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Sierra Leone:Leone: Backback Fromfrom Thethe Brink?Brink?

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Sierra Leone:Leone: Backback Fromfrom Thethe Brink?Brink? VOLUME 1 • NUMBER 118 • 2000 SierraSierra Leone:Leone: BackBack fromfrom thethe brink?brink? UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees THE EDITOR’S DESK The debate gathers momentum When U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in late 1999 he asked in the Security Council. “Two-thirds of the urged member states to join a bold new crusade to help homeless people in the world are classified with the odi- millions of civilians caught in an unending series of ous acronym of ‘internally displaced persons (IDPs)’” the wars by subordinating the very basis of their power— legal term used to describe civilians uprooted in their sovereignty and the sanctity of national borders—to the own countries, “but they’re really refugees.” greater good of humanitarian action, he touched off He said that the definition of the term ‘refugee’ was out- what promises to be one of the most important and con- dated and should now include the estimated 20-25 mil- troversial debates of the new millennium. lion IDPs worldwide. The mandate of UNHCR, which Many of these victims, people who have managed to already cares for an estimated 21.5 million refugees and escape the chaos of their immediate surroundings and other groups, should be expanded to include the inter- nally displaced, he said. Roberta Cohen, a refugee expert at the Washington- The bulk based Brookings Institution, said the situation sharply © H. TIMMERMANS of Somalia’s differentiating the two groups had become ‘absurd’ and population, like that today “we have to have a system that addresses the this family, has needs of people on both sides of the border” but she been uprooted questioned whether UNHCR should be the organiza- by years of war. tion tasked with the problem. High Commissioner Sadako Ogata has voiced similar reach a neighboring country where they are classed as concerns. At a time when major donor governments are refugees, are already entitled to international legal assis- trimming their lending to such organizations as tance under the 1951 Refugee Convention. At the core of UNHCR and emphasizing direct aid to crisis areas, who Mr. Annan’s appeal was the fate of between 20-25 million would fund a greatly expanded UNHCR mandate? Too, additional civilians who remain in their own countries and would the organization be able to help both refugees whose safety and well being is often far more precarious. and IDPs on each side of a border without compromis- Predictably, perhaps, the world community has already ing its original mandate — ending up helping neither split into two broad groups. Western and industrialized group effectively? nations widely support the concept that the U.N. should, Even those issues, however, may appear easy to solve on occasion, involve itself in the internal affairs of nations compared with the fundamental dilemma. Helping the to help hapless civilian victims of war. Nations such as internally displaced requires the consent of govern- China and third world countries argue that sovereignty ments which may be battling for their very survival in and non-interference in internal affairs drive internation- civil war type situations. Judging by the opening salvoes al relations and not humanitarian issues (see Refugees in this debate few capitals in the regions where unrest is magazine, N° 117, The hot issue for a new millennium). most prevalent appear willing to compromise their Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Ambassador to the world body, power. recently joined the public debate. “What is a refugee?” The debate seems set to continue for years to come. 2 REFUGEES N°118 - 2000 Editor: Ray Wilkinson French editor: Mounira Skandrani Contributors: Anne Encontre, Raouf Mazou, Kingsley Amaning, Andrej Mahecic, Khassim Diagne, Diederik Kramers, Guy Noel Ouamba, Fatoumata UNHCR / B. NEELEMAN Sinhoun Kaba, Christine Mougne. EDITORIAL Editorial assistant: 2 Virginia Zekrya The debate over internally displaced Photo department: A drawing by Sierra persons gathers momentum. Anneliese Hollmann, Leonean refugee Anne Kellner 4 children in Guinea Design: vividly illustrates the chaos 4 COVER STORY WB Associés - Paris which has gripped their country for a decade. A A chance for peace in Sierra Leone, Production: recent peace agreement has but a cease-fire is fragile. Françoise Peyroux brought renewed, if fragile, Administration: hope for the country. By Ray Wilkinson Anne-Marie Le Galliard Chronology Distribution: John O’Connor, Frédéric Tissot A brief history of Sierra Leone. Map: UNHCR - Mapping Unit 16 CENTERFOLD MAP Recent world events Refugees is published by the Public UNHCR / R. WILKINSON Information Section of the United WEST AFRICA Nations High Commissioner for 18 Refugees. The opinions expressed by Refugee problems throughout West Africa contributors are not necessarily those are all interlinked. of UNHCR. The designