The Rwandan Refugee Community has expressed gratitude to the Zambian government over its initiative to offer a local integration of refugees.

This follows the proposed removal of their refugee status by government and the UNHCR at the end of June 2013.

In a statement, the community stated that the offer of local integration was a new development, and particularly important for 22,000 Angolan refugees whose refugee status ends at the end of June 2012.

It called for dialogue among stakeholders to also enable some Angolan refugees that had been in the country for 40 years to also benefit from the local integration once agreed upon.

It stated that this development would have a positive impact on the much smaller Rwandan community a year later.

The community stated that it was further comforted by the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC)’s views on the cessation of Rwandan refugees status as stated in their first pastoral letter issued on January 29 , 2012 which opposed any suggestion of forced repatriation, clearly expressing that it was not timely to facilitate the removal of the Rwandan refugee status.

It stated that it shared the same views as ZEC of not only offering refugees a local integration but ensuring that they enjoyed their freedom of movement and employment, considering that the refugee population had greatly declined.

It condemned the predictable negative responses from the Rwandan permanent secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and Refugee Affairs and the president of the Council of the Protestant Churches of Rwanda on their remarks in response to the ZEC pastoral letter.

It stated that their reaction to the ZEC pastoral letter was a reflection that the so-called reconciliation had not achieved anything as perceived by many, owing to a biased media which is under the heavy control and censorship of the Rwandese government.

source: http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=26693
.