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| Challenges Facing Southern Sudanese Returnees |
| A troubled homecoming after two decades of civil war |
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Zachary Ochieng (Zach)  |
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Published 2006-10-24 18:13 (KST) |
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Despite the Jan. 2006 signing of a historic tripartite agreement between the governments of Kenya and Sudan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for the voluntary repatriation of southern Sudanese refugees from Kenya to Sudan, the real challenge has just began, as those who returned home discovered that they returned to nothing, forcing some of them to come back to Kenya. The challenge also poses a threat to the nascent peace accord signed a year ago, between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
The 21-year war between the Muslim north and the mainly Christian and animist south left 2 million people dead and displaced 4 million others, some within the country, including an estimated 2.5 million in Khartoum. But on Jan. 12, UNHCR, Kenya and Sudan signed a tripartite agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees living in Kenya, back to Sudan. Gideon Konchellah, Kenya's minister for immigration and registration of persons, signed on behalf of the government of Kenya, while Brigadier Aleu Ayieny Aleu, the Sudanese State minister of interior signed on behalf of his government. UNHCR was represented by the director of operations for the Sudan situation, Jean-Marie Fakhouri.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| Following the signing of the Sudanese peace accord in Jan. 2005, UNHCR and other U.N. agencies have been helping communities in Southern Sudan to prepare to receive returnees. Last year, some 75,000 refugees went home on their own accord without the assistance of UNHCR. "Our role is that whenever refugees and internally displaced persons go back home, they will find someone to welcome them," said Fakhouri. To this end, the U.N. refugee agency has opened 10 offices, built schools, dug wells and rebuilt hospitals to help entire communities better receive returnees.
Since the signing of the tripartite agreement, Brigadier Aleu has been appealing to the Sudanese to return home, as their country needs them. "I fought for 21 years but now I'm a minister and all I want is peace. Please go back and help rebuild your country as there is no greener pasture than your own country." Concurs Fakhouri: "Clearly it will take a long time for Southern Sudan to provide the same services to their people that were provided in refugee camps. But at the same time, it is important for refugees to go back home and build their country." Both Fakhouri and UNHCR Kenya representative George Okoth-Obbo said no refugee would be forced to go back. But the U.N. is being blamed for failing to intervene in the 2005 forced relocation and large-scale demolitions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) settlements in and around Khartoum. The demolitions, occasioned by riots that followed former First Vice-President and President of Southern Sudan Dr John Garang's death, forced a number of southern Sudanese to return to a region with no basic facilities and infrastructure.
Still, the process of voluntary repatriation of refugees is facing a major challenge. According to Bob Turner, the United Nations Mission In Sudan (UNMIS) head of returns, reintegration and recovery, so far there are only two facilities to assist returnees en route, as opposed to the required 23. Turner also admits that the protection monitoring system has not been working as expected, due to inadequate information. But landmines remain the greatest threat to the returnees. Landmines still dot areas of southern Sudan, having been used by both the government and rebel forces in their 21-year civil war. Figures from the United Nations Mine Action Office (UNMAO) -- an agency established in 2003 to co-ordinate all mine-related programmes in Sudan -- indicate that there have been nearly 2,000 mine incidents, a conservative estimate according to Takuto Kubo, UNMAO senior project manager.
Besides posing physical danger to the returnees, landmines have also destroyed the infrastructure and made farming almost impossible. Kubo says the danger lies in the fact that refugees may return to mine affected areas, as they are unaware of the current situation after being away for several years. There are also no job opportunities, not to mention schooling facilities.
Also posing a problem for returnees in the south are raids by the Joseph Kony-led Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from neighboring Uganda. Notably, before peace negotiations started between LRA and the government of Uganda, LRA had been raiding villages, hacking residents to death, cutting off victims' lips, burning houses and destroying crops. LRA has been battling the Ugandan government for 20 years, waging a campaign of murder, rape and child abductions in northern Uganda and using southern Sudan as a base. A few months prior to the peace negotiations, LRA attacks spread along the eastern shores of the Nile River from the northern Ugandan town of Adjumani across the border into south Sudan, where rebel activity appeared to be on the increase in a triangle bounded by the towns of Nimule, Juba and Torit.
Then there are the vagaries of weather. In southern Sudan, an area larger than France and Germany combined, there are only 14km of paved roads. Consequently UNHCR can only carry out repatriation movements before the onset of the rainy season in March and resume when the season ends.
For almost the first two decades, Kenya has been home to thousands of Sudanese refugees, most of whom live at the Kakuma refugee camp in the north-western part of the country. The first official repatriation took place last Dec., when 131 refugees left Kakuma camp for southern Sudan. But almost half of them returned to Kenya after encountering hostile conditions in Sudan, sending shockwaves to the rest of the refugee community.
With the UNHCR announcing plans to take home at least 60,000 refugees, Fakhouri says it could take up to five years to repatriate more than half a million South Sudanese refugees living in neighboring countries back to their homes. But unless adequate measures are put in place to provide a soft landing for refugees, many of them will opt to remain in foreign lands.
Besides hosting Sudanese refugees, Kenya is also home to thousands of refugees from the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa countries due to its relative stability in the region. But Kenya is now bearing the brunt of insecurity following the proliferation of small arms from the affected countries, notably Somalia.
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©2006 OhmyNews
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1. Yosef
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Emanuel , 2007-03-29 11:05
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