DATE=5/24/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N / ANGOLA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262748
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-C-R,
says it is sending an emergency relief mission to
Angola later in the week. Lisa Schlein in Geneva
reports the agency says a team of 12 U-N-H-C-R staff
members first will travel to the Angolan capital,
Luanda.
TEXT: The United Nations Refugee Agency says it
decided to send the mission after a team last month
found thousands of internally displaced people living
in, what it calls, "inhuman conditions" in Angola's
northern provinces. It says the 12 senior officials
all have emergency relief experience and will be in a
position to decide on how best to help these people.
U-N-H-C-R spokesman, Kris Janowski says after arriving
in Luanda, part of the team will immediately move on
to the town of Uige in Angola's northwestern Uige
province.
/// JANOWSKI ACT ///
Essentially the team is being sent after a U-N-
H-C-R assessment team found abominable,
unbearable life-threatening conditions in many
areas in Angola with severe malnutrition among
children, thousands of displaced people living
in appalling conditions in the north of Angola.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Janowski says the other part of the team will
remain in Luanda. He says it will provide back up for
the field operation, which will be expanded later in
the year. He says the U-N Refugee Agency plans to re-
open field offices in the Zaire province and in the
extreme north of the Uige province.
The U-N-H-C-R was present in northern Angola until
1998. It was there to help Angolan refugees return
home as part of a peace agreement between the
government and UNITA rebels. After civil war resumed
in 1998, the U-N-H-C-R was forced to end its
repatriation program and had to leave the north. Mr.
Janowski says aid workers were limited to Luanda.
/// JANOWSKI ACT TWO ///
Now in the wake of the report, which was very
alarming, we are re-opening our presence in
Angola and getting involved in helping the
displaced population there, as well as the
returnee population. There are, according to U-
N estimates, there are two-point-six million
people who are internally displaced in Angola
and about one-point-nine million in urgent need
of help. According to the Angolan government,
there are three-point-seven-million people who
are affected by the civil war.
/// END ACT ///
Last month's U-N report says many displaced people in
Angola are eating worms and grass to survive. It says
aid shipments must be increased quickly and thousands
of displaced people must be moved out of badly run
unsanitary temporary shelters. It adds that
government soldiers are harassing some displaced
people.
Mr. Janowski says among its activities, U-N-H-C-R
workers will address protection issues. They will try
to prevent forced relocation and other human rights
abuses. (Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/JP
24-May-2000 10:09 AM EDT (24-May-2000 1409 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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