This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DJIBOUTI 000054 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
LONDON, PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: DJ PREF PREL SO
SUBJECT: REFUGEE REPATRIATIONS IN DJIBOUTI: CHAOTIC BUT 
ACHIEVED 
 
REF: 04 DJIBOUTI 01473 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary.  ConOff and a USAID representative 
observed UNHCR-directed refugee repatriations November 24 in 
Djibouti.  The process was disorganized and confrontational, 
and fraud was blatant.  But in the end, the day resulted in 
511 refugees repatriated from the Ali Addeh refugee camp in 
Djibouti to northern Somalia.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) On November 24, ConOff and a USAID representative 
accompanied UNHCR and the Djiboutian National Organization 
for Assistance to Refugees and Disaster Victims (ONARS) to 
witness the repatriation of 79 refugee families (511 
individuals) to northern Somalia, the relatively politically 
stable area known as Somaliland.  They had all been living in 
the Ali Addeh refugee camp in southern Djibouti for as much 
as 15 years.  The repatriation was one of a number of such 
events designed to return all refugees to Somaliland and 
close the refugee camps in Djibouti by 2006. 
 
¶3.  (U) The evening before the repatriation, the refugees 
arrived at a staging area outside the city of Djibouti.  They 
had been brought in trucks, complete with all the belongings 
they were taking back to Somaliland.  At the staging area, 
the trucks were filled with the repatriation package allotted 
to each family.  The package, varying slightly based on 
family size, consisted of 9 months worth of staple foods, 
cooking utensils, sleeping mats, protective tarps, etc. 
Packages also included U.S.  dollars, which were only to be 
distributed immediately prior to departure.  Each family was 
assigned to a truck according to their destination within 
Somaliland.  One truck was left empty as a precaution in case 
any other vehicle broke down en route. 
 
¶4.  (U) Observers arrived shortly after 9:00am.  We observed 
men leaving the staging area &in protest8 urged on by an 
elderly leader.  They were upset that a refugee had been 
arrested the previous evening after an altercation with local 
police.  According to UNHCR representatives (translating for 
Embassy personnel) the men declared solidarity with the 
arrestee and refused to leave without him.  (Comment.  ConOff 
believes the men waited until the arrival of the observers, 
to emphasize their point.  Most of the men only went about 
100 meters down the road and then sat under a tree to wait 
for resolution. End Comment.) 
 
¶5.  (U) Shortly after the men left, the women began 
organizing in groups to protest the food included in the 
package.  One older woman started inciting the others, 
declaring that the flour was old.  The arguments continued 
for more than an hour, and moved to other topics such as the 
substitution of dried peas for beans (they had been promised 
beans, but only peas were available at the time.) They 
demanded more cooking oil in place of the beans.  Oil is a 
more salable commodity, translating easily to cash. 
 
¶6.  (U) At some point during the argument, one of the women 
revealed to UNHCR that the man arrested was not from Ali 
Addeh, and therefore not eligible to be repatriated with this 
convoy.  While this argument was taking place, UNHCR 
employees were comparing names on the list from the camp of 
individuals that had volunteered for the convoy and turned in 
their ration cards, to the pink slips that they were given in 
exchange for the ration cards.  The double-checking was to 
precede the distribution of cash.  The process brought 
significant discrepancies to light.  About 20% more pink 
slips were presented than appeared on the official lists. 
This led to another heated argument.  The head of ONARS 
accused UNHCR of incompetence in running a repatriation 
operation.  The UNHCR employees became indignant and said 
they couldn't control fraud, and insisted that their 
signatures had been forged on the pink slips. 
 
¶7.  (U) It was decided that individuals not appearing on the 
original list would not be transported with this convoy. 
Food that had been allocated to them earlier that day was now 
unloaded from the trucks and two trucks were designated to 
return those stores to the warehouse in Djibouti.  This 
caused a protest from local laborers saying they had been 
employed only to load the trucks, not unload them.  Rapid 
negotiations led to a new fee agreement, and the food was 
reallocated appropriately. 
 
¶8.  (U) Meanwhile, a few of the refugees, seeing the cash 
being counted, claimed the dollars were counterfeit.  The 
currency was in stacks of crisp new bank bills, and it's 
possible that most refugees had never seen new bills. In a 
country where bills are circulated so often they become very 
worn, new documents may be considered suspect.  However, our 
driver informed ConOff that a few savvy individuals were 
angling to get the money in Euros because of the recent weak 
exchange rate for U.S.  dollars. 
 
¶9.  (U) By 1:00 pm, the organizers were becoming visibly 
anxious about the delays.  The trucks, special rugged 
vehicles required for the difficult conditions, had been 
brought in from Somalia and only had permission to remain in 
Djibouti for 48 hours.  The convoy had to cross the border 
before nightfall.  The intense heat was exacerbating issues, 
as observers had not planned to spend the day at the staging 
area.  Shelter from the sun, as well as food and drinking 
water were scarce.  A decision was made to move the convoy 
immediately, and resolve remaining issues on the other side 
of the border. 
 
¶10.  (U) On half hour later, an announcement was made that 
the convoy was leaving, and only individuals named on the 
original list drawn up at the camp would be transported.  The 
cash would be distributed after crossing the border.  An 
intense flurry of activity immediately followed.  As soon as 
it became clear that the assigned foodstuffs were no longer 
open for negotiation (no ground appeared to have been given), 
an instant barter system sprang up, and families began 
trading their goods amongst each other, bags of peas and 
maize moved from one truck to the next, while oil, cooking 
tins or other goods moved back to yet other vehicles.  Within 
half an hour, the trucks were loaded and the convoy lined up 
to head towards Somalia. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Comment.  This was the 14th repatriation to take 
place from Djibouti in 2004.  ConOff was surprised that the 
process is still so chaotic.  The system for checking 
individuals against the official list of registered 
repatriation candidates was cumbersome, and ineffective.  The 
list was not alphabetized or organized in any other method 
that ConOff could determine.  Further, the organizers did not 
seem to know how many should be on the list, and therefore, 
how much food should be provided.  The trucks that were 
loaded with repatriation packages for individuals not on the 
official list created extra confusion and wasted time and 
effort.  The idea of distributing the cash after crossing the 
border seems to have been a decision of desperation; although 
it was immensely logical given the high degree of fraud, and 
observers were amazed it hadn't been done that way in the 
past.  Fraud was mentioned repeatedly throughout the day. 
Past repatriations have resulted in as little as 20% of 
individuals who accepted the package of food and money 
actually crossing the border into Somalia.  According to 
UNHCR, 515 individuals did in fact cross the border this time 
and accept their money on the other side.  It remains to be 
seen how many actually stay in Somalia, and how many sell 
their packages and return to Djibouti as refugees, as illegal 
economic migrants, or as Djiboutian citizens who managed to 
defraud the refugee coordinators. End comment. 
 
¶13. (U) As of December, 8,086 individuals comprising 1,632 
families have been repatriated from Djibouti to Somaliland in 
14 convoys.  The total number remaining in the refugee camps 
is 13,810 (Ali Addeh: 6,955 and Holl Holl: 6,855). In 
addition, the Aour Aoussa Transit Center holds 3,775 
refugees, 3,395 of whom are from South and Central Somalia. 
RAGSDALE