CONGO-DRC: 61 refugees return home

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BRAZZAVILLE, 20 Sep 2004 (IRIN) - Some 61 nationals of the Republic of Congo (ROC) returned home on Friday after more than six years as refugees in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an official of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said.

The official, Janvier Deriedmatten, said 40 of the group were residents of Brazzaville, the nation's capital; 17 of Pointe-Noire, the country's second largest city; and four of Dolisie, in the western Department of Niari.

Since January, at least 400 ROC nationals have been repatriated from the Kimaza refugee camp in southwestern DRC. Some 500 to 700 still remain. However, Deriedmatten said the camp would be closed in December since the refugees are now able to fend for themselves.

These refugees were among the 150,000 people who fled the ROC's civil wars in 1997, 1998 and 2,000. A repatriation accord between both Congos and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees was reached in 1999, and in May that year a few thousand were sent home. However, the process was halted after the unexplained disappearance of some 350 refugees - seizing on a "humanitarian corridor" established by the UNHCR - returned home but were arrested when they disembarked from their riverboat at the Port of Brazzaville known as 'Le Beach'. They have become known as the "Disparus du Beach".

Therefore, on 2 September the UNHCR and the Congo governments strengthened the component of the 1999 accord that provides security for the refugees.

[On the Net: CONGO-DRC: UNHCR repatriates 197 refugees from Kinshasa to Brazzaville]

[ENDS]