- Title: TANZANIA: UNHCR SADAKO OGATA VISITS REFUGEE CAMPS IN TANZANIA.
- Date: 19th January 2000
- Summary: YAKIMONOMONO AWAY STATION (2KM FROM BORDER), KIBONDO REGION, TANZANIA (JANUARY 167, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. GV: VIEWS OF CAMP AND REFUGEES FROM BURUNDI (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. SV: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES SADATO OGATA TALKING WITH OFFICIALS AND REFUGEES 0.18 3. GV/MV/CU: REFUGEES GATHERED; ONE FILLING BUCKET OF WATER FROM TAP (6 SHO
- Embargoed: 3rd February 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KIBONDO REGION, TANZANIA
- Country: Tanzania
- Reuters ID: LVADTOTV9DKTR35BTG102CC19LL4
- Story Text: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako
Ogata has been visiting refugee camps in Tanzania, meeting
some of the estimated 300,000 people who have fled the
fighting in neighbouring Burundi.
She called on the U.N.Security Council member states to do
more to try and solve the conflict.
Sedako Ogata visited a camp near the border with
Burundi on Monday (January 17).She said she had trouble
getting the world to pay attention to the vicious war in
Burundi even though it has killed 200,000 people and forced
even more to flee.
Ogata met some of the 300,000 refugees who have escaped
into neighbouring Tanzania, but said their plight was not
getting the attention it deserved because donors saw no end to
the crisis.
"Here we have our largest programme for refugees in
Africa," she said."We try to make appeals every year but we
find it difficult because we are asked when is it ever going
to end? That has to stop."
Burundi's civil war, which began in 1993 and pits ethnic
Hutu rebels against a Tutsi-led government, has escalated
sharply in the past six months.
In recent weeks, refugees have fled into Tanzania at a
rate of about 1,000 every day and authorities have had to open
a new camp near the town of Kibondo to accommodate the new
arrivals.
Marion Roche of the UNHCR in Tanzania said the camp
already had a population of over 20,000 after opening on
December 23.
Ogata criticised the Burundi government's policy of
herding hundreds of thousands of civilians into "regroupment
camps" to stop them providing support for rebels.
Some refugees have said their houses had been burned and
that they had been attacked by government soldiers looking
for rebels.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela recently
took on the task of brokering an end to the Burundi war, and
delivered a tongue-lashing to the leaders of the warring
parties when he met them for the first time on Sunday.
He also unveiled a plan to raise the profile of peace
efforts by inviting U.S.President Bill Clinton, French
President Jacques Chirac and other world leaders to a new
round of peace talks in the Tanzanian town of Arusha in
mid-February.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None