Proyce Muleyi
7 November 2009
KATANGA Province deputy governor Yav Tshibal has urged Congolese refugees in Zambia who are scared of settling in the areas they fled during the civil war to first return home before they could choose their alternative settlement.
Addressing Congolese refugees at Mwange Refugee Camp in Mporokoso on Thursday, Mr Tshibal said the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was over and a new government had been put in place following recent elections.
The refugees had asked Mr Tshibal whether there was respect for human rights in the DRC.
The refugees also said that they did not want to go back to the areas they fled because of the trauma they went through.
Some of the refugees complained that they were being provided with 10 roofing sheets as part of the repatriation package and wondered if such a number of roofing sheets could roof a proper house.
Others said they had heard that unemployment was high in the DRC and expressed worry that they would not be able to get jobs.
In response, the governor said the refugees should return to the areas where they came from and thereafter they could decide where to settle.
"Congo is your country so go home and you can think of where to go after that," he said.
Mr Tshibal said the government had embarked on several programmes to reconstruct the DRC after the war.
"I beg you to go back home. UNHCR in Congo is prepared to receive you in peace. There is no more war. The country is peaceful," he said.
Mr Tshibal asked the refugees to go home and help in the reconstruction process.
He said the problem of unemployment was a global one which did not only affect the DRC.
Mr Tshibal said in his province, Katanga, there was no war and that it was peaceful.
He thanked the Zambian Government for the hospitality and urged the Congolese not to overstay now that the war was over.
A representative for the refugees said they were willing to go back home.
The delegation from the DRC thanked the UNHCR and the Zambian Government for the assistance rendered to the Congolese refugees since their arrival in Zambia in 1998.
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