afrol News / IRIN, 30 November - Eight years after a failed secessionist bid in the Caprivi Strip of northern Namibia, many refugees who fled the short-lived conflict are still in the Dukwi refugee camp in Botswana, fearing poverty and persecution if they return to their homeland.

About 3,000 Namibians fled into Botswana during skirmishes between the separatist Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA) and the national army in late 1999. Although around 700 refugees have been repatriated since 2003, many of those in Botswana are waiting anxiously to hear how the 22 who returned to Caprivi two weeks ago are being treated.

The returning Namibians included four children whose parents died in exile, and four men in ambulances, who have been receiving care in their Dukwi homes, and have probably returned home to spend their final days.

Jack Redden, spokesman for UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, said most of the Caprivians returned home at the end of the conflict. "Out of the 3,000 refugees in Botswana, a third of them are Namibians ... from Caprivi, who have been very reluctant to go back home."

There could be a multitude of reasons for the Caprivians' reluctance to go home. "While it is very difficult for us to say, anecdotally they still don't feel very comfortable about returning - it could also be that after living in Botswana for years it has become home," Redden said.

"We all want to go home, but no one knows what will happen to us once we get there," said Ivan Muchali, a resettled refugee in Francistown, Botswana's second city. "We have friends and relatives who went back home voluntarily in 1999 but were arrested as separatist rebels on arrival. Some of them are still being held to this day, so everyone asks themselves if they have to go back and die."

The Namibian government arrested 50 returnees and charged them with high treason in November 1999, claiming they were either secessionist rebels or collaborators.

Poverty has also influenced the pace of the voluntary repatriation exercise. "The problem is that we do not know what awaits us - all the people know that the Caprivi Strip is underdeveloped and poverty stricken. After living ... in Dukwi and elsewhere in Botswana, many people do not see anything left to go back to in the Caprivi. The government is not developing our region, so we will still face the same problems when we go back," said Melen Mayundu, another resettled refugee.

According to a poverty profile assessment by Namibia's National Planning Commission with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme, "Caprivi is the poorest region in the country."

© afrol News / IRIN

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