[refugee-rights] World Refugee Day: Guterres lauds Sudan repatriation as a bright spot in the region

*** Learn more about World Refugee Day, 20 June 2007:
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/world-refugee-day.php 

KAJO KEJI, Sudan, June 19 (UNHCR) -- Warning that "life will not be
easy," UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on
Monday joined more than 160 refugees on their return home to South
Sudan after years in exile in neighbouring Uganda. 

Guterres, on a three-day mission to Africa to mark World Refugee Day
on Wednesday said the repatriation to South Sudan was one of the few
bright spots in a region that has seen far too much displacement. 

"It was a great honour to be with you today as you returned home
after so many years in exile," the High Commissioner told the
refugees at UNHCR's Kangai Way Station in South Sudan. "The people of
southern Sudan suffered a lot.... But now there is peace. Peace is
the most important thing. All things are possible with peace." 

Guterres joined the long convoy of UNHCR vehicles as it set off from
Moyo in northern Uganda carrying 161 refugees, several loads of
household goods and one truckload of goats. He climbed aboard one of
the trucks to ride with the returnees. About two hours later, the
convoy was greeted by dozens of singing and dancing Sudanese as the
vehicles pulled into Kangai after the rough and dusty journey over
extremely bad roads. 

At Kangai, the returning refugees received a bundle of aid items,
food stocks and information on landmines and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Later, a few of the returnee families boarded trucks for the short
journey back to their home villages. 

Guterres accompanied a family of five back to their farm near Kajo
Keji, a town in Sudan's Central Equatoria state. Helene Akorga and
her husband fled South Sudan in 1987 and were returning with their
four children. They were greeted by relatives and neighbours as they
walked a final few hundred metres along a dirt path flanked by fields
of maize and peanuts overlooking a lush, green valley. Despite the
beautiful surroundings, life is hard for the returnees who are going
home to a region devastated by more than two decades of conflict. 

"Life will not be easy; you will face many difficulties," the High
Commissioner told the returnees, the latest of nearly 155,000 South
Sudanese who have gone home from nearby countries since December
2005. 

Guterres said the international community "needs to express
solidarity with South Sudan" and do all it can to ensure that the
tens of thousands of refugees choosing to go home can stay home. 

"You are going back home and you need to have education for your
children, health care for your families, agricultural land for
farming and other support," he said. "All of this is only possible if
there is strong solidarity from the international community." 

By Ron Redmond 
in Kajo Keji, Sudan



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