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Uganda: Tension Between Locals, Refugees Brewing in Nakivale Camp
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The Monitor (Kampala)
1 July 2008
Posted to the web 1 July 2008
Charles Opolot & Otushabire Tibyangye
Kampala
Sixty kilometres South East of Mbarara town, lies Nakivale refugee settlement camp.
It is gorged in a serene location cuddled by Lake Nakivale on one side and antagonistic low lying hills on the other.
The 84 sq.km. resettlement that basks in the canopy of dotted acacia trees and offering shelter to thousands of herds of cattle and goats with their owners, the refugees are not always at peace.
It is home to 36,637 people (refugees) from Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea,Kenya and Ethiopia.
Nakivale Refugee Settlement covers the sub counties of Rugaaga, Ngarama and Kashumba. It occupies the entire Bukanga county.
Nakivale's existence dates back to the 1960s when it was created by the government to take care of Rwandans fleeing persecution from their country.
On a daily basis, tension rises in Nakivale for different reasons and interests.
It could be among refugees fighting for limited resources like medicine, water, food and education opportunities, or relocation. But it could also be a combined effort from the refugees against the residents for land.
Now the land struggle is taking an ugly twist. Locals think the government is favouring refugees at their expense as citizens, through forceful evictions.
On the other hand government claims land encroachment began in the 1990s when there was mass exodus of Rwandans back to Rwanda, so they are perpetuators of crime.
The Minister for Refugees and Disaster Preparedness, Mr Tarsis Kabwegyere, while presiding over the Refugee Day celebrations said locals were and are wrong to grab Nakivale land.
"This is government land only given to refugees. Anybody who acquired a land title in whatever form, is an illegal occupant, therefore doomed to lose," said Mr Kabwegyere.
The UNHCR chief, Antonio Gutterres, thanks the govern ment for giving refugees land to cultivate.
Mr Kabwegyere said as the world commemorates the refugee day, the displaced populations continues to rise. He appealed to people in all refugee hosting regions to treat refugees and all Internally displaced persons with dignity they deserve.
Mr Guterres said the government of Uganda, unlike many countries in the world, including the developed and industrialised countries, gives refugees the right to work and freedom of movement.
In a statement read by the UNHCR country representative in Uganda, Mr Stefano Severe, governments the world over face many challenges, like distinguishing those in need of genuine refuge from other compelling reasons like economic opportunities.
Consequently, asylum seekers and refugees have increasingly become targets of racism, xenophobia and intolerance.The local population living near Nakivale resettlement is not amused by the recent trend of events.
A statement from Guterres, thanking the Uganda government is not for their survival but persecution.
They have accused the camp commandant, Mr Simon Mutakyuka of fueling tension between them and the Rwandese refugees over the ownership of land thus disrupting peaceful co-existence between the two communities.
Since the survey of this land in 2005 there have been skirmishes between the locals and the refugees.
With both parties claiming ownership of the land, no solution is nearby.
This has been a big concern to the district leadership that put up a select committee of the district council and some of the findings are yet to be tabled before council.
The committee found out that the camp commandants have been constantly telling refugees that the land belongs to them and therefore it was their duty to protect it from citizens.
It also found out that police have been conniving with the commandants to deny justice to the locals and harass them, especially where refugees destroy crops and animals belonging to the locals.
The citizens also feel that refugees are enjoying better livelihoods and amassing wealth from the land through cultivation yet the nationals have inadequate land for cultivation.
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There are unfounded claims that availability of land for refugees has prompted those that were repatriated to return back and get land from the camp commandant at between at a fee.
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