This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR
spokesman Kris Janowski - to whom quoted text may be attributed - at today's
press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
1. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/Kosovo
The number of ethnic Albanians returning from Kosovo to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has risen sharply over the past few days as more and more Albanians decide to return to the now open Aracinovo village outside of Skopje. The village, which saw some of the heaviest fighting to date, had been virtually deserted by its overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian population and subsequently sealed off by the FYROM authorities. The return movement to the village began last Sunday as the authorities re-opened the area for return. More than 200 people are believed to be staying overnight in the village since. Several thousand are seen cleaning up their homes during the day.
Meanwhile, ethnic Macedonians continue to make brief go-and-see visits to villages in the Tetovo area from which they had been driven last week. UNHCR last weekend accompanied several hundred people to villages in the Tetovo area to enable them to see their homes. Most of those going back however are too nervous to stay in their homes.
UNHCR deems it absolutely crucial that civilians displaced by the FYROM conflict be allowed to return as soon as possible to avoid an even deeper division between FYROM's ethnic communities.
2. Central African Republic/DR of Congo
UNHCR completed the first phase of an emergency airlift of relief supplies for more than 25,000 refugees from the Central African Republic in the north-western DRC town of Zongo and is now searching for more efficient means to send an additional 60 tons of aid from the DRC capital, Kinshasa.
Nearly 20 tons of plastic sheeting, blankets, mats, jerry cans and kitchen sets flown from Kinshasa to the town of Gemena, some 280 kms south-east of Zongo, late last week were ferried by helicopter from MONUC, the UN peace-keeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Zongo by the week-end. The aid flown in will be distributed to approximately 1,000 families who are encamped in schools, churches and other public buildings in the Zongo area. Others are living with Congolese families in the area.
An estimated 15,000 refugees are in the town of Zongo, about a kilometre across the river border from the CAR capital, Bangui. Up to 7,000 refugees also remain scattered across 20 villages along the DRC side of the Oubangui on a 50-kilometre stretch south of Zongo. Another group of 3,000 - 4,000 refugees are gathered in the town of Libenge, some 100 kms south of Zongo. Many of the refugees first arrived in north-west DRC in early June in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in the Central African Republic.
3. Angola/Republic of Congo
UNHCR next week will repatriate of 822 Angolans from Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo), to the enclave of Cabinda, an oil-rich piece of Angolan territory separated from the rest of the country by a strip of Congolese territory. UNHCR sees the enclave as the only safe area in Angola.
Returnees will make the 120-km trip by truck from Pointe-Noire to Cacongo, 46 kilometres north of Cabinda City, where Angola's Social Ministry has allocated a site for a transit centre. The 182 families will stay a maximum of five nights before being collected by relatives or transported back to their home area in and around Cacongo and Cabinda city.
Cabinda's provincial authorities have equipped the transit site with tents, water and electricity and a provisional health post with two nurses and a doctor. Officials from the Ministry of Justice will carry out civil registration of the returnees, who will also be assisted later in obtaining ID cards. The government is providing rice, beans and vegetable oil, while UNHCR is sending family kits which include plastic sheeting, pots and pans, and buckets.
In Cabinda city, land is being set aside for newcomers. Each returnee will be given a large enough plot of land to build a three-bedroom house and half a hectare of arable land. They will also receive construction material and a cash allocation of US$ 65 per person.
Next week's returnees have been living in Pointe Noire, Congo-Brazzaville, since 1993. But many more have been in both Congos for much longer, having fled Cabinda in the seventies when separatist troops sparked trouble in the oil-rich enclave. There are still 13,000 Angolan refugees from Cabinda in Pointe-Noire, and probably over 30,000 in the DRC. This is the third repatriation movement assisted by UNHCR in as many years, but Cabinda has also absorbed an average of 5,000 spontaneous returns each year since 1998.
More than 435,000 Angolans still remain outside the country as refugees, the majority living in camps in neighbouring DRC and Zambia, and each month sees their number rise. Most of these refugees however come from unsafe regions of Angola where UNHCR does not repatriate at this stage.
4. Turkey/Greece
The UNHCR office in Ankara is still awaiting a reply to its request for access to the border area between Turkey and Greece, as persistent reports suggest that at least some of a group of perhaps 200 African immigrants may still be in the area. On Friday, a UNHCR protection team from our Athens office travelled along the Greek bank of the river that marks the border between the two countries. As well as visiting the river - which they described as shallow - they also visited a detention centre and police stations, and interviewed numerous officials and local people. However they were unable to find any evidence that any of the Africans had actually made it to the Greek side of the river.
However, interviews that UNHCR has carried out with some of the group that made it back to Istanbul and Ankara - including one couple who had UNHCR letters of concern - consistently suggest that the group was indeed shuttled back and forth across the river. One very consistent detail is that they were forced to cross by foot from the Turkish side, and then put in boats when they were in turn forced back from the Greek side. Some of those interviewed claim to have been forced back and forth numerous times. UNHCR remains very concerned, firstly that there may still be some people of concern to UNHCR down near the border, in very uncertain conditions, and secondly that the reports about the entire group's treatment from the beginning of this incident in early July remain extremely worrying.
This document is intended for public information purposes only. It is not an official UN document.