Concern is growing among the humanitarian community that the Burundi government's intention to start dismantling regroupment camps may be followed by a policy of villagisation. Humanitarian sources say that in Kayanza, which may be the first province to start dismantling the camps, government plans are not to send people back to their often isolated homes but to relocate them along roads.
New houses are to be built along existing roads and new roads constructed where there are none.
New roads would effectively encircle small villages which, from a military point of view, would be easy to monitor. The government originally justified the regroupment camps as the only way of separating civilians from armed Hutu rebels waging war against the army in the countryside. Living conditions in many of the camps are poor with high levels of malnutrition. The international community, which has pressurised for their closure, has called for people to be sent home. Humanitarian sources say they will not support the roadside settlement scheme, which effectively implies that military criteria to take precedence over humanitarian issues.