January 26, 2007

NAIROBI Kenya/GENEVA – Two years after the January 2005 signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the South-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, hope for the repatriation of Sudanese refugees has been dwindling by the day. In South Sudan, conditions do not favor their return, and the refugee camps in neighboring countries do not offer a long-term solution.

Miles away in Liberia, people who fled the civil war there are still in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and some small groups in Ivory Coast, yet peace has been restored. Liberian church representatives have visited these countries to persuade the refugees to return home, but only a small number has gone back .

With this scenario, the question as to why refugees were not returning home, even after civil wars and conflicts in the countries have ended, became a key subject at the 20-25 January World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi, Kenya.

"Generally there is fear of the unknown, but we urge them to ‘go and see, and come and tell,'" said Mark Leveri, director of the Tangayika Christian Refugee Service (TCRS), the associate program of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) in Tanzania. He was speaking at a WSF seminar focusing on the "Challenges of Return from a Human Rights Perspective," including implications on the protection of women's rights.

The LWF, the Aprodev Rights and Development Group, Church of Sweden and Christian Aid jointly organized the seminar.

Economic Growth Is Impossible

James Manyiel, a Sudanese refugee living at the LWF-run Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, said it was difficult to return home if parts of the country were still experiencing conflict. "Once the refugees return, they are vulnerable to many militias. These [armed groups] rape and abduct women. In some cases they forcefully marry the women and girls to repay the killing of kin," he told participants in a workshop on "Human Rights and Mobility and Citizen Gap," co-organized by the LWF and Mazingira Institute, a Kenyan non-governmental organization.

Charles Otieno, a community service officer working with the LWF/DWS Kenya/Sudan program at the Kakuma camp, said emphasis on repatriation was affecting the refugees' lives. "This is supposed to be a gradual process, but it is not," he said, pointing out that refugees face daily challenges related to human rights. "They have little freedom. They face insecurity. Yet they need to grow in all sectors of life, but this is difficult in the encampment life. Economic growth is also impossible," he explained.

High Cost of Repatriation

In the case of Liberia, there has been gradual return, but there are still challenges including the high cost of bringing people back home. "We have been to [the neighboring] countries encouraging refugees to return home. One of the problems we [face] is how to repatriate them," said Bishop Sumoward E. Harris of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. "When someone has been away for 10 years and everything has broken down [back home], they will not agree to return without bringing the things they have," he added.

The Liberian Lutheran church leader noted that refugee women, who had lost their spouses in militia attacks were particularly finding it more difficult to return home. "Many are single parents, the country has been destroyed. There are no businesses around, although some are [slowly] coming up," he said.

Ms Angela Melo, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa for the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, stressed the need for African governments to ratify the protocol on women's rights, saying it offers a chance for the equal treatment and protection of women refugees.

Lutheran World Information
Reported for LWI by Nairobi-based journalist, Fredrick Nzwili.