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Dispatches No. 239
Up | 17 June 2008
REFUGEE NEWS BRIEFINGS
UPDATES ON JRS PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
REFUGEE NEWS BRIEFINGS
KENYA: BY-ELECTION LEAVES PARLIAMENTARY BALANCE UNCHANGED
The two main parties in Kenya's coalition government retained their parliamentary balance after the 11 June by-elections. The elections were characterised by the absence of violence which marked the December presidential poll.
President Mwai Kibaki's party won two seats while Prime Minister Raila Odinga's won three in the vote, the first test of political stability for the east African nation since a post-vote crisis killed 1,300 earlier this year.
The two former rivals for the presidency formed a coalition government in April to end an impasse over Kibaki's disputed re-election. Their two parties hold a roughly equal number of assembly seats.
The elections, the first since the outbreak of violence last December which displaced more than 300,000 people, were closely monitored by international observers. As a preventative measure, polling stations were patrolled by armed police.
Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) clinched the three provincial seats of Ainamoi, Wajir North and Emuhaya. Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) won the Kilgoris seat near the Maasai Mara game reserve, and Nairobi's Embakasi constituency, formerly an ODM stronghold.
Despite progress in stabilising the political situation, the situation remains difficult for many of the country's population displaced last December.
On 21 May, JRS, along with other local and international NGOs, met with the Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), Mr Walter Kälin. The NGOs drew attention to the lack of a coherent framework in dealing with IDPs, both in terms of the assistance provided to them as well as the resettlement and returns process. They expressed concern that the government had not addressed the root causes of displacement in Kenya.
This is not the first time that Kenyans have been displaced around an election. Individuals were displaced in 1992 and again in 1997. Their specific needs have not been adequately addressed; consequently, many IDPs have been reluctant to return home until they receive concrete guarantees from the government regarding adequate security and protection. Displaced persons are also seeking comprehensive compensation packages, restitution of lost property and evidence that the government is serious about resolving land issues and property rights in the country.
NGOs told the UN representative of their concerns about forced returns, and that some IDPs have experienced psychological pressure, threats and lack of consultation prior to their movement and have been left without shelter, food or water after their movement.
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KENYA: INCREASED INSECURITY IN THE KAKUMA AREA
"The overall security situation in Kakuma Refugee Camp and its environs has been tense and volatile for the past two months", JRS Kenya project director, Elizabeth Ogaye, told Dispatches on 1 June.
According to the project director in Kakuma camp in northwestern Kenya, there has been an increase in the number of criminal attacks and banditry in the area and this has affected the local population in Kakuma town, as well as the refugee communities in the camp and humanitarian workers. The violence is affecting everyone, Ms Ogaye said.
Ms Ogaye spoke to Dispatches of four recent examples of violence in the area.
"An eight year old Burundian refugee was shot in the stomach and had to be flown to Nairobi for urgent medical attention. A refugee school girl, who is the recipient of a JRS scholarship, was shot whilst travelling on a bus. Two refugee business men were shot by armed robbers. About 95km from Kakuma, the Head of the Sub-Office for the World Food Programme was shot dead in Lokichoggio".
"These incidents of violence have caused tension and unrest among the refugee communities. They do not feel that they are receiving adequate protection in the camp and have held demonstrations to voice their dissatisfaction", Ms Ogaye continued.
Consequently, local policing authorities held two meetings on improving the situation, first with the local district and sub-district authorities and also attended by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the heads of UN and other agencies. The second was a public meeting, chaired by the local district officer, and attended by the manager of Kakuma camp, local community leaders and the security staff from UNHCR and the NGO the Lutheran World Federation.
Subsequently, the UN head of security visited Kakuma town to assess the situation. The UNHCR Security Advisory re-iterated that camp security was volatile but that police controls will continue throughout the day and night. The Kenyan government has since imposed a night curfew in the area, and dispatched the General Service Unit, comprising highly trained police officers and special-forces soldiers, to assist the police and to ensure the safety of refugees and humanitarian workers.
Kakuma town is located in Turkana District, in the northwestern region of Kenya. The town has hosted the Kakuma refugee camp since 1992, housing refugees from neighbouring countries, mainly southern Sudan. A few years ago, the camp housed more than 120,000 refugees. Today, following the repatriation of many southern Sudanese refugees, there are approximately 57,000 refugees.
