Aiding Africa's Refugees

...Other large repatriation efforts were undertaken by UNHCR the return of Sudanese refugees in 1972-3, of many thousands to Guinea-Bissau in 1974-5, of Ugandans from neighbonng states during 1979 And Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), of course, offers a dramatic example of lives resumed In recent years, however, tne voluntary returns have not kept pace with the dislocations caused by prolonged droughts, frontier clashes and outside manipulation Just a decade ago there were fewer than 1 million African refugees, but now the five-fold increase directly affects some 25 of Africa's 50 nations Conditions are worst at present in the Horn of Africa, where natural disaster has combined with prolonged fighting in Eritrea and Ogaden to produce the largest displaced population Most are herdsmen, small farmers and nomads, who tend to seek out similar communities in surrounding countries Impoverished Somalia is currently harboring some 1 5 million refugees?5 per cent of its population of 5 million—from the Ogaden region of Ethiopia Gathered in three dozen camps and transit centers, they live in legal limbo stateless, without citizenship rights or an immediate future, and dependent on international aid Over the last three weeks, I have asked the representatives of the areas most critically affected what they see as the solution to the refugee problem Their answers suggest the thorniness of the situation In his mission's modest Manhattan offices near the UN, Somalia's Ambassador Ahmed Mohamed Adan declared "The hope is in integration in the hostcountnes, or, what to me is the best solution, voluntary repatriation But the UN does not seem to be looking at the root causes Until it does, the problem will remain with us " The 6' 4", 51 -year-old diplomat, who has been ambassador to the Court of St James, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, continued in bitter tones "The West Somahans of Ogaden have been struggling for independence from Ethiopia We don't see why Ethiopia should not give them mdependence the same way the European powers gave independence to East Africa This struggle has been going onfor 20 years1 People don't want this 'African colonization ' The situation is being exploited by outside powers, mainly the Soviet Umon, which is arming and training the Ethiopian Army, giving them planes, tanks, helicopters, missiles And their Cuban surrogates in uniform are fighting alongside the Ethiopians "Hundreds of thousands of West Somahans have been forced to flee We not only have to share our food and resources with them, but our development plans also have had to be suspended And the UN is doing nothing about this It is shying away from the political reality " At Ethiopia's UN mission, one hears precisely the opposite, plus protestations that "Washington sees us as the enemy " Dr Debebe Worku, a slight, graying 40-year-old diplomat who is counselor for economic and social affairs, spoke for his ambassador, Mohamed H Ibrahim "Today, you get an exaggerated picture of refugees fleeing from Ogaden It's really amazing how the Somahans pursue their political interest at the expense of the people, they are encouraging the Ogaden people to leave My government has declared amnesty for anyone who has left the country "Ethnicity," he insisted, "is a criterion of nationhood The Ogadens are Ethiopians It is the Somahans who want to keep those who fled as hostages We want them to come back " I spoke next with Nigeria's Ambassador Ampim Darku Jim Blanksoii, who last July introduced the resolution in the UN Economic and Social council calling for the Geneva refugee conference Although oil rich, at 80 million Nigena is Africa's most populous nation and the influx from across its borders has been a serious source of difficulty "We pray for a happy ending," said the 44-year-old, heavy-set Blankson, a former journalist "We saw a happy ending for Zimbabwe, where the people were able to go back What everybody wants, if possible, is to go back to their home countries But when you look at the causes that prompted them to leave, they are so diverse and difficult "Sudan has a lot of refugees, mostly Entreans from Ethiopia In my country, we have a fair share from Chad, the result of the on-going civil war with Libya AnumberofUgandansareinZaire, Sudan,Kenya Allofthesepeoplewould like to go home For a solution, though, you have to create the atmosphere that will allow them to pick up the threads of their lives again " No matter ho w much money is poured in, even if the Saudis gave billions Blankson stopped to reflect for a moment, then went on with apparently purposeful vagueness "Government policies must change if we are to alleviate the immediate suffering of the refugees and the pressures they place on their hosts " The UNHCR seems to agree George Gordon-Lennox, its regional representative at the UN in New York, was a bit more specific in summing up "If some of these countries that are producing refugees could come to grips with the causes—that would be the ideal solution It may sound Utopian, but it could happen...

...THE POLITICAL OBSTACLE Aiding Africa's Refugees BY GERTRUDE SAMUELS United Nations THE WORLD now clearly I recognizes that one half the entire world refugee population is to be found on the African continent—that 5 million homeless persons are living in conditions of destitution and that a small number of host countries, who are themselves economically disadvantaged, are bearing the greatest share of the burden " Speaking at the conclusion of the International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa, held in Geneva April 9-10, UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim thus summarized the magnitude of the problem taken up by the 99 participating delegations (the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites did not deign to attend) The Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) co-sponsored the gathering, which launched a drive for $ 1 15 billion in humanitarian assistance to be spent over the course of the next four years The figure is not exorbitant...

...roughly the same amount has been spent to resettle the Vietnamese boat people who fled to Indonesia and Malaysia The Asian and African migrations differ in one important respect, though As the OAU executive secretary, Ambassador Oumarou Garba Youssoupou, who lived through a devastating drought in his native Niger, pointed out to me " We' re not getting the publicity because of our culture No refugee is turned away from the host countries, so we're not dramatic enough for television We have no drownings, no piratings We never ask to go to the developed countries We don't make the news " The OAU is engaged in a two-stage program, initially involving merely keeping the refugees alive by providing basic needs and then helping them shoulder some of the burden they place on their hosts In Tanzania, for example, thousands of refugees from Rwanda and Burundi have been assisted in creating entire rural settlements and have become self-sufficient, today they enjoy Tanzanian citizenship But by the end of the conference, only $560 million in Gertrude Samuels, who reports on the United Nations for the^ih, hascovered independence struggles in several African nations as well as the plight of refugees in various parts of the world pledges had been from received from43 countries, with more than half the sum ?85 million—promised by the United States Huge population shifts within Africa began in the late 1950s, when the waning of Western colonialism wrought radical changes in tribal societies Competition between liberation movements and superpower interests drove thousands of people to neighboring countries for asylum Drought, famine and disease have been a significant cause of migrations as well At one time, voluntary repatnation seemed to prevent the problem from getting out of hand The 200,000 Algerians who sought to escape the ravages of their country's struggle to free itself fromFranceby moving into Tunisia and Morocco, for instance, went back home after independence...