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Angola

Zambia camp restrictions rile Angolan refugees

Angolans fleeing the war in their country are finding the life of a refugee to be a mixed blessing

NAKAZWE NAMPITO

Thousands of Angolan refugees who have fled to Zambia to escape war in their country are riled by stringent restrictions that bar them from visiting nearby villages or towns.

They say the strict rules confining them to camps - which are in force in all of Zambia's refugee camps - curtail their freedom of movement and are a human rights issue.

"I know that we are refugees but being restricted in this manner puts us in more misery than when we came. There was war in Angola, but we were allowed to move freely," said Elena Kandobwa, who fled Angola in February to Zambia.

"We appreciate what Zambia is doing to protect us but this type of living, being caged in camps throughout all our lives, will not do much good to us," added Antonio Ngangula.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Zambian officials say the confinement is in the interest of the refugees' own security and for the maintenance of order.

Other Angolans rejoice at the peace they have found in Zambia, which many see as heaven on earth, though it is one of the world's poorest countries.

Zambia hosts 225 000 refugees, of whom 180 000 are Angolans who have fled the civil war that pits the Luanda government against Jonas Savimbi's rebel Unita.

A fresh wave of 11 000 Angolans - mostly women and children - has fled their diamond and oil-rich country to southwestern Zambia in the last nine months.

They have been settled in Nangweshi camp, which lies along southern Africa's lifeblood Zambezi river 600km southwest of the capital Lusaka.

Thousands of blue-plastic thatched huts, in the tradition of transit refugee settlements across Africa, litter the camp - itself patched amid trees and other African shrubs.

Between 100 and 150 Angolans still trek into Zambia each week, escaping the latest government offensive that has seen the former Unita town of Cazombo fall to government forces. Some of the latest arrivals include 50 officers from within Unita ranks.

"Most of us left our household goods and the little wealth we had back home, but believe me it's worth leaving after being subjected to inhuman acts," said Albertina Ferdinando, 55.

She spoke of beatings by government troops seeking food in the night or conscription of men.

Orla Murphy, project coordinator for the Nobel Prize-winning aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), said she used to deal with 150 cases of children suffering from diarrhoea a day, but that number had been dramatically cut.

Murphy said critical cases of malaria and diarrhoea that hit refugees earlier in their stay had almost vanished. - Reuters

-- The Mail&Guardian, October 6, 2000.