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SUDAN: LACK OF FUNDING LEADS TO A REDUCTION IN AIR SERVICE FOR AID STAFF
On 10 June, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that its ability to transport 14,000 aid workers to Darfur and other parts of the country will be reduced due to lack of funding.
WFP-HAS, the air service run by WFP on behalf of the entire humanitarian community in Sudan, must cut one helicopter immediately and two fixed-wing aircraft on 19 June from its fleet because it is unable to cover the costs of carrying aid workers to remote parts of Darfur and southern Sudan. Also, fees for helicopter flights in Darfur will increase from 1 July.
The agency stated that the impact of this reduction will undoubtedly be felt by people in the most vulnerable circumstances, adding that the cuts will also reduce the ability to respond to urgent medical evacuation requests and staff relocations because of insecurity. Last year, WFP-HAS carried out 267 security and medical evacuations.
WFP-HAS needs an infusion of $20 million by 15 June in order to avoid some of the cuts and maintain full service through the coming months. The total UNHAS shortfall is $48 million on the $77 million budget for this year.
The Darfur helicopter fleet is reduced to five from six with immediate effect. About 3,000 humanitarian workers use WFP helicopters each month to reach remote parts of Darfur, where travel by road is impossible due to insecurity, banditry or poor road conditions. Helicopter fees will also be increased as of July 1 from the current $40 to $100 per flight. In addition, there will be a reduction in the number of flights to Darfur and southern Sudan as of 19 June.
The cuts announced today will reduce monthly spending from $6.2 million to $5.2 million. About 70 per cent of the budget supports Darfur humanitarian activities. So far this year, donors have provided $13.2 million in confirmed contributions to WFP-HAS, about 17 per cent of the required budget.
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BURUNDI: GOVERNMENT AND REBELS COMMIT TO RENOUNCE ON VIOLENCE
"The government of Burundi and Palipehutu-FNL renounced violence and undertook to resolve all their differences by dialogue," reads a joint communiqué issued on Monday, 10 June, after two days of high level peace talks in South Africa.
The Force National de Liberation (FNL), led by Agathon Rwasa, is the last remaining armed opposition in the country which is emerging from more than a decade-long civil war. The two parties reached an agreement that the FNL would be accommodated in political institutions and its fighters taken into the security and defence forces of Burundi. However, there are several points left which still need to be tackled - including power-sharing, the constitutional recognition of the FNL as a political party and demobilisation of its fighters.
The peace talks in South Africa were another step in a series of recent positive developments after recent clashes in April and May which killed nearly 100 people and forced at least 20,000 people to leave their homes near the country's capital, Bujumbura. On 25 May, under intense international and regional pressure, the FNL and the government jointly agreed to a ceasefire. Shortly thereafter on 30 May, the FNL leader returned to Bujumbura from Tanzania. For the first time, Rwasa directly took part in the peace talks in South Africa.
Even though there were no clashes reported since Rwasa's return, ordinary Burundians remain cautious. Mutual suspicions still seem to rein the ongoing peace talks. Only on Saturday, 8 June, the government accused the FNL of still massively recruiting fighters. Rwasa immediately rejected this as "absolutely wrong" and accused the government of arbitrary arrests.
President Pierre Nkurunziza, a former guerrilla leader, was elected president in 2005 under an agreement brokered by the African Union and the UN ending a civil war which started in 1993. The FNL refused to be part of that pact, but months later signed a separate agreement with the government in September 2006. The implementation of this agreement soon stalled and clashes resumed. Should a stable peace be finally achieved, many of the 337,000 Burundian refugees in neighbouring countries, and an estimated 100,000 internally displaced persons could be encouraged to return back home.
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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC): REBELS ATTACK DISPLACED PERSONS
On 4 June, rebels killed and wounded an unconfirmed number of internally displaced persons, among them children, in a camp in Kinyandoni, North Kivu, eastern DRC.
According to UN agencies, nine people were killed and 14 others were wounded, but this could not be confirmed by our JRS staff member in Goma. Around noon that day, several armed men stormed the camp, robbed a local NGO office and, as they left, started shooting indiscriminately at people, including a group of children.
