, the High Commissioner said "the failure of asylum countries and the international community to separate the former military and people who committed genocide from the innocent refugees in the Rwandan refugee camps has contributed considerably to the spreading of conflict to Zaire. I would therefore like to use this opportunity to appeal to you to support the creation of an African rapid reaction capability which would also have the functions of demobilization and separation of armed elements. Such a force would serve both international and human security."
Zaire:
UNHCR remains very concerned about the condition of tens of thousands of refugees in the Ubundu region. We are particularly worried about many thousands of women and children who have received no assistance for several weeks now because they are simply out of reach. Yesterday, a UNHCR team attempted to drive south of Kisangani to look into reports of an approaching column of refugees estimated to number as many as 8,000 from Ubundu. We were prevented from conducting this investigation by Alliance forces, despite earlier assurances by the Alliance leadership that we can resume humanitarian operations in Kisangani. Our team will again attempt to drive overland today and meet this column which is thought to be only about 7 km from Kisangani and possibly direct them to a temporary transit center in that city.
UNHCR also is joining an inter=ADagency mission (DHA, WFP and Oxfam) to Ubundu. This mission has received authorization to fly to Ubundu. It will land at a small grass airstrip on the east bank of the Zaire river, where an estimated 3,000 refugees remain. This mission will then overfly the area to the west to look for refugees. Before the massive crossings to the western bank over a week ago, at least 75,000 refugees were reported on the eastern bank of Ubundu. A third UNHCR team is setting out overland from Kisangani today to look into road conditions between Kisangani and Lubutu, located 230 km to the east, as part of a continuing assessment on the possibility of conducting repatriation by road to Rwanda via Bukavu and Goma. As you know, we have been working on finding safe corridors for refugees for several months, but due to difficulty in reaching some of these refugees and constantly changing frontlines it has not been possible to finalise anything.
We hope to continue airlift flights from Goma searching for refugees in abandoned refugee encampments. Today, we expect to fly to Kindu to investigate reports that an estimated 12,000=AD13,000 refugees are in parishes in the Kindu region. Since the airlift flights began on 16 March, we have worked with other UN agencies to airlift 549 refugees from Kindu, Tingi=ADTingi, Amisi and Kisangani to Goma. Of this number, 419 have been returned to Rwanda. We are also exploring the possibility of transporting displaced people in Kisangani. Yesterday, a UNHCR flight was besieged by displaced Zairians at the Kisangani airport asking to be flown to Goma.