The Monitor
Kampala, Uganda
12.28.02
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR) staff Dismas Nkunda and Deirdre Clancy from New York recently travelled to Nakivale Camp in southwestern Uganda to investigate the situation of Rwandan refugees in the region. Below is their report:
From a distance everything looked serene. Beautiful rolling hills and savannah bushes stretching as far as the eye could see. Occasionally we saw herdsmen tending big herds of cattle. The settlement patterns looked the same along this dusty and bumpy road from Mbarara to Nakivale.
The first sign that we were getting to our destination was a group of children. Among them were two boys carrying plastic containers of what seemed like a brown coloured liquid. We inquired what they were carrying. "Amaazi," they replied. Amaazi is water in Kinyarwanda.
Tucked away in the bushes were hundreds of very small grass-thatched huts could not be easily seen. This is Kibati home to more than 3,000 asylum seekers from Rwanda and Burundi.
Kibati is, in theory, part of the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, one of the oldest in Uganda and the one time home of thousands of Tutsi who fled Rwanda in the 60s. Many of these refugees spontaneously repatriated between 1994-1995 after the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) took power in Kigali.
But in a sad reversal of fortunes, while the Tutsi returned to Rwanda, the Hutu began flew to Nakivale.
Today, there are over 14,000 refugees in Nakivale, majority of whom are Rwandans. There are Congolese and Somalis as well.
But the Kibati refugees' story is twisted.
They are asylum seekers who have been in limbo for almost a year. They have become pawns in a chess game. They are rejected everywhere they turn for protection.
Many have been on the move for the last eight years. First they sought assistance in Tanzania. But in 1996, the Tanzanian government announced that all Rwandan refugees should go home by the end of the citing financial constraints.
When the refugees resisted, the Tanzanian military was called in to force them out.
Many returned to Rwanda, only to discover that things had fallen apart. Fearing for their safety, they trooped out of Rwanda back to Tanzania. Hardly had they taken a breath than they were told that a deadline of December 31 for their return to Rwanda was eminent. Fearing a 1996 repeat, they crossed over the border to Nakivale in Uganda.
At first the Ugandan government welcomed them and accorded over 8,000 protection. But as the numbers doubled, humanitarian organisations - including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - were alarmed and decided to halt the exercise, giving refugee status to new arrivals.
But this did not deter others from arriving. The numbers have been on the increase. And with the current repatriation exercise in Tanzania more are expected.
The deputy Camp Commandant says that there have been three deaths so far due to lack of care for the asylum seekers whom the Uganda government has not yet assessed and extend refugee status. With no recognition of their refugee status, the asylum seekers are left at God's mercy.
They have no identification papers and are susceptible to arrests and intimidation by the local authorities when they venture out to outlying villages to find work and food.
Without protection and assistance, it is a matter of time before a major health outbreak claims their lives.
That is the view held by Ugandan and humanitarian officials at the camp. Police fear that crime will rise in the area as the asylum seekers continue to live in unofficial capacities.
"Smell this," the camp commandant told us. "Look at the colour," referring to the water.
With the rains not about to let up, the camp's inadequate sanitation systems has forced the refugees to drink and cook with very dirty water. It may not be long before a major outbreak claims several of the lives. And since 50% of the asylum seekers are children below 10, it is not difficult to guess who will be most affected.
"We are all potential refugees," said the commandant. "These people need urgent help from whoever has a heart."