Displaced civilians in the camp and the UN Peacekeeping mission to the DRC (MONUC) blamed Rwandan Hutu rebels (FDLR) for the attack. However, FDLR leaders denied any responsibility on Thursday. Congolese civilian and military authorities fear the attack was an act of retaliation after clashes between government forces and the Rwandan rebel group earlier that morning.
Following the camp attack, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and other humanitarian aid agencies evacuated staff and temporarily have suspended operations in the area. Consequently, the 5,000 displaced in the camp in Kinyandoni were temporarily deprived of humanitarian assistance for a number of days. According to information from the UN World Food Programme (WFP), assistance has resumed at the time of writing. MONUC sent UN peacekeepers to secure the camp, but our JRS member of staff reports security problems in one part of the camp.
The attack was strongly condemned by UN agencies in the region and the international community. UNHCR said it was shocked and alarmed by the attack and a MONUC spokesperson described the attack as a crime against humanity.
Aid agencies estimate 550,000 people have fled fighting in North Kivu in the past 18 months. The attack at Kinyandoni in the Rutshuru area was one of the worst carried out against civilians in eastern Congo since the government signed a peace accord in January 2008 with 22 armed rebel groups and militias, but not the FDLR.
The agreement, committing all parties to an immediate ceasefire, has already been breached on several occasions and local and international human rights groups claim there has been little progress in implementing the agreement. Since January, scores of civilians have been killed, hundreds of women and girls raped, and children keep being recruited into armed groups.
JRS Grands Lacs reiterated its commitment to alleviating the plight of displaced persons in North Kivu. JRS has recently established a project in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, supporting primary education for IDP children. Three more projects (primary, secondary and vocational education) will soon be started in the IDP camps near Goma and in the nearby Rutshuru area.
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SOUTH AFRICA: GOVERNMENT PROVIDES ACCOMMODATION FOR VICTIMS OF XENOPHOBIA
In early June, as a result of the attacks, the National and Provincial governments decided to erect Centres of Safe Shelter (CoSS) to provide for the needs of the displaced persons. The official count as of 10 June was 23,635 displaced people housed in the CoSS in three provinces: in Johannesburg and Pretoria in Gauteng province, Cape Town in Western Cape province, and in Durban in Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
The majority are in 70 CoSS in the Western Cape. In Gauteng province, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has provided 2,000 white plastic tents which have been erected at the sites there. While these structures provide very little warmth during this winter season as temperatures regularly go down to near zero degrees Celsius during the night, they are preferable to sleeping outdoors at police stations, as many of the displaced had been forced to do prior to the opening of the centres.
JRS has been working at one centre in Pretoria and three in the Johannesburg area. Teams have been providing blankets, bed mats, clothing, baby supplies (nappies etc.) as well as non-perishable food items. JRS has taken the role of collecting donations for the displaced and transporting them to the sites for distribution by other agencies or governmental groups there.
"The authorities have moved most displaced persons into camps and have given them two months to find their own accommodation. It is bloody cold, there are no bathing facilities and they are sleeping in light, highly flammable plastic tents so there are no heaters. This morning, when I woke up, the thermometer here read zero degrees. The situation is very harsh for the children and other people", JRS Southern Africa Regional Advocacy Officer, Michael Gallagher SJ told Dispatches on 11 June.
Fr Gallagher was speaking of the situation faced by thousands of non-nationals, mainly Zimbabweans, affected by xenophobic violence across South Africa. The violence flared up a working class district of Johannesburg last month when mobs blamed foreign nationals of stealing jobs, cheating social services, and driving up the crime rate. At least 60 people were killed and tens of thousands were displaced in the attacks.
For further information see www.jrs.net/reports.
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AUSTRALIA: JRS DIRECTOR RECEIVES AWARD
On 9 June, Sr Denise Coghlan RSM, JRS Cambodia Director, was made a Member of the Order of Australia in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours List for her service to international humanitarian aid. The title, made by the Queen of the United Kingdom, is presented to people who have distinguished themselves in various fields.
Sr Denise, a Sister of Mercy from Brisbane, has spent two decades working for JRS, both with refugees and returnees in Cambodia. During this time she has taken a leading role in the campaigns to ban landmines and cluster bombs. JRS Cambodia under her leadership has also actively represented the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), regularly providing information on the situation in the country, ensuring that it respected its international commitments.
