REFUGEE VOICES: BURUNDIAN INTERNALLY DISPLACED WOMEN VULNERABLE TO SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

April 28, 2004 – (Refygee International) The Burundian government and the international community are attentively focused on the mass repatriation of Burundian refugees from Tanzania. While such attention for returnees is justified, the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Burundi remains precarious. According to UN estimates, 281,000 people remain in IDP camps. Tens of thousands of others who fled their homes in Kebezi district south of Bujumbura as a result of recent fighting live with host families or in the bush.

The return of IDPs to their villages may be endangered and may even exacerbate the violence if they do not benefit from the repatriation and reintegration process. A large number of the IDPs in the country are Tutsis and are anxious about living with their Hutu neighbors, many of whom fled during the civil war and are now returning home with UNHCR's help. The overwhelming attention given to returnees has prompted some IDPs in Gitega Province to ask whether the international community and their government has deserted them or care about their safe return home.

When Refugees International visited the Itankoma IDP camp in Gitega, many of the 500 displaced expressed frustration and a sense of neglect by their government, but particularly by the international community. Five women RI interviewed complained about hunger and sexual exploitation by military personnel who were supposed to be providing protection in the camp. The women spoke to RI while sitting next to each other in the dark little mud hut of Silvier, head of the women in the camp. Often their babies distracted them during the interview.

According to the women, the only food ration they received was in May of 2003 from the World Food Programme (WFP). The Anglican Church has given them some food and materials to cultivate. Silvier told RI, ?The NGOs used to help us. They seemed to care about us, but now they have focused all their attention on the returnees. This makes us feel bad. We see returnees going up into the hills with food and we do not have food to eat.? Although the IDPs received some farming tools to help themselves, what they get from cultivating the plots is not enough to sustain their families.

Most of the women RI talked to were widows. Their husbands were killed during the decade-long civil war. The recent lack of support by the Burundian government and the international community will make IDPs more vulnerable to exploitation. IDP women have been induced in the past into giving sexual favors to military officers in exchange for food, money, and material goods such as clothes. Marie-Golette, one of the women interviewed said, "After the girls have sex with the soldiers in the camp, they get pregnant, and then they are abandoned by the men, leaving them with their children to raise all by themselves."

The issue of hunger and exploitation raised by the women reflect the deep feelings and sense of abandonment they feel. Françoise, the youngest among the women, who was forced to have sex with an officer in exchange for food, told RI, "It was consensual sex, but I was forced because of circumstances and difficulties, I got clothing and other things that I wanted from the officer. But as soon as I got pregnant the officer abandoned me. My son is now 15 months old, I still remain poor like the others and no longer get the things I used to get."

The situation in Burundi is still unstable for some IDPs to return totheir villages. Silvier told RI, ?I believe there is no peace in Burundi because most of the people are still displaced.? The Burundian authorities and the international community, while they focus on the return of Burundian refugees, also need to consider the enormous challenges and difficulties facing IDPs.

From: http://www.refugeesinternational.org/cgi-bin/ri/voice?voc=00206&spotlight=1