(Extract)
REFUGEE NEWS BRIEFINGS
TANZANIA: RETURNING HOME, ARE WE PREPARED?
As Burundian refugees return home from Tanzania in large numbers, it is vital for them to be adequately informed about the dangers awaiting them at home. Among the many dangers facing returnees are the landmines that litter the countryside and risk of HIV/AIDS.
Together with information supplied through the JRS radio station Radio Kwizera, parents who returnees to Burundi are more aware of the effects of landmines and feel much better equipped on how to behave in suspected areas, and how to protect their children.
However, the issue of HIV/AIDS is another war that cannot be fought by military power, but rather by each and every individual's involvement and commitment. Through the Stop Sida-Nkeburuwumva campaigns, young refugees are much better informed of dangers of HIV/AIDS. In cooperation with other organisations working in the field, the project has contributed to an increased number of refugees availing themselves of voluntary HIV/AIDS medical check ups.
"These are the kinds of actions all the stakeholders in refugee issues are expected to demonstrate. A successful initiative in such circumstances is the one which is taken by the appropriate person or organisation, for the appropriate person or community, and at the appropriate time", said Mr Isidore Ntirampeba, Radio Kwizera, JRS Tanzania.
"All of these initiatives need to use the right channels to reach the right people at the right time. Many media are used - workshops, public meetings, schools - but Radio Kwizera appears to be the most successful", added Mr. Ntirampeba.
Radio Kwizera is asked by many NGOs and other institutions to ensure that their campaigns reach many different peoples at the same time, both in the refugee community and in the Burundian provinces near Tanzania. The existence of Radio Kwizera has enabled JRS to provide refugees with an outlet to speak out on issues that concern them, in line with its mandate.
"The prospective of a peaceful Burundi does not only lie in forming a government and an army where power is shared fairly between the different ethnic and political groups in the country. The key obstacle to peace is the difference between how the majority of the country's population and the elite view the road to peace and stability", declared Mr. Ntirampeba.
LIBERIA: WHO BENEFITS FROM HUMANITARIAN AID?
Serious concerns will be raised about the humanitarian aid provided to Liberia, as the second Aid Conference is convened in Washington by the World Bank on 24 September 2004.
Coming out of a ferocious civil war that badly affected every community in the country and all but destroyed the country institutions for a decade, ordinary Liberians are increasingly disillusioned. The economy has not revived in spite of the millions purportedly poured into Liberia by the international community.
"The huge expatriate community and the subsequent inflation have marginalised the mostly impoverished Liberians. Basic minimum services don't exist. The water system doesn't work and the thought of having electricity remains just a pipe dream" said Fr. C Amalraj, JRS Liberia Country Director.
"For thousands of children, their schools remained closed. Education is not seriously considered as part of the humanitarian discourse. Teachers are paid a paltry 18 US dollars per month, if they are paid at all", added Fr. Amalraj.
"Most of the humanitarian aid is spent on the operational and security costs of delivering humanitarian aid to Liberia. Even when the NGOs buy materials, most of the money ends with the expatriate businessmen. The flight of capital is a huge problem in this country that has no financial controls. A year after the Peace Accord, the Liberian in the street, dreams of just one bus which can take him or her home", said Fr. Amalraj.
ZAMBIA: ATTEMPTS TO CONVINCE RWANDANS TO RETURN
On 13 September a senior official in the Zambian Government reported to IRIN, the UN news agency, that the Zambian government is hosting a delegation of former Rwandan refugees who will address a meeting of Rwandan refugees still living in Zambia about their experiences at home.
Zambia is currently home to over 6,300 Rwandan refugees, almost exclusively ethnically Hutu, of whom over two-thirds live in refugee camps.
Frustrated by the reluctance of Rwandan refugees to repatriate, Jacob Mphepo, Zambia's Commissioner for Refugees, said his office was considering ceasing to recognise Rwandan asylum seekers as refugees. Before revoking their refugee status, the Zambian authorities are hoping that the "Come and Tell" visit will work.
However, speaking to Dispatches, Fr. Gallagher, JRS Zambia Country Director said that "JRS has received assurances from the Zambian Government that they will continue to provide protection, in accordance with the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to those Rwandans who fear persecution".
In January 2003 the governments of Zambia and Rwanda and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signed a tripartite agreement to facilitate repatriation, on the basis that peace had returned to the country. To date only about 130 have returned home.
"The people with whom I have spoken have a deep and abiding distrust of the present Rwandan Government and fear that they will be falsely accused of acts of genocide should they return. The refugees believe that these accusations are intended to prevent them from regaining their land and participating in the political process. It is within this context that Rwandans in Zambia have shown themselves unwilling to return", added Fr. Gallagher.
UPDATES ON JRS PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
C=D4TE D'IVOIRE: PROJECT LIFE CYCLE
On 30 August JRS Côte d'Ivoire held its second Annual General Meeting. The different teams had the opportunity to reflect on 2004 and plan for 2005. The social and political context in the country, 2 years after a war destroyed the country, continues to hamper JRS in its efforts to work with the refugee and IDP population.
The Man and Bouké regions are still without a medical infrastructure, especially in the rural areas and JRS continues to provide this important service to the rural population abandoned to fend for themselves.
The JRS teams will continue to travel to the villages to bring food and medical supplies, until other initiatives can provide these services or political and State structures are put into place and normality starts to return.
The AIDS project faces new difficulties. The prospect of obtaining anti-retroviral drugs has opened up to possibilities: how to help those from a lower socio-economic background who are HIV positive access affordable drugs which will provide them with a solution albeit an expensive one, to their illness.
Two years after the outbreak of civil war, Côte d'Ivoire remains partitioned and unstable. The guns have fallen silent, but none of the underlying causes of the conflict have been resolved. Diplomats and political analysts worry that the prospects for holding free and fair presidential elections in October 2005 are increasingly uncertain.
Deadline after deadline for implementing political reforms agreed under the terms of a January 2003 peace accord has been missed, pushing the West African country from one crisis to another.
There has been no relapse into full-scale fighting, but ethnic killings have continued in government-held areas of western Cote d'Ivoire and rival factions of the rebel movement have periodically clashed with each other in the north.
JRS DISPATCHES is from the International Office of Jesuit Refugee Service, CP 6139, 00195 Roma Prati, Italy. Tel: +39-06 689.77.386; Fax: +39-06 688 06 418; Email: dispatches@jrs.net; JRS on-line: http://www.jrs.net; Publisher: Lluís Magriñà SJ; Editor: James Stapleton; Translation: Carles Casals (Spanish), Edith Castel (French), Centro Astalli/JRS Italy (Italian).