Military

DATE=3/16/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N-H-C-R/CHAD (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-300754

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations refugee agency, U-N-H-C-R, says more than four-thousand Central African refugees and Chadian returnees have fled to southern Chad over the past week, as fighting between the Central African government and rebels intensifies. Lisa Schlein reports from U-N-H-C-R headquarters in Geneva.

TEXT: The U-N refugee agency says people are desperate to leave the Central African Republic. Since mid-February, it reports, more than 30-thousand people have fled to southern Chad. But it says the situation they encounter there is often as dangerous as the one from which they fled.

The agency says it has many concerns for their safety. It says the situation in and around the Chadian border town of Gore is very bad.

U-N-H-C-R Spokesman Rupert Colville says U-N aid workers have received very worrying reports of refugees being harassed, particularly of refugee women by Chadian soldiers. He says the soldiers allegedly have tried repeatedly to abduct refugee women from a transit center managed by the private aid group, Doctors Without Borders, known by its (French) initials, M-S-F.

Mr. Colville says there have been other worrying incidents.

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Around 50 soldiers traveling in five pickup trucks went on the rampage in Gore, shooting in the air and creating panic. The streets emptied quickly, the schools were closed, the soldiers stole motorcycles, bicycles, radios from the refugees and from the Chadian returnees. They also stole two vehicles from M-S-F (Medecin Sans Frontieres), although these were later returned.

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Mr. Colville says the refugees complained that those who had gone to the local customs office to reclaim their possessions soon after the raid were beaten by soldiers. He says the military now has been ordered to stay out of Gore town.

In light of the increasingly serious situation, the U-N-H-C-R says, it has reopened its office in the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, and is setting up a field office in Gore.

Meanwhile, the agency reports hundreds of Central Africans in the southwest of the country also are fleeing to the Republic of Congo to escape weeks of fighting between the army and rebel forces. (Signed)

NEB/LS/ALW/TW