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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
ANGOLA: Returning IDPs face rights abuses, NGO
JOHANNESBURG, 21 February 2003 (IRIN) - A Geneva-based NGO has called on Angolan authorities to step up protection for the vast number of displaced people returning to their areas of origin since the end of the civil war last year.
In a new report, the Global IDP Project, which monitors war and displacement, said many returning Angolans faced ongoing human rights abuses and grim humanitarian conditions.
"Despite national legislation providing for minimum standards of resettlement and return, as well as training given to provincial officials on how to implement it, numerous human rights abuses have been reported in connection with the return process," Angola researcher Claudia McGoldrick said in a statement.
Recent reports show that more than 1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have made their way home since the April 2002 ceasefire.
The report alleged that authorities have in some cases forcibly returned populations to their areas of origin, without access to humanitarian assistance or social services.
Human Rights Watch reported that in May 2002, the entire population of Trumba, in Bié province, was forced back to areas of origin by local authorities without proper assistance. The rights organisation also reported forced return and restrictions to freedom of movement in three other provinces.
"Many displaced have returned to areas with neither infrastructure nor basic services such as water, health and education in place. They face hunger disease, and in many cases, the added risk of landmines. Many thousands remain beyond the reach of aid agencies," the report said.
The Geneva-based organisation also alleged that IDPs were vulnerable to harassment and extortion by unruly soldiers at checkpoints. "Physical and sexual abuse, and even killings continue to be reported," the report added.
The UN estimates more than 2 million vulnerable Angolans will need life-saving assistance in 2003, the majority of them returning IDPs.
Meanwhile, the international medical relief organisation, Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Friday said it would close down one of its supplementary feeding centres in Kuito (Bie province) because of an "improvement in the nutritional status of the local population".
MSF medical officer Sandra Simons told IRIN: "It was decided that one of the supplementary feeding centres would be closed down because our patient load had reduced. Initially we had about 2,500 patients but it has since dropped to around 1,200 people.
"Also, sometime in the near future the therapeutic feeding programme we help to facilitate in the central hospital [in Kuito] will be handed over to the government. This is not to say that overall nutritional status of people in Kuito has stabilised. Many people in the outlying areas still need tremendous assistance. Those people close to the town are improving."
She added that two nutritional centres would remain open to assist remaining refugees from other regions.
Themes: (IRIN) Human Rights, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
[ENDS]
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