The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres will embark on an 8-day mission next week to Uganda and Tanzania to assess the situation of refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), the UN's website said Friday.
While in Tanzania, Guterres will kick off a two-year program to bring an end to one of the world's oldest protracted refugee situations: the exile of some 218,000 people from neighboring Burundi who were forced to flee their country in 1972.
"It will be one of our most important programs on the African continent this year," UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond said in a press briefing in Geneva.
The so-called "1972 Burundians" are among the hundreds of thousands of Burundians who sought refuge in neighboring countries that year to escape ethnic violence which killed an estimated 200,000 people.
After more than three decades, a breakthrough came last year when Tanzania announced its intention to close "Old Settlements" which have been hosting Burundians who arrived in 1972, and the governments of both countries have been working with UNHCR to find a solution.
On March 9, Guterres will launch the first repatriation by train of the "1972 Burundians."
Last week, UNHCR appealed for 34 million U.S. dollars to aid the voluntary repatriation and reintegration of the more than 40,000 refugees who wish to return to Burundi and also to assist those who choose to stay in Tanzania to integrate into their local communities.
During his stop in Uganda, the High Commissioner will visit Mulanda transit center, where 1,600 of the 12,000 Kenyans who have fled recent post-electoral violence are taking refuge.
For the Uganda leg of his trip, Guterres will be joined by Jean-Louis Schiltz, the Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian of Luxembourg, which serves as the top UNHCR donor per capita, contributing 25 dollars per inhabitant in both 2006 and 2007.
Source: Xinhua
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