IDP news
IDP News is a weekly summary of news on Internally Displaced People.
Compiled by the Global IDP Project from public information, it does not
necessarily reflect our views. Please visit our website www.idpproject.org.
To subscribe to these weekly summaries, email [log in to unmask]
-----------------------------------------------------------
6 November, 2002
-Chechens fear Russian troops around camps
-Many Burundians flee new clashes
-Congolese face deeper crisis in northeast
-Ugandans suffer forgotten crisis in north
-Returning Kurds face lawless guards in Turkey
-Other news: Central Africans, Congolese, Colombians
-----------------------------------------------------------
RUSSIA: Chechens fear troops around camps
Russian troops are surrounding refugee camps along Chechnya's border in a
military crackdown following the recent siege of a Moscow theatre by Chechen
gunmen, reports BBC News. Thousands of refugees at Slipsovsk camp, bordering
Ingushetia, are afraid that Russian troops will carry out mass arrests,
detaining young men for interrogation. UNHCR says protection staff are
closely following developments in camps inside Ingushetia after troops were
moved around the camps holding about 17,000 IDPs. The refugee agency spoke
of 'protection concerns.' Pravda said the UNHCR concerns appeared to be an
insult to the Russian families who buried their dead after the terrorist
attack in Moscow. Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, says in
the Washington Post, that if the United States President is concerned about
terror against civilians, the Russian army has killed an estimated 100,000
Chechen civilians -- almost 10% of the prewar population -- displaced more
than 200,000 and created an ecological wasteland.
BURUNDI: Many flee new clashes
More than 70,000 people have fled homes in central Burundi to escape
fighting between the army and rebels, local officials said, reports AFP.
Fighting began last week between the Tutsi-dominated army and rebel
fighters. At the same time the government and Hutu rebels began talks on a
peace accord. Nearly all of 45,000 inhabitants of Bugendana fled and
regrouped, said the governor of Gitega province. Meanwhile IRIN reports
thousands more people who fled fighting around the capital between the army
and another rebel group have not received humanitarian aid, but the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) would
investigate. Local radio said about 20,000 people had fled fighting in
Bujumbura-Rural Province. AP reported that about 3,000 people had "poured
into Bujumbura" last Monday.
DR CONGO: Northeasterners in deeper crisis
Relief agencies are being kept out of parts of northeastern Democratic
Republic of Congo where the humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly,
the UN warned last week, reports AFP. OCHA appealed to the international
community to press for better access to the region. About 2.1 million people
have been forced to flee homes in the area and malnutrition rates are high.
The situation around Bunia was most worrying, where aid agencies are denied
access outside the town. Some 500,000 displaced people are in Bunia, where
population movements increased by about 250% this past year. Some 1.4
million women are thought to be victims of conflict in the area since May
2002, either killed, wounded, raped or threatened. Human Rights Watch says
the UN must prevent "ethnic cleansing" in the northeastern Ituri district by
increasing its peacekeeping force in the area where civilians had been
forced to flee recent fighting that put 500,000 IDPs in urgent need of aid.
World Vision adds people fleeing fighting between the Lendu and Hema in and
around Bunia are leading wretched lives in camps, churches, warehouses and
with relatives along a 200km stretch.
UGANDA: Forgotten crisis grows in north
More than 40,000 internally displaced people in overcrowded camps in a town
in northern Uganda are facing acute food shortages and lack of medication,
reports BBC News. Authorities in Lira district say they cannot meet the
challenges posed by the displaced who have increased the population of the
town from 50,000 to 100,000. IDPs ran to Lira three months ago when they
were attacked by the brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Human Rights Watch
says LRA attacks now primarily target civilian villagers, including
displaced persons and aid agencies. The government responded by ordering
tens of thousands of people to leave their villages within 48 hours. On
October 6, the army started bombing the region, with reported civilian
casualties. Refugees International says Uganda is experiencing a
humanitarian catastrophe in the northern Acholi region, where an almost
unknown and forgotten conflict has been raging for 16 years. Over 500,000
are displaced, with widespread rights abuses by both the LRA and government
soldiers. Displaced Ugandans are often attacked by LRA in their camps and
the government is not able to provide adequate security, so they live in
terror.
TURKEY: Returning Kurds face lawless guards
Turkish Kurds returning to former homes are finding little has changed in
their villages controlled by village guards described as mafias, reports the
Washington Post. Armed with state-issued rifles, some village guards do as
they please and enjoy virtual immunity from prosecution, according to rights
activists and local residents. In one incident last month, three returnees
were shot dead by the guards, including a seven-year old. The war in parts
of Kurdish-speaking Turkey displaced between 400,000 and 1 million people.
The Guardian adds the European Union is moving towards giving Turkey a "date
to fix a date" for membership negotiations amid concerns about the country's
rights record, but rights groups say much more is needed to help the
displaced Kurds to return home.
OTHER NEWS .
IRIN reports aid agencies in the Central African Republic last week
expressed concern for the safety of thousands of displaced civilians caught
between retreating rebel forces and Congolese rebels helping besieged
President Ange-Felix Patasse. .. PANA reports at least 5,000 displaced
Congolese have flocked to Brazzaville suburbs in recent weeks after escaping
fighting between government troops and armed dissidents in the southern Pool
region. .. AFP reports leftist FARC rebels have forced all 5,000 inhabitants
to abandon the Colombian township of Palmor on the Caribbean coast for
reasons unknown, said the public ombudsman. ... UN News reports the UN's
special IDP representative, Francis Deng, will visit the Philippines this
week to gain better understanding the IDP situation there.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the
Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by the Refugee Studies
Centre (RSC), University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the
views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or
re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts
should include attribution to the original sources.
|