Nine Zambian lawmakers are in the country for a week-long mission to assess Rwanda’s readiness to receive refugees currently in camps in the southern African country.Zambia is currently home to 6,100 Rwandan refugees, according to the visiting lawmakers.Rev. Lt. Gen. Ronnie Shikapwasha, the chairperson of the committee on national security and foreign affairs of the Zambian Parliament, said yesterday that during their stay here, they would interact and share with their counterparts “We have 6,100 Rwandan refugees in Zambia and we feel that it was necessary to interact with our brothers and sisters in Rwanda, on the way forward,” he said..He added that their trip was partly a follow up on a tripartite agreement between Rwanda, Zambia and UNHCR, to guide the repatriation of the refugees in the country.“The cessation clause is coming in June next year, so we need to understand it from the level of Parliament; how best the governments are working towards that,” Shikapwasha noted.According to Shikapwasha discussions in the Rwandan Parliament were impressive and his team was impressed by national unity initiatives; “so that every son and daughter of Rwanda can come back and contribute to the development of the country.The Rwandan government is ready to receive the refugees. They have the capacity and are able as almost everyone in Rwanda has an experience of being a refugee,” he said.The Zambian MP noted that he has personally met with some of the Rwandan refugees in his country and that they wish to return home.MP Gideon Kayinamura, chairperson of the Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Foreign Affairs, stressed that Rwanda was more than ready to receive its citizens.“We discussed with them much about the situation in Rwanda and how this government of national unity is accommodative and that efforts have been made to ensure that Rwandan refugees can come back and they will be most welcome,” Kayinamura said.
