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by Kevin J. Kelley, Nation Correspondant
Summary: The Dadaab refugee camps have
become a "nerve centre for arms trafficking" throughout East
Africa, an investigator working for a Washington-based
advocacy group says.
Story Filed: Sunday, November 19, 2000 1:21 PM EST
Nairobi (The Nation, November 18, 2000) -
The Dadaab refugee
camps have become a "nerve centre for arms trafficking"
throughout East Africa, an investigator working for a
Washington-based advocacy group says.
Weapons smuggled into and out of the camps "are making their
way to the four corners of Kenya", contributing to the
growth of violent crime, says the researcher, who collected
testimony from Dadaab residents for two months.
Working under the auspices of the Fund for Peace, a US human
rights group, researcher Kathi Austin is calling on both the
Kenyan Government and the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees to crack down on banditry and paramilitary
activity in the camps, home to some 127,000 mainly Somali
refugees.
The UN agency should be "forthright about the problem of
arms and armed elements" in Dadaab, Austin said in a
November 13 letter to Sadako Ogata, the UN's top official
for refugee affairs.
Austin, a specialist on issues pertaining to arms
trafficking in Africa, is also urging Kenyan authorities to
investigate and punish what she describes as "rampant
corruption among local officials" in the area. "It was my
experience that the police are part of the problem," Austin
said in an interview shortly after her return to Washington
DC from Kenya.
Criminal gangs operating out of the Dadaab camps are
responsible for "all sorts of illicit activity affecting
downtown Nairobi," Austin says. The weapons traffickers
"operate a sophisticated radio network linking Somalia, the
camps and Nairobi," she reports.
In addition to smuggling arms to Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and
the Sudan, the Dadaab-based gangs are having "a worrying
impact on Kenya internally," the researcher warns.
The Government's support for certain factions inside Somalia
"could be blowing back and affecting Kenya itself," Austin
suggests.
Much of the arms trafficking and violence in the Dadaab
camps can be linked to various clans that have been fighting
for supremacy within Somalia and for control over the
smuggling routes from Somalia into Kenya, she says.
The Government has largely neglected the border region
because of its mostly ethnic-Somali population, Austin
contends.
Kenya's policy has "emphasised security over development" in
the region, but some of the governmental and international
funds intended to improve the security situation in and
around the camps "are being siphoned off by corrupt local
officials," Austin charges.
As documentation for her claims, Austin and a videographer
gathered testimony from refugees living in the camps. One
such source, a 33- year-old Ethiopian named Solomon Ayalew,
was murdered by armed men 10 days after he told Austin that
his Hagadera camp had become a hub for gangs that prey on
minorities living there. According to Austin, Ayalew said he
had reported threats on his life to local UN officials,
including Shahana Kaninda, the camp protection officer, and
Vedasto Joseph Msewiga, the Dadaab sub-office director.
The UN refuse protection office "must take more seriously
threats to the lives of minorities and vulnerable
population, promptly investigate their cases, and move or
resettle them to secure areas," Austin says in her letter to
UN High Commissioner Ogata.
While unable to provide an estimate of the number of people
killed in the Dadaab camps in recent months, Austin does
cite an "appalling level of violence" among the refugees
there. Humanitarian aid workers are among those threatened
by the criminal activities in the camps, she adds.
(http://www.allAfrica.com)
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