Tanzania November 2006 |
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| The Plight of Returnees From Tanzania: 2, (The New Times, 2006-11-22):-At the camp in Bugesera near the Rwanda-Burundi border, the returnees seem to have decided on two things; to keep their faith in God and hope that what their leaders keep telling them will come to pass. Like their fellow returnees in other camps, they had been, by November 15, visited by various officials in different capacities in the one week they had spent in the camp. They said promises from the government officials sound reassuring but never seem to come to fruition. Bugesera is directly under one Zius Hakizimana, a returnee himself, who acts as the camp coordinator. If there is anyone who has been asked a multitude of questions, it is Hakizimana. A large quantity of the dry maize which was offered to returnees from Kiyanzi is stale and the beans are getting spoilt. Some families' rations were packed onto buses which went to different camps from Bugesera in a mix up resulting from poor organisation on the part of the administration at Kiyanzi Transit Camp. And because the affected do not seem to know who to report their frustration to, Hakizimana has to act as a shock absorber. He has had to answer a barrage of questions that would have been better answered by a top official in one of the ministries directly charged with returnees. He is himself hopeless but his position at the camp necessitates that he listens to each and every cry and then come up with some consolation. "There are cases where on arrival some people were given food enough for only a month. When we were being [sent] to this camp, the officials at Kiyanzi mistook the ration to have been for three months. In other cases, some people had their food loaded onto buses that went to other camps. "This is the reason why we have cases of people with nothing to eat. We have tried to inform the officials at Kiyanzi for reimbursement but they are yet to respond. It is really a big problem because some families are now feeding their friends. And remember the ration was given on the basis of numbers," the coordinator said. There are people who complained about the little amounts of food immediately after being told that they were to travel the following day. Besides, the assumed three months food rations was given to them when they had just arrived at Kiyanzi, and not when they were about to leave for resettlement. There are some sections of the returnees who spent more than a month at the reception centre, meaning that by the time they left Kiyanzi, the rations given to them were less by one month. Such will now have to make sure their remaining part of the maize and beans takes them for the three months it was meant for. That is why most people in these camps have given up on breakfast and lunch, reserving the little they still have for a lonely meal at night. The rainy season has not been fair to the returnees as well. Coupled with the short tarpaulins that were used to make temporary shelter, rains continue to worsen the returnees' woes. Floors in their makeshift structures are soggy as a result, making even the few with the luxury of mattresses unable to rest comfortably at night. Bare mats are what the majority of the unfortunate camp occupants lie on at night. Blankets are as rare as their 'luxurious cousins' mattresses. Most cover themselves at night using women clothing, which the owners don during the day. As people sleep on suitable beds inside proper houses elsewhere around the two countries, young children perch like wild birds on very cold floors under covers that barely deserve to be called so. It is a whole new and strange world to both the victims and the witnesses! Kids are malnourished, they look sick with faces much more mature than their age. But they never stop playing or looking at visitors. Only that clearly their anxiety derives more from expectant minds and empty stomachs, than from a youthful bodies and minds with eagerness to explore. They will suddenly stop whatever they are doing to look at any visiting car that parks near any of the tents, probably with only two things doing the round in their minds - bread and blanket. Following periods (even before Kiyanzi, since they are first herded together for sometime before transfer to Rwanda was arranged) of unemployment and little economic activity, poverty has already begun to bite. Few of the returnees put on clean clothing, evidence that washing is increasingly becoming a luxury. Their shirts and dresses are too dirty to the extent that to someone visiting the camp for the first time, many would pass for your insane person on the street. Where Kiyanzi provided them with beans and maize purportedly for three months, but enough for half that time in realistic considerations, soap could not have ranked among the necessities. "We are so poor. I came with some shillings which I exchanged for a few francs. It's those francs that I have been using for the last one month to compliment the maize that the officials gave me. I have to put on the same shirt for two weeks before changing it, the same with the other members of my family. "You also must have seen that the majority of us sleep on bare floors in those tents of ours. Poverty is the basic reason better beddings have not been afforded," one of the men lamented upon being asked why he did not look so clean. It is not only soap that these people missed at Kiyanzi, they also missed salt. Majority have now resorted to taking food without salt and the situation is not about to change. Officials at the reception centre claim they do not have enough money to provide salt for all the returnees and the fact that no international agency has come up yet to take over that particular responsibility, the returnees may have to resort to trimming their senses of taste. Medication in camps, or lack of it, is another big problem. Apart from the Red Cross clinic at Kiyanzi, there was no camp among the five with reliable medical services. Even the ones with something similar to the services, like Ndego II, depend on staff who operate according to their convenience. Bugesera was relying on the hope that the same type of medical services Ndego gets will be available to them in a day or two. At Ndego II for instance, the sick are given first aid treatment by a group of CARE volunteers who are only at the camp during day time. When the sickness necessitates treatment which is more than just first aid, referrals are made to the closest hospitals or dispensaries. At Mwiri, people have had to walk for 10-15 km to get to the nearby hospital. The situation gets even worse when the movement has to be made at night. There are some returnees who came back when they were already HIV positive. Considering the amount of care and medication they need, such will always find it impossible to carry on. Getting access to medicare, particularly anti-retroviral treatment, is not easy as well. At the plastic water tanks in Ndego, children and old women can be seen scrambling for water. Sometimes, the water comes in late. There is only one truck that supplies the whole of Ndego II camp, provided by CARE. "We sometimes go without water and the scramble is too much especially when water has just come. Some people fight while the kids end up not getting the water. It would be good if the government or any other authority came in to help," appealed a woman, seemingly in her late 40s. Moving across to one of the tents which was my shelter throughout the night, the sight of so many kids yelling and calling out for photographs evokes one poignant question; What crime did they commit for them not be at school and what does the future hold for them? Hakizimana, the head of the camp, revealed that they have been registering all the school going children, beginning with those who were already in secondary schools. He said plans were under way to have them begin school by next year. I hoped for the better but deep in me I wondered why our neighbours in Tanzania had decided to send away their fellow human beings so unjustly and abruptly. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |