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Return of refugees encourages attendees of food conference
November 15, 1996
Web posted at: 8:40 p.m. EST (0140 GMT)From Correspondent Richard Roth
ROME (CNN) -- World leaders Friday attended a United Nations food security conference even as tens of thousands of refugees left Zaire for their homes in Rwanda.
"We must not and we will not ignore the need to separate refugees from militias, and to create conditions for voluntary repatriation for refugees," said Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, Britain's Minister for Overseas Development.
Such voluntary repatriation was already underway in Central Africa. Large numbers of refugees were headed home to Rwanda, the place they had fled to escape ethnic violence two years ago.
At the World Food Summit in Rome, organized by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the head of the World Food Program praised the refugees decision to return.
"It's very good news, because our interest -- all of our interests -- are to help people go home," said Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Program.
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Rwanda's prime minister discussed the situation with his Irish counterpart, who is also head of the European Union.
"This means that beyond the return of the refugees and the separation of the armed elements of the old army of intimidators, we need to find a durable solution for this part of Central Africa," said Rwandan Prime Minister Pierre Celestin Rwigema.
Despite the massive refugee return, the Irish prime minister said it was too soon to revise plans for the intervening multinational force.
"We don't know how many are returning," said Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, President of the European Union.
"We don't know about the other refugees, and I think we need to bear in mind that there is a situation of considerable potential danger in eastern Zaire at the present time."
After a long day, the last nation to speak was Burundi, whose own nation has been wracked by violence. The prime minister said only peace will solve the region's refugee problem.
FAO estimates that 75 percent more food will have to be produced in the next 30 years as the world's population surges from 5.7 billion to 8.7 billion by 2030. But the agency also says enough food is now grown to feed the world despite chronic hunger and malnutrition among nearly 14 percent of its people, most of them in less developed countries.
The five-day summit opened Wednesday, and the contrast between plenty and poverty has been a theme running throughout. The humanitarian crisis in eastern Zaire threatened to dwarf the dreams of the food summit organizers.
But the large-scale return of refugees may lend an air of optimism in the closing days of the conference, and allow delegates to focus on long-term problems.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Rwandan refugees streaming back to their homeland - November 15, 1996
- World Food Summit opens with plea for Zaire refugees - November 13, 1996
Related sites:
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- Famine and war
- The Care Organization
- American Red Cross: Crisis in Eastern Zaire
- Zaire Watch
- U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
- Rwanda Page
- City.Net:Zaire
- Save The Children
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