THE voluntary repatriation of Congolese refugees which was suspended last year because of adverse weather conditions will resume next month, Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Ndiyoyi Mutiti has said.

Ms Mutiti said in Lusaka yesterday at a tripartite meeting on the voluntary repatriation of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that the meeting would discuss the repatriation to take place this year.

The meeting chaired by Ms Mutiti was attended by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) led by country representative James Lynch and DRC delegation led by Byanza Sanda general secretary of the ministry of Interior and Security.

The permanent secretary said that with the prevailing peace and stability in DRC, the Zambian Government would focus on the implementation of the organised repatriation in line with international standards.

"It is gratifying to note that in the last two years of implementing the repatriation programme, some 17,015 Congolese refugees have been assisted to repatriate and integrated in their local communities," she said.

She added that there was need to be consistent with the strategies and measures that had been put in place because the biggest challenge facing the exercise was sustaining the momentum for refugees to return home.

Ms Mutiti said that refugees needed to be informed on the conducive situation prevailing in their country so that more could make free and informed decisions to return.

She called on the international community to continue rendering social, economic and political support to the Congolese government especially that it was a country emerging from conflict.

She also commended the efforts of the Congolese government in restoring peace and that the process needed building of confidence in refugees for them to return.

She said that the repatriation intention survey indicated that the numbers of those willing to repatriate was impressive and the meeting was in a position to adopt a realistic target figure for this year's exercise.

The DRC delegation leader Mr Sanda said after peace was restored in his country, a tripartite agreement was signed and in 2007 more than 17,000 Congolese returned.

Mr Sanda said that the security situation in the eastern DRC was positive and encouraged Congolese to return home.

He said that the UNHCR should assist the Congolese government in reintegrating its nationals because the zones of return were safe.

Mr Lynch said that the repatriation exercise was started in 2007 but it was suspended because of bad weather conditions.