13 January 2000
To Solve Africa's Refugee Problems, End Conflicts, Ogata Says
(UN High Commissioner for Refugees addresses Security Council) (1470) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- If the international community is going to seriously deal with the refugee situation in Africa, the Security Council must intervene much more strongly and quickly to end the conflicts that cause the huge displacements of people on the continent, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said January 13. "I'm calling for concrete action by the Security Council whether it is stopping arms trafficking, coming up with a better conflict resolution mechanisms with regional peacekeeping forces, or having the right kind of negotiations. I cannot do that," Ogata said. "I cannot solve the humanitarian problems, whether it is refugees or internally displaced people, because the causes today in Africa are all conflicts." Humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced persons is not a substitute for governments' and the international community's taking responsibility for peacekeeping and peace-building, Ogata said. Africa will not be "secure" unless its people feel secure, the high commissioner said. "Refugees, internally displaced people and returnees are first and foremost human beings in need of protection and care... They, above all, are the victims of the wars that we do not stop. "The council has an essential role to play in preventing, containing and resolving conflict - and hence refugee problems -- in Africa...by moving from issuing statements to taking action," she said. Ogata briefed the council on the overall refugee situation in Africa, especially in Central Africa, the Great Lakes region, Burundi, the Congo, and Angola during a three-hour public meeting. The session was the second in a series of public meetings and private consultations organized by US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who is president of the council for the month of January. Holbrooke has declared his presidency "The Month of Africa." "The success of the 'Month of Africa' - I am sure you will agree - will depend on how rapidly and effectively your discussions here in New York will be translated into concrete action in the field," the high commissioner told the 15 members of the Security Council. "The plight of the Africans has become so critical that, I hope, the council will be able to put aside differences and devise concrete measures to address it," she said. Holbrooke told Ogata that "too often here we deal only with the consequences and not with the causes. You have done us a great service in laying the framework" for future discussions. In a lengthy opening presentation, Ogata focused on the many and complex aspects of the refugee problem in Africa: lingering unresolved conflicts, no effective conflict resolution mechanism, lack of financial support from the international community, uncontrolled arms flows, no substantive reconstruction programs, and the internally displaced who are caught in limbo between governments or rebels groups. The high commissioner was blunt in her assessment of situations where, she said, for example, "the worst pages of colonial history seem to live again in situations in which people struggle to survive while small groups benefit as Africa's wealth and enormous resources are wasted in pursuing war." There are no effective means to end conflicts in Africa, she said. "On the contrary, armed groups waging war against governments are often openly supported by other governments. And imputs to turn war into peace - and even to consolidate peace when it is attained as in Rwanda and Liberia for example - are very timid and piecemeal. Ogata urged governments to provide asylum to those fleeing war and persecution, provide assistance for camps and settlements, and help returnees going back home. "What is provided to refugees in Africa, including food and other basic survival items, is far less than in other part of the world. This is unacceptable," she said. The high commissioner said that the refugee situation is "critical" in many parts of Africa, abut nowhere is the war and violence worse that in Central Africa, especially in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Angola. "This is an area in which refugee movements have continued to occur almost uninterrupted since independence and have worsened in the last few years," she said. "Armed groups control vast areas in which security is very precarious and ethnic tensions are being exacerbated again." Angola -- with 370,000 Angolan refugees in neighboring countries, continuing flows of people out of the country, and from one to two million internally displaced -- has the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa, the high commissioner said. "Unless peace makes some progress with concrete and positive consequences on security on the ground, it is difficult to envisage the resumption of large assistance programs in Angola, let alone a rapid solution to the problems of human displacement," Ogata said. In Burundi, 30,000 new refugees have fled to Tanzania in the last quarter of 1999 alone, she said. There are an estimated 300,000 people in "regroupment" sites, whom, Ogata said, "are internally displaced people created by a government policy." The high commissioner said that the Arusha peace process must be revitalized and strengthened and the government must change its position on the regroupment sites. People must be regrouped only on a voluntary basis, humanitarian agencies must be given access to "regrouped" people, the internally displaced outside the sites must also be assisted, and the government must give fuller and clearer guarantees for the safety of humanitarian staff. In the DRC, she said, "there is a real risk that the Lusaka agreement will not be implemented. This would have frightful repercussions" for what is already a humanitarian tragedy. "On my last visit, I was struck by the visibly deteriorating conditions of the people in spite of the natural wealth of the country and the traditional Congolese resourcefulness," she said. Over 130,000 Congolese have fled abroad and millions are internally displaced, the high commissioner said. "In spite of their urgent humanitarian needs, there can be little or no access to those internally displaced unless hostilities end and peacekeepers are deployed to protect humanitarian operations." Namibian Ambassador Martin Andjaba said that "we are not asking for special treatment; we are asking to be treated in the same manner. Only in Africa do you see hungry refugees." "Africa has its own responsibility to inculcate the atmosphere of peace," Andjaba also said. In a formal presidential statement read by Holbrooke at the end of the meeting, the council: stressed the need to address the root causes of the conflicts; condemned the deliberate targeting of civilians and practices of forced displacements; emphasized that governments have the primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and aid to internally displaced; and underlined the importance of aid workers' safe and unhindered access to those in need. "Noting with concern the shortfall in funding for refugee and internally displaced persons programs in Africa, the council calls upon the international community to provide such programs with the necessary financial resources, taking into account the substantial needs in Africa," the statement said. "The Security Council recognizes the extensive experience and burden of African states in hosting refugees and in dealing with the effects of refugee camps and settlements," the statement said. "The council welcomes the efforts made to support the needs of refugees in Africa, in particular those of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and host countries." Speaking as the US representative, Holbrooke noted that "it's a supreme irony that as we begin this new century full of hope and discussions about the brave new world of cyberspace and the Internet that a growing number of people are being put in an untenable position. "What we call a refugee is a human being -- a farmer or a doctor or a mechanic or an engineer or a mother -- and suddenly they become refugees," he said. During the council meeting Holbrooke urged that the international community and the UNHCR deal with refugees and internally displaced persons in the same way. Two thirds of the world's refugees do not fall under the official purview of the UNHCR, but they are called "internally displaced persons of IDPs," the ambassador pointed out. "I recognize that the distinction raises complex legal issues of international sovereignty, it raises enormous questions of resource allocation, and that it has far-ranging bureaucratic implications as well.... But let us remember that individual lives are at stake," he said. "We need to acknowledge frankly that there is no real difference to the victims involved, and then we need to call upon the (United Nations) in all its specialized agencies and through its member states to figure out what to do with the problem that was not fully foreseen when the Charter of the UN was formed, and when the UNHCR drew its mandate," Holbrooke said.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
