DATE=5/23/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA / ERITREA / U-N (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262682
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: United Nations aid agencies are speeding
up delivery of food and other emergency relief
supplies to tens of thousands of people displaced
by the Ethiopian-Eritrean war. Lisa Schlein in
Geneva reports the U-N Refugee Agency, U-N-H-C-R,
says the number of Eritrean refugees fleeing the
war is growing.
TEXT: The United Nations Refugee Agency says it
has registered 11-thousand-500 Eritrean refugees
in four transit centers in Sudan. But it says it
believes up to 20-thousand people actually have
arrived over the past few days.
U-N-H-C-R spokesman, Kris Janowski, says a new
flood of refugees is expected following the fall
of the border town of Omhajer. He says the
agency is making plans to take care of 50-
thousand more refugees.
/// JANOWSKI ACT ///
The refugees are accommodated in four
transit centers near the border. We are
trying to persuade them to move inland, but
they resist that since they hope that if
they stick around the border, it will be
easier for them to go back.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Janowski says a majority of the refugees are
women, children and the elderly. He says no
Eritrean soldiers were noticed among the
refugees.
He says the weather in this part of Sudan is
scorchingly hot and the refugees are in desperate
need of some shade and shelter to protect them
from the sun. He says the agency has distributed
400 tents and plastic tarpaulins to shelter them
from the heat and dust. He says two-thousand
more tents are on their way from the Sudanese
capital Khartoum to the border area.
/// OPT /// Mr. Janowski says a number of
Eritreans arriving at the border refuse to cross
over into Sudan.
/// 2ND JANOWSKI ACT/// /// OPT ACT ///
Some of the refugees who arrive with their
own livestock, with their own cattle don't
want to cross the border into Sudan because
Sudanese regulations do not allow
importation of female cattle. So, the
refugees are afraid their cattle will be
confiscated by the Sudanese and prefer to
stick around on the Eritrean side of the
border.
/// END ACT/// /// END OPT ACT ///
Eritrean authorities estimate the war has
displaced 550-thousand people. Mr. Janowski says
this number may include many of the 350-thousand
people who have been displaced by the drought.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program has launched an
urgent food airlift for tens of thousands of
homeless Eritreans. And, the U-N Children's
Fund, UNICEF, also is sending emergency supplies
of medicine, skimmed milk and high energy
biscuits to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
(Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/KL
23-May-2000 08:10 AM EDT (23-May-2000 1210 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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