By Terence Sesay

Monrovia (Liberia)-Against the backdrop of the low turnout on the
first day of the voter registration process which started Monday,
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has urged all institutions,
local officials, political parties, churches, organizations with
transportation means to assist in the process by putting their
vehicles at the disposal of eligible voters wishing to register.

Many eligible voters in the leeward counties have complained that lack
of transportation was hampering their ability to get to registration
centers and register.

“It is important that we all get involved in the process because it is
in the national interest for all eligible voters to register  now and
to exercise their franchise in the General and Presidential elections
in October,” Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Badio quoted the
Liberian leader as saying.

She welcomed initiatives by other groups, including the “Vote your
future” campaign to register voters, and expressed the hope that
citizens would take advantage of this opportunity and register.

END

By Terence Sesay

Monrovia (Liberia. January 11, 2011) – As the influx of Ivorian refugees continues into Liberia, the Libyan government has pledged to send humanitarian assistance to help cater to the refugees in a week’s time, according to Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Badio Tuesday.

More than 20,000 Ivoirians have sought refuge into Liberia since the political impasse occasioned by the disputed November 2010 elections in that country started.

According to Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Badio Tuesday, an estimated 15,000 Liberians resident in Cote d’Ivoire are expected to join the current number due to the looming political crisis in that country.

Besides, there are fears that an additional 100,000 Ivorian refugees could migrate to Liberia, in the face of Laurent Gbagbo’s
intransigence which could further worsen the political crisis in that country.

The United States Agency for International Development (USADI) has already provided  54 metric tons of relief supplies for Ivorian refugees in Liberia.

He quotes President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who ended a two-day visit to Libya at the weekend as saying that a delegation of senior officials of the Libyan African  Investment Company (LAICO) and the Libyan African Development Fund are expected to arrive in the country shortly to conclude discussions on several projects that are being funded by the Libyan government in Liberia.

End

AFGHANISTAN: Call for help for IDPs, deportees in Helmand

Photo: Akmal Dawi/IRIN

Displaced children are exposed to hunger, cold and diseases

KABUL, 10 January 2011 (IRIN) – Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from insurgency-hit Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, need food assistance urgently, officials told IRIN.

About 900 displaced families in the provincial capital Lashkargah have little or no means to feed themselves and their children this winter, according to Ghulam Farouq Noorzai, director of Helmand’s refugees and returnee affairs department.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) confirmed that of the 3,800 families displaced from Nad Ali and Marjah districts during a major counterinsurgency operation in February 2010, about 900 (300 from Nad Ali and 600 from Marjah) still remain in Lashkargah.

Despite government assurances about improved security and governance in Marjah and Nad Ali, IDPs said insecurity was impeding their return. Taliban insurgents harass and assassinate people who are deemed pro-government, launch hit-and-run attacks on Afghan and foreign troops and use improvised explosive devices which often inflict disproportionate harm on civilians.

IDPs in Lashkargah have received non-food assistance (six blankets, two plastic sheets and four jerry cans per family) from the UNHCR, said spokesman Nader Farahad.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), meanwhile, said it assisted 27,000 IDPs in Helmand Province in 2010 and that an inter-agency assessment was ongoing to gauge needs.

WFP and other UN agencies are not present in Helmand due to security restrictions but implement aid projects through local NGOs and government bodies.

From June 2009 to December 2010 over 137,000 people were displaced by armed conflict across the country. The total number of IDPs is estimated to be 335,000, including many who have been IDPs since before 2002, according to UNHCR.

Aid agencies warn that an escalation of conflict in 2011 could displace more people and lead to an increased need for protection and assistance.

Deportees from Iran

The problem in Lashkargah is being made worse by a steady influx of deportees from Iran who hail from the province or are passing through en route to their homes elsewhere, and are also seeking shelter, protection and food aid.

There are about 900,000 registered Afghan refugees in Iran as well as hundreds of thousands of unrecognized Afghan migrants. Since 2008 Iran has deported about one million illegal Afghan migrants. The UN and the Afghan government have frequently called for any deportations to take place gradually to allow conflict-hit Afghanistan to cope with the influx.

Dozens of people demonstrated in front of the Iranian embassy in Kabul on 6 January after a local TV station broadcast footage of the alleged ill-treatment of Afghan migrants by Iranian border security forces. No one at the Iranian embassy in Kabul was immediately available to comment.

Over 286,000 Afghans were expelled from Iran in 2010 – 11 percent fewer than in 2009, according to UNHCR.

“Until these people [deportees] reach their homes in Helmand or elsewhere in the country they need food, health care and other basic assistance, but we have no means to respond to their needs,” said Noorzai, head of Helmand’s refugees’ department.

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source http://www.irinnews.org

BY DENIS OCHIENG’.

The youthful Kisumu based journalist Dickens Ochieng Wasonga has joined the race for Bondo parliamentary seat. Wasonga who worked for the standard and nation media groups in the early 90s has promised to ensure devolved funds provided for the development of the constituency is utilized well for the benefit of the people of Bondo.

The journalist who currently writes for the Norway based African Press International said the most important attribute for  a leader is to ensure prudent management of public resources under them and not necessarily  how wealthy one is.

”While most of those eying different seats in the country are rich and have immense influence, I am a young and humble fellow whose only ambition is to see things change for the better in this constituency.  If those before me were able to start various development projects,mine will be to scale up what has been done and collectively I believe we will deliver.” he said.

The scribe who is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science at the Nairobi university said the government has through devolution ensured that every region gets equal allocation of resources and therefore it does not matter whether one who is elected is rich or not.

