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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Relief and Repatriation: Views by Rwandan Refugees; Lessons for Humanitarian Aid Workers |
Author: | Pottier, Johan |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume: | 95 |
Issue: | 380 |
Period: | July |
Pages: | 403-429 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Congo (Democratic Republic of) Rwanda Tanzania |
Subjects: | refugees Rwandans Miscellaneous (i.e. Demography, Refugees, Sports) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/723574 |
Abstract: | In 1995 the author carried out research among Rwandan refugees in Ngara (Tanzania) and Goma (Zaire) in order to access their views on various aspects of the emergency assistance provided. The research was carried out under the auspices of the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda, undertaken on behalf of a Steering Committee comprising 37 agencies. The author focuses on two relief sectors: food aid and community services, and examines the linkages between food aid, community services and repatriation. He shows that a year into the (new) Rwandan refugee crisis, Rwandan Hutu refugees had come to believe, more strongly than ever, that the UN, most NGOs and the new government in Kigali were linked in conspiracy. In addition, refugees felt that UNHCR officials, along with most aid workers, were (and remain) ignorant when it came to grasping the complexities of Rwandan politics. Humanitarian agencies continually fail to situate those who claim to speak for the majority of refugees. Rather than investigate the political scene in the camps, they adopt a learn-on-the-job approach. The author argues that the value of community mobilization should be recognized from the start of an emergency, because the majority of the refugees regard social breakdown as part of the emergency, and social reconstruction as part of the response required. Notes, ref. |