[allAfrica.com] [allAfrica.com_Business_Page] Congo: Thousands Fear Returning Home Despite Peace Deal The East African (Nairobi) NEWS April 12, 2004 Posted to the web April 14, 2004 By David Kaiza Nairobi THOUSANDS OF Congolese refugees are still in Uganda more than a year after a peace deal was signed back home. The refugees are unwilling to return home for fear of ethnic reprisals because parts of eastern Congo, where the Hema and the Lendu - the principal actors in the tribal clashes from which they fled - are said to be still under the rule of warlords. The Congolese, estimated by the Uganda People's Defence Forces to be 10,000 in number, live in Bundibugyo district without refugee status. The Refugee Law Project (RLP) says that they are living in inhuman conditions. Deaths from infectious diseases are reported to be high, especially among children. They have been living without shelter for the past one year because the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) withdrew their support, under pressure from the government, whose policy is that all refugees must move to settlement camps as a prerequisite to receiving relief assistance. However, Dennis Duncan, the spokesperson for the UNHCR in Uganda, said that its policy was that all Congolese coming into Uganda from areas of armed conflict receive automatic refugee status. He added that the Uganda-Congo border was porous, making it difficult to exercise control over refugees. The RLP says in a report that the most urgent problem facing the refugees is lack of food. "They have been reduced to begging for food, while those with fishing gear occasionally fish, but this is difficult because of a fishing ban," Emmanuel Bagenda, the advocacy officer for the RLP said. The difficulty of giving the refugees formal status is centred around the policy of settlement, which RLP says is not in the interest of refugees. It is estimated that the majority of nationals from Congo, Rwanda and Sudan who seek asylum in Uganda are living outside the settlements. Although the fighting in the Congo formally ended after a peace deal between the warring factions, with rebel leaders joining the government of national unity, this has not brought most of eastern Congo under government control. Said the RLP report: "Despite the relative de-escalation of conflict in the Congo, a number of refugees still feel that conditions are not yet safe enough to return to the DRC. This feeling was reinforced by reports of continued fighting in the DRC, as well as the fact that a few of the refugees who had voluntarily returned home have since come back to Uganda." According to Mr Bagenda, the Bundibugyo refugees are not registered with any authorities, have no access to humanitarian assistance and do not benefit from a formal repatriation process. He said that the standoff between the Hema, the Lendu and the Ngiti remained and clashes were still reported in the region. "The trouble with the repatriation is that it is informal. The UPDF simply escorts them up to the border. And once you enter Congo, security is your business. If you are a Lendu and you walk into a band of Hema you would have a reason to fear for your life." Unconfirmed reports say that there have been cross-border raids with suspected members of the Hema ethnic group killing some members of the Lendu group living in Uganda. Since the withdrawal of the UPDF from Congo, the Uganda army is barred from stepping foot into the Congo. Although this was instrumental in containing large-scale conflict, it has meant that returning refugees in the Congo have no safe-passage home. "The refugees say that their villages are mostly safe," said Bagenda. "But they say that along the way, they are set upon by the Hema and Ngiti." Thousands of refugees now live in several counties in Bundibugyo. But they have no food and shelter. Cholera has broken out many times. Without adequate medical provision, a number of them, especially children have died.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================