Refugees: EA Could Become
a 'Terror Centre' Soon
THE EASTAFRICAN
EAST AFRICA risks attracting terrorist attacks and becoming a theatre in the war against terror unless its governments improve their handling of refugees, a group of international human-rights lawyers have warned.
At a workshop held in Entebbe last week, lawyers pointed out that the failure by governments to put more funds into the screening of non-combatant from combatant asylum seekers was leading to terror cells developing in the region.
A group called Al-Itihaad is said to be recruiting and training fundamentalist Muslims in parts of Kenya. Interviews conducted in camps among Somali refugees in Kenya raised the possibility that the Al-Itihaad fighters were recruiting and training at the Dadaab camp.
Researchers say that fundamentalists take advantage of the hands-off approach of the governments of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania toward refugees. This, they warned, could make the region, which experienced terrorist attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998, even more vulnerable.
"Located strategically in a volatile and violent Greater Horn of Africa that is characterised by weak and collapsing states, East Africa is poised to become a key anchor in the anti-terrorist campaign," said Monica Kathina Juma, a researcher on refugee affairs in Kenya working for the Centre for Refugee Studies.
The workshop was organised by the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and was sponsored by the Stanley Foundation under the theme, "Refugee Protection in Africa." It drew participants from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, the United States and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
To avert a crisis, the workshop recommended that East Africa adopt, among others, measures taken by West African states, which do not keep refugees confined to remote camps but allow them to integrate into society and seek gainful employment.
"Studies have repeatedly shown that despite the availability of food aid and services in places of encampment, people prefer freedom and the autonomy to decide and rebuild their own lives," the workshop said, adding that government bureaucracies maintained camps in order to attract funding from rich countries.
"To counter what some Somali refugees see as the machinations of America to punish Somalis for their acts against the American-led UN campaign against Farah Aideed in 1993, Somali refugees have begun to conduct religious training that is akin to Taliban-styled madrassa classes in refugee camps, allegedly in preparation for defending Islam and Somali nationhood," Ms Juma said.
Kenya does not define itself as a refugee destination, but as a transit country, while Tanzania, once seen as a haven, has since the Rwandese influx of 1994, cut back on its refugee population.
At the same time, the countries do not have the capacity to monitor the movement of asylum seekers across borders, making their borders and coastlines vulnerable to trafficking.
"Sections of refugees are increasingly getting involved in legal as well as illegal cross-border trade in narcotics, small arms and light weapons, contraband, mineral and precious stones," Ms Juma said. "Criminal or terrorist networks can exploit these legal and illegal conduits."
The workshop also pointed out that the war on terror was likely to lead to large numbers of refugees from Sudan and the Horn of Africa, whom the region's governments had no capacity to screen or feed.
It pointed out that the status of refugees in the region was at its lowest, resulting in despondency and involvement in illegal activities.
Government officials at the workshop blamed cutbacks by donor nations for their inability to deal effectively with refugee problems. Uganda Commissioner for Refugees Carlos Twesigomwe said that it was impossible for governments to separate genuine asylum seekers from armed combatants, a process he said was too costly.
Already, Western warships are patrolling the Horn of Africa in the hunt for fighters of the Al Qaeda network blamed for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Somalia has also been a target hunting for terrorists � the Al Barrakat money transfer system suffered closure following suspicion that it was being used as a conduit for terror funds.
By keeping them in remote camps where security cannot be guaranteed, Uganda's controversial camps are dangerous places for refugees, some of whom escape to urban centres. The camps are also located in places close to rebel activity in western and northern Uganda.
It is genuine refugees, participants at the workshops said, who suffer the most. Instead of trying to separate them from possible war criminals, governments were turning their backs on them.
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