Rwandan Refugees will be forced home

By AFP
News24.com
June 19, 2009

Nairobi - Tanzania and Uganda are threatening forcibly to return tens of thousands of refugees from Rwanda and Burundi in coming weeks when the camps they live in are shut down, a rights watchdog group says.

Tanzania hosts 36 000 refugees from Burundi while its neighbour Uganda is sheltering about 17 000 from Rwanda.

"Both countries need to end their threats and clearly explain to the refugees what options are on the table," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

"Refugees do not lose their status as refugees simply because their camps are closed and they should not be forcibly returned to their countries".

At one camp at Mtabila in Tanzania, houses have been razed as officials reportedly told the refugees they would have to go back home "because when the camp closes on June 30 it will become a military camp, saying that 'soldiers and refugees don't mix".

Many at Mtabila are afraid to return to Burundi because of land disputes there, said the HRW, while numerous Rwandans in Uganda, who fled after the country's 1994 genocide, reportedly fear retribution on return.

On June 2, Rwanda forcibly kicked out 504 Burundian refugees at gun-point, according to the HRW.

Tanzania caused an international outcry in 1996 when it forcibly returned hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees to Rwanda, followed by the forcible return of thousands of Rwandan and Burundian refugees and asylum seekers in 2006 and 2007, said the HRW.

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