Yet the Luena MOU, the culmination of the Lusaka peace process started in , marked not so much an end but a beginning: the beginning of the difficult process of rebuilding the country's shattered physical and social infrastructure, and reintegrating the millions of people who fled their homes during the war and the thousands of former combatants into a peaceful society. This report, which focuses primarily on the challenges confronting Angolans when they return home, updates Human Rights Watch's prior examination of the return and reintegration process, Struggling through Peace: Return and Resettlement in Angola At the time of that report's publication in August , more than two million of an estimated 3.
Approximately , refugees living in the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC , Zambia and Namibia had also returned, with 53, more remaining in these countries. The majority of these returns were "spontaneous"-refugees returned by their own means and not under an organized repatriation program.
The government of Angola, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR and the host countries of the DRC and Zambia signed the tripartite agreements regulating the repatriation process only in March , and no reception centers to assist the returning refugees had been established.
Since the publication of Struggling through Peace , nearly all IDPs and former combatants and their families have returned to their areas of origin or have decided to remain in their host communities. The pace of assisted refugee repatriation has also quickened with the establishment of major reception centers in the provinces of Moxico and Huambo, and smaller centers in Uge, Zaire, Cunene, Cuando Cubango and Lunda Norte. UNHCR expects to complete the voluntary repatriation programme in with the return of some 53, refugees remaining in camps and settlements in DRC, Zambia and Namibia.
With most of the postwar population movement now complete, Angola is at a crossroads. Decisions made today will determine whether the huge population of recently displaced and exiled citizens and former combatants can fully reintegrate into a peacetime society and help build a stable and prosperous country.
