Maravi

Scores of Congolese refugees skeptical about Katanga peace

Scores of Congolese refugees skeptical about Katanga peace
By Mwala Kalaluka in Mporokoso
Sat 07 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT

SOME Congolese refugees have doubted the sincerity behind Katanga deputy governor Yav Tshibal's assurances that the DRC is now peaceful and that all those that fled it due to the war should return.

And some refugees have wondered why the free education programme that is supposed to be provided to the children of the DRC refugees returning to Moba area of that country was not being implemented as agreed.

Addressing scores of anxious Congolese refugees at Mwange Refugee Camp, situated about 20 kilometres from Mporokoso boma on Thursday, Tshibal said President Joseph Kabila of the DRC had embarked on a five-tier commitment in an effort to bring out that country from the aftermath effects of the war.

Tshibal said President Kabila's five commitments include, among others, the zeal to reduce high unemployment levels, enhance the reconstruction process and improve the education sector, especially in respect of the child.
Tshibal said in Swahili that it was a known thing that a lot of Congolese went through difficulties during the war.

"He (President Kabila) said we go for elections and we went for elections. We have put in place people in all institutions of government," Tshibal said. "Everything has been put in place and the war has ended. Congo is a very big country and it needs you to go and reconstruct it. Your home is your home. Let us go back to our home."

Tshibal said the Congolese government would welcome its returning refugees just as the Zambian government and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were taking care of them in Zambia.

Earlier, the secretary general in the Ministry of Security and Interior Affairs in the DRC government, Xavier Kiriza, also urged the Congolese refugees to return home since the conflict there had ceased.
"When you are in a foreign country, you do not have that respect. Congo is our home," Karizi said.

But during a follow-up question session, a 50-year-old Congolese refugee, who claimed to have spent 40 years of his life in the DRC and then in Zambia, asked Tshibal and Karizi if they were being truthful with their assurances that the war was over.

"For the past two days I have just been hearing in the news that there is war in Kivu and you are just telling us that there is peace. Are you telling us the truth?" asked the Congolese refugee, as the others applauded him.
Another refugee wondered why those DRC nationals that had fled war from their various communities and were not intent on returning to these but other areas of that country were not being allowed to do so under the voluntary repatriation framework.

On the war situation in one of the two Kivus, Tshibal said he was a vice-governor for Katanga and that in his province there was no war.
He said before referring the question to Kiriza, who was the head of delegation, that there was an on-going operation to clean up some rebel forces that were in the bush and he assured the refugees that calm would return to Kivu.

Kiriza said the skirmishes in Kivu were as a consequence of some (Intahamwe) that had been forced back to their country, Rwanda that were committing the killings along the way.

Tshibal told the refugees to return to the DRC and that from there they could choose any part of the Congo where they wanted to settle.
And on the free education programme in Moba, Tshibal said he would leave that to the UNHCR but he told the refugees that they were at an advantage because some of them could even speak English and that they could be employed by many organizations in DRC.

Tshibal said some former refugees had become members of parliament in the DRC.
This was in response to a question from a female refugee who wanted to know what the DRC government would do to provide employment to the returnees because currently most graduates in that country, unlike in Zambia, were loitering the streets.

Labels: KATANGA PROVINCE, REFUGEES, YAV TSHIBAL

posted by MrK @ 12:06 AM