DATE=6/30/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ERITREA / HUMANITARIAN CRISIS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263947
BYLINE=CAROL PINEAU
DATELINE=ZULA, ERITREA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Last month, as Ethiopia's military pushed its
offensive deep into Eritrean territory, more than one-
million Eritreans fled their homes. Many ended up in
displaced persons' camps, but tens-of-thousands found
refuge in the country's remote mountains. As Carol
Pineau reports from Zula, Eritrea, these are the most
vulnerable of Eritrea's displaced people.
TEXT: Scattered throughout the mountains of Eritrea's
central highlands are thousands of displaced people.
They camp under rocky overhangs, huddle in caves, or
live out in the open.
Twenty-five-hundred meters above sea level, the air is
cool and damp now that the rains have come. A few in
this encampment have plastic tarps to protect
themselves against the rain, but most live out in the
open with nothing to ward off the cold, damp mountain
air. They huddle around the fire for warmth. Many
use the plastic tarps to keep the firewood dry --
their only hope for survival.
/// ACT OF WOMEN SPEAKING IN SALO
ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER ///
Noura Saley is the young wife of a teacher who is now
serving in the army. She says she fled their middle
class home at Senafe when Ethiopian troops began
shelling the town last month. She says she had to
leave everything behind.
/// ACT WOMAN'S VOICE, ESTABLISH AND FADE
UNDER ///
Ms. Saley says she walked all day, finally finding
shelter in the mountains. She was nine months
pregnant. The next day, she gave birth to her first
child.
That was 40 days ago, she says. Now she shares the
little shelter this rocky outcropping provides with 30
other women and children.
The people say they got some food from the government
relief agency, but that trucking supplies into this
mountainous area is a major project. There are no
roads, only high mountain passes. On days of heavy
rain, the route is impassable. People must walk hours
to get to distribution points, and even then, there
are not enough supplies to go around.
A spokesman for the United Nations Refugee Agency, U-
N-H-C-R, Peter Kessler, says the rains will only make
things worse.
/// KESSLER ACT ///
Across Eritrea, upwards of one-million people
are displaced and living in hillsides of
mountains like this. They are having health
problems like diarrhea and vomiting, and now
that the rains have started, there is a real
danger of cholera and other illnesses affecting
the population.
/// END ACT ///
Two weeks ago, the children showed few signs of
disease. Today, nearly all have runny noses - the
first sign of upper respiratory infections.
Aid workers say wealthy nations must give Eritrea more
aid soon to avert a major humanitarian catastrophe.
(SIGNED)
NEB/CP/JP
30-Jun-2000 14:32 PM EDT (30-Jun-2000 1832 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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