Khartoum says south Sudan safe for refugee return

KAMPALA, March 27 (Reuters) – Southern Sudan is at peace and refugees should not be scared of returning home, despite two attacks by gunmen on United Nations compounds there this month, a Sudanese government official said on Monday.

Khartoum’s state interior minister Brig. Aleu Avieny Aleu said the estimated 200,000 Sudanese refugees in Uganda should not fear the cult-like Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, who are Ugandan but have long used hideouts in southern Sudan.

“They are not affecting you when you go home, and they should not be the reason for you not to go home,” he said in the Ugandan capital Kampala. “You will be protected.”

Aleu was signing an agreement with Ugandan authorities and the U.N. refugee agency that sets up a legal framework for the first voluntary repatriations of Sudanese who fled to Uganda.

But those moves have been put on hold after the violence.

The March 19 attack on the U.N. site in Yambio, which officials say was most likely carried out by the LRA, injured two Bangladeshi U.N. troops and triggered the first deadly exchange of fire by the peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan.

On Monday, UNHCR director of Sudanese operations Jean-Marie Fakhouri told reporters the raid the week before on the UNHCR compound in Yei — which killed a guard — was the work of robbers striking he called a “juicy target”.

PLANES, TRUCKS READY

His U.N. agency had been preparing for the return of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees from surrounding countries after a peace deal between the government and southern rebels in January 2005 that ended more than two decades of war.

“I am committed to starting the (repatriation) operation again in the blink of an eye,” Fakhouri said.

“We are ready. The planes are there. The trucks are there to start on April 3 or 4. But we do need to ensure things are much better on the ground… We cannot compromise on security.”

Repatriations of Sudanese from Central African Republic began in early February, while the same programme was supposed to start in Democratic Republic of Congo last week, but was delayed after the fresh violence in Yambio and Yei.

Voluntary returns from Uganda had been due to begin next week. The repatriation of Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia is not affected by the suspension and is due to start on Friday.