UN chief to meet Garang to discuss repatriation of refugees

KHARTOUM, Nov 12 (AFP) — UN refugee chief Ruud Rubbers left here Wednesday for southern Sudan for talks with rebel leader John Garang about repatriating some 570,000 refugees from neighboring countries once a peace deal is reached.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was to meet Garang at a locality near the border with Kenya before flying back to Khartoum later Wednesday, UNHCR public information coordinator Khalid Abdu Dahab said.

When he arrived here Tuesday, Lubbers conferred with President Omar al-Beshir on plans to repatriate more than 570,000 refugees from seven neighbouring countries, SUNA news agency quoted a Sudanese official as saying.

Uganda hosts around 223,000 Sudanese refugees, making it the largest host.

Interior State Minister Ahmed Mohamed al-Aas, who is in charge of the refugee affairs, told SUNA that Lubbers announced at the meeting he would launch a global fund-raising campaign to finance the resettlement of refugees.

The resettlement programmes include educational, health and water services for reintegration of the returnees in both government-held and rebel-held areas, said another Sudanese official who attended the meeting.

Ruud Lubbers was scheduled to make a tour on Thursday of Eritrean refugee camps in Kassala and Gedaref in eastern Sudan, the UNHCR office added.

Sudan’s war erupted in 1983 when Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) took up arms against Khartoum to end domination of the mainly Christian and animist south by the Arabised, Muslim north.

More than 1.5 million people have been killed and more than four million people displaced in the conflict.

The government and SPLA have made dramatic progress toward ending the war during the last 15 months of negotiations in Kenya, with the US government expecting a final settlement to be signed by the end of the year.