”Those who go to parliament on the strength of what they own are likely to divert money at their disposal upon their election to enrich themselves further believing that they must do so to recover what they spent during campaigns on the voters as hand outs.he said.

He asked the voters to try their hands on aspirants from humble backgrounds who have seen poverty and understands what it really means to go without food and other basic needs.

”You have elected those who have wealth and you can tell if doing so has changed your status for the better or not.  If you desire change then I stand for that and that is why I am offering my candidature.” he added.

He said he has been meeting elders from a cross the constituency but will have a major gathering at his Olago village home to officially kick-start his campaigns officially.

His entry in to the murky waters that is  Bondo politics which has been dominated by the political giants will definitely chaos jitters in some quarters .

The seat is currently held by Dr. Oburu Oginga, the first-born son of the late doyen of opposition politics Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

He got the seat in 1994 following the death of Jaramogi during a by-election also deafeating the later Dr. Odongo Omamo of KANU.

Wasonga who hails from the larger Sakwa clan said his journalistic background will come in handy for assessing the needs of the constituency he covered for over five years while working for the standard media group.

” I know this constituency fairly well and I understands the needs of various parts in terms of development.  He said if elected his first priority would be to mobilize resources to put up fish processing plants and build cold storage facilities along the major fish landing beaches of Bondo to ease out the problems currently facing fishermen from the area.

He would also use road funds to open up the landing areas for serious trade on fish and boost export of the products from the fishing industry.

The second born in a family of nine, wasonga who was born in 1979 comes from Nyangoma division of Central Sakwa in  Bondo.

End.

BURUNDI: Land key obstacle to reintegration

Photo: IRIN

Landless returnees are the most vulnerable and difficult to reintegrate, according to a Burundian official

BUJUMBURA, 10 January 2011 (IRIN) – After living abroad as refugees for years – in some cases decades – many of the half-million people who have returned to Burundi since 2002 are having to cope with a severe shortage of one of the tiny country’s most precious commodities: land.

“The issue of access and entitlement to arable land on which to undertake subsistence farming and of securing shelter [for the returnees] … are among the most acute hurdles which continue to confront returnees,” Hugues van Brabandt, associate external affairs officer for the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, told IRIN.

He added that those returning home – especially those who fled in 1972 after a rebellion prompted mass killings of Hutus – often found that the state had taken over their property.

“State-occupied land is sometimes used for exploitation of palm oil, sugar or other more lucrative crops, making land claims more intractable,” he said.

Célestin Sindibutume, the general manager in charge of repatriation, resettlement and reinsertion of IDPs and refugees in the Ministry of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender, said the landless returnees were “the most vulnerable and difficult to reintegrate”.

More than 20,000 disputes over land have been registered by the National Commission on Land and Other Properties, of which some 13,000 had been resolved, often amicably.

Manassé Havyarimana, chairman of the Bujumbura section of the commission, said his team faced the difficult task of reconciling the law and fairness.

“We have, on the one hand, the law protecting the occupant after 15 years of regular occupation if the property was acquired in a legal way, or 30 years of regular occupation whichever way the occupant got it,” Havyarimana said.
“On the other, we have a returnee who could not come to claim ownership of his property because his absence was not voluntary. You have to take the two into account.”

Compensation fund

According to Havyarimana, a compensation fund is vital.

“Some houses were sold by the government, how you can tell the occupant to evacuate them?” he said. “The compensation fund will allow Burundians to get reconciled.”

Such a fund would certainly help the likes of Pascal Mugabonihera, 70, a former refugee who returned to Burundi with his four children in September 2009.

Mugabonihera said he found private houses built on his cassava field on the border of Ntahangwa River in Bujumbura.

Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

A group of returnees aboard a UNHCR lorry. According to a UNHCR official, long periods of exile exposes returnees to social dislocation

“I was told it was government property; there is no way to get the field back,” he said. “Another plot I owned is now occupied by priests. They have refused to tell me who they bought it from. I have no evidence for it but I am sure there are traces at the land registry agency, but I know there is no hope.

“I have been in the country for two years now but I have no right to my properties, yet when I was repatriated, I was told I would live in my own houses.”

Mugabonihera had counted on a compound he had in Nyakabiga suburb in Bujumbura but the occupants refused to leave, saying it was theirs as they had lived there for so long.

Despite the commission ruling that the plot be restituted to Mugabonihera, he has still to recover it.

Other options

The returnees have been encouraged to form associations which would help them initiate income-generating projects.

“For those associations, the ministry gives them a reintegration kit; it might be cash to start a project, and it might be a mill, a welding machine depending on the beneficiaries’ potential,” Sindibutume said.

The government and its partners have also initiated integrated rural villages to settle landless returnees and other vulnerable people.

According to UNHCR, eight such villages have been constructed since 2008.

As Burundi moves from a post-conflict phase to a development phase, many facilities such as health, sanitation, education and road facilities have not kept up and remain in deplorable conditions.

Van Brabandt said multilateral donor support to communal development plans, “which is still low, needs to be improved in almost all areas of return”.

He said the long periods of exile also exposed refugees to social dislocation. Some lost family members. In addition, some – especially returnees born in exile – are “culturally and linguistically alienated and this also complicates their reintegration.

“The chronically ill, persons with disabilities, hearing, speech and sight impediments; single elderly persons as well as survivors of gender-based violence, belong to categories at particular risk and whose needs are yet to be properly addressed through a comprehensive national policy and/or legal framework,” Van Brabandt said.

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source http://www.irinnews.org