Bujumbura - Burundian refugees cannot begin returning home from Tanzania until a lasting ceasefire takes hold in the Central African country, a United Nations refugee official said on Wednesday.
"The UN refugee agency wants there to be a lasting ceasefire and a start to a solution to the question of land for the repatriates before committing itself fully to the repatriation of Burundi refugees," an UN official who wanted to remain anonymous told reporters.
Another official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Stephano Severe, also said the time was not right for accelerated repatriation efforts.
"It is not a question of logistics, but a matter of finding the opportune time," he told reporters after a meeting of a tripartite commission made up of representatives from the two countries and the UNHCR.
Their comments came as talks in South Africa to revive a faltering ceasefire deal between the Burundi government and the main Hutu rebel movement were making little progress, amid new reports of fighting and the flight of some 15 000 civilians from their homes.
Following an August 2000 peace deal that provides for ethnic power-sharing, President Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, took over as the head of Burundi's transitional government in May this year.
But a ceasefire agreed between the government and the Forces for the Defence of Dmocracy (FDD) last December has never been implemented, with each side accusing the other of violations.
More than 100 000 Burundians have been repatriated from Tanzania since the start of the UNHCR programme in March 2002, of whom nearly half returned in the first seven months of this year.
The camps in Tanzania host about half a million refugees from Burundi, including 200 000 in a first wave who fled ethnic massacres in 1972 and another 300 000 who fled the current civil war.
Refugees "cause trouble and are an enormous burden for the Tanzanians", Tanzania's Deputy Interior Minister John Chiligati said Wednesday. "We would now like to see them return to Burundi."
Repatriation Minister Francoise Ngendahayo said a final report was awaited on a study into the land problem. - Sapa-AFP