TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 21

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64. Mozambique had only just achieved independence when the influx which was to reach 150 000 - began, and was having to cope with the problems of vast numbers of its own people internally displaced by the pre-independence conflict. Zambia for its part had been receiving influxes of refugees from Angola, South Africa and Zaire for years. The Governments of both countries addressed appeals for assistance

appeals for assistance to UNHCR and other international bodies. Temporary reception or transit centres had to be set up as a matter of urgency and basic relief provided. Subsequently, longer-term forms of assistance were devised jointly by the Governments,

by the Governments, the liberation move- ments and UNHCR working closely with various voluntary bodies. In Mozambique, PF/ZANU-operated refugee transit centres were set up,

one of which (Gondola centre, essentially an edu- cational centre as practically all its 5 000 inhabitants were children of school age) was tragically destroyed by Southern Rhodesian forces, with much loss of life; the other (Xai-Xai centre in Gaza province) was closed for security reasons. Five rural settlements were established under the Government's National Centre for Support to Refugees and Liberation Movem- ents, in which, despite the young age of many of their inhabi- tants, the refugees might have become self-supporting after two or three crop cycles, had' not air and ground attacks by Rhodesian forces deep into Mozambique, frequent and destructive enough to instil a constant fear of attack, caused the Zimbabwean exiles to abandon their fields after the first few raids in 1977. The situation, further complicated by drought which affected the whole of southern Africa, called for substantial amounts of international aid, including WFP food, over a period of about four years.

65. In Zambia, where all concerned parties mainly the Government, PF/ZANU and PF/ZAPU, UNHCR, ICRC and the Christian Council of Zambia - sought to provide emergency relief, accom- modation, schooling and medical attention for the increasing numbers of young Zimbabweans, the refugee centres were also the targets of military attacks. These flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions were designed to wipe out guerrilla bases operating against the régime in Salisbury, to ensure the security of Rhodesia's borders and to weaken the Patriotic Front. In the process, they caused

they caused untold material and psychological damage to refugees and set back aspects of the aid programme. In Botswana, the Government played an important role in establishing for the Zimbabweans transit, reception and residential centres at Francistown and Selebe Pikwe, as well as

agricultural settlement at Dukwe which developed

into a successful community