UNHCR To Relocate Rwandan Soldiers

By Emmy Allio and Grace Matsiko THE United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is reviewing the status of renegade Rwandan army officers before considering relocating them to a third country, an official of the agency has said. “We have been formally approached by the Uganda Government to help in resettling the Rwandan officers,” UNHCR spokesperson Bushra Jafar Malik said yesterday. Bushra said, “We are currently reviewing their status and the situation. We are reviewing the officers on individual basis.” Early this week, the Government said it had asked the UNHCR to assist in resettling an undisclosed number of renegade Rwandan army officers in Uganda to a third country. But an official of the UNHCR office in Nairobi told IRIN that the agency would first have to determine if the Rwandan officers were eligible for refugee status before proceeding. He said further discussions with the Government were underway to determine this. “That’ll have to be looked at very closely,” the official said. Ends