03/30/2004

RI interviewed this woman, Kizoya, who had returned with the second batch of returnees from Tanzania on March 11. She was the first person to meet the RI team at the gate and complained that her belongings had been stolen at the Gisuru reception center. She had no relatives in the group at the transit center; neither did she have relatives in Mugina, her home commune or in Tanzania where she lived for 4-years. Kizoya’s parents were killed during the war. Many Burundians who fled to Tanzania were unaccompanied minors, many of whom lost their parents during the war. They languished in the refugee camps without relatives, vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse.