These Briefing Notes are issued by Media
Relations & Public Information, UNHCR, Geneva.
Briefer: Ron Redmond - Media
Relations
This is a summary of what was said by the UNHCR spokesperson at today's Palais des Nations press briefing in Geneva. Further information can be found on the UNHCR website, www.unhcr.ch, which should also be checked for regular media updates on non-briefing days.
1) ASSISTANT HIGH COMMISSIONER TRAVELS TO CHAD
UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Kamel Morjane is scheduled to begin tomorrow (Dec. 13) a six-day visit to Chad and the Central African Republic to review UNHCR's operations in both countries.
His first stop is expected to be in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, where he is scheduled to meet with the President, Gen. François Bozize. In his meetings with the CAR leader, Mr. Morjane will likely urge the government to do more to stabilise the northern part of the country. This would pave the way for the return of more than 40,000 CAR refugees who fled to Chad early this year to escape conflict in the north. The Assistant High Commissioner will also visit refugee camps hosting Congolese (DRC) refugees, some of whom have registered to return home. CAR is currently hosting 50,700 refugees, mainly from Sudan (36,700), the DRC (10,400), Chad (1,880), Burundi (65) and Rwanda (265).
Mr. Morjane leaves Bangui on Monday (Dec. 15) for the Chadian capital, N'djamena -- the second leg of his visit. Mr. Morjane, who oversees UNHCR's worldwide assistance operations, is scheduled to meet President Idriss Deby on Tuesday. He will travel to refugee camps in the east, where there are more than 75,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled escalating conflict in the Darfur region of Western Sudan. UNHCR is concerned about security along Chad's eastern border with Sudan, a region sheltering more than 75,000 Sudanese refugees who began fleeing to Chad in April this year to escape the spiralling conflict in the Darfur region. We plan to begin re-locating the Sudanese refugees from the volatile border region to sites deeper inside Chad in the next few weeks.
The Assistant High Commissioner also plans to travel to Gore, southern Chad, on Wednesday to visit one of three camps hosting the Central African refugees. Other refugee camps in this region are located in Danamadji and Maro. In total, there are more than 40,000 CAR refugees in southern Chad.
2) INGUSHETIA
The last displaced Chechens remaining in Camp A (Alina camp) in Ingushetia relocated to Camp C (Satsita camp) yesterday (Thursday).
The Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation had decided to close Alina camp, and the authorities stated that camp residents who did not wish to return to Chechnya at this stage could move to alternative accommodation in Satsita camp or in rehabilitated rooms in temporary settlements. Camp A is the third tent camp for displaced Chechens in Ingushetia to be closed in the past year.
Of the 818 displaced people who remained in Alina camp at the beginning of December, 351 people relocated to Satsita, 166 moved to temporary settlements in Ingushetia and another 75 went to stay with relatives or friends in Ingushetia. A total of 226 people returned from Alina camp to Chechnya, primarily to temporary accommodation centers, from December 1-11.
New tents were provided in Satsita camp for the displaced people relocating from Alina. UNHCR provided 41 tents for the families, and Médecins Sans Frontières (Holland) provided 30 tents. MSF Belgium and France assisted with the flooring and installation of 25 of the tents. UNHCR provided eight additional tents for school and medical facilities in the camp. While some technical problems with electricity and gas supplies occurred during the relocation, the utilities were functioning in all camps (including Alina) on December 11.
As of early December, there were nearly 70,000 displaced Chechens in Ingushetia, according to the database of UNHCR's implementing partner, the Danish Refugee Council. Some 7,900 people were sheltered in tent camps and the remainder in temporary settlements or private accommodation.
3) UNHCR AND MICROSOFT SIGN AGREEMENT
High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, together with Jean-Philippe Courtois, CEO of Microsoft for Europe, Middle East and Africa, this morning signed a letter of understanding on Community Technology Learning Centres that Microsoft is funding to provide training and computer education for refugees.
The centres, which will be fully funded by Microsoft, will be located at Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya, which hosts more than 100,000 mainly Somali refugees, and in St. Petersburg, Russia, to benefit more than 6,000 mainly Afghans and Iraqis. We believe that these Community Technology Learning Centres will provide exciting new opportunities for refugees to learn about the broader world.
Refugee youth will be targeted under the training programme that will give them contact with the latest software and hardware, giving them new perspective on the broader world and skills they can eventually use. UNHCR's cooperation with Microsoft began during the Kosovo crisis in 1999, when the software giant offered its technical expertise to develop the Kosovo Registration Project, portable registration kits that have now been deployed to several other refugee situations worldwide.
END