In 1992, JRS, together with some other NGOs, began simultaneously to discuss the necessity of coordinating initiatives and calls for a ban on landmines. After five years of campaigning, a UN treaty was finally agreed to ban these devices. In 1997, the ICBL and its coordinator Jody Williams, jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize. A close colleague of Sr Denise, Tun Channareth of JRS Cambodia was chosen to receive it on behalf of the campaign.
Again in 2008, Denise and her team were active players in the recent campaign to get cluster bombs banned. The campaign resulted in the agreement last May in Dublin on a new international treaty.
"These unexploded ordinances continue to destroy lives in Cambodia and neighbouring Laos. Anecdotal evidence shows that cluster bombs stay active for at least 38 years, and probably longer in some places", said Sr Coghlan.
For further information see www.jrs.net/reports.
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MALTA: MIGRANTS CLINGING TO TUNA PEN RESCUED
On 7 June, fifty-six irregular migrants were rescued by the Maltese armed forces. Half of them were found clinging to a tuna-pen after their boat capsized in rough seas. It was a busy afternoon for the army which was called out to assist two groups of migrants in distress.
The Rome rescue centre informed the Maltese authorities that an Italian fishing boat had spotted a boat with around 28 migrants on board, some 50 nautical miles south of small island. A maritime patrol vessel was immediately dispatched to the area to investigate.
Shortly afterwards, an Italian tug-boat informed the Maltese authorities that another boat also with 28 irregular migrants onboard had capsized, this time in their immediate vicinity, and that they were clinging to the tuna-pen their tug had in tow.
In total, 56 migrants were rescued, 13 of whom were women and one was also pregnant. One of the women was airlifted to a local hospital after suffering convulsions.
According to the NGO United, at least 112 people were reported to have died in May on the way to Europe.
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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: ALLEGED TRAFFICKER RELEASED WITHOUT CHARGE
On 10 June, JRS condemned the release of Haitian national, Jean-Paul Frandominique, who was recently arrested in the Dominican border city of Dajabon with a number of children. Mr Frandominique told the police he had paid a captain less than five US dollars and that he intended to bring the children, aged between two and six years of age, to villages in the northern region of Ciboa.
JRS was shocked that the alleged trafficker, Mr Frandominique, was immediately released after questioned. Justice in the region, the human rights organisation stated, left a lot to be desired. The population no longer believes in it.
According to the JRS director in the northwestern city of Dajabon, Fr Regino Martínez SJ, when adults are smuggled of their own free will, JRS monitors the situation, but when children are trafficked against their will one cannot remain indifferent. However, it is known, he added, that the authorities do not take this issue very seriously. According to a report produced by JRS, trafficking of children is so common that a red van arrives regularly in Dajabon to collect children and bring them to other cities in the Dominican Republic. JRS monitored the situation — going as far as publishing the licence plate of the van.
The Jesuit human rights organisation pointed out that in the last few months criminal networks have trafficked 1,353 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic. These groups, according to JRS, are well-organised and deeply imbedded in communities along the Haitian-Dominican border.
For further information see www.jrs.net/reports.
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UPDATES ON JRS PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
ITALY: BANISH THE FRONTIERS OF THE MIND SAYS FR GENERAL
"If a country or a culture closes itself to other cultures, it does not have much future", this was one of the principal messages launched by the recently elected Fr General of the Society of Jesus, Adolfo Nicolás, at a press conference held in the Caravita Oratory in Rome on 11 June.
The press conference, 'Barriers or Frontiers? — migration in the world', was one of the many events organised by JRS Italy to mark World Refugee Day on 20 June.
The statement was a call to Italy and to Europe so they are able to respond positively, to welcome, the arrival of migrants to the continent.
"If a country is in crisis and its population lives in fear, there are often volunteers close by who can show real compassion towards those who knock on our doors. People no longer believe what is said to them, but it is facts, mutual assistance and solidarity that speak", the Fr General told the audience, responding to the questions put by the Vatican specialist and Rai TV Tg 1 journalist, Maria Valli.
"We need flexible frontiers, fluid, always open to others. Instead of those that generate insecurity and fear. Politics in this moment, above all in the developed world, creates fear and closes us, to the point that we fear going out on the street. This is the root cause of our need to create frontiers; sometimes they are necessary to build our identity, but sometimes they are motivated by our ignorance", the Jesuit superior told the audience.
For further information see www.jrs.net/statement.
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