Eba Kandovazu 

United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Namibia, Hopolang Phororo, said they cannot revisit files dating back to 1989 regarding the resettlement and rehabilitation of more than 40 000 Namibian refugees. 

The matter is closed, she added.

This response follows accusations from the Former Refugees Repatriation Association of Namibia that the UN failed to account for N$21.7 million intended for reintegrating Namibian returnees after their repatriation from exile in 1989.

In a meeting with the group this week, Phororo said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) successfully conducted the repatriation of former Namibian refugees, and the returnees were received by the country of origin with a view to having them integrated and rehabilitated by their government.

“If there were additional resources or finance at that point in time, it was sent back to Geneva, and the UNCHR could not go back and start getting the same money back again. The case was closed, and we cannot go back and take those files from many years ago,” she stressed.

Phororo said the UNCHR residual protection mandate on repatriation programmes was limited to returnees being returned in safety and dignity to their country of origin.

“The country of origin was tasked with an effective reintegration programme. That was the mandate of the UNCHR at that point in time,” she added.

Despite the many letters from the refugee association, nothing could be done, as the UN had exhausted all possibilities.

“This is now an issue of the Republic of Namibia. We can’t do anything about it, even if you take the letters to the UN Secretary General, the UNHCR boss in Geneva, it is going to be the same thing. This is exhausted, as far as the UN is involved. Maybe the minister of veterans affairs can look at it,” she said.

In response, the association’s president Matheus Nangolo said although the UN’s repatriation programme was successful, the resettlement and rehabilitation had failed.

“What happened to the budgets of these programmes? The reasonable thing to do is that the UNHCR must provide the funds which were originally allocated so that we can complete the process it failed to implement in 1989,” he remarked.

Executive director in the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation Penda Naanda, who also attended the meeting, informed the group that the government was not involved in the roll-out of any assistance package, as it did not exist in 1989. He said he would assist the association in drafting a letter to seek an audience with minister of veterans affairs, Frans Kapofi.

-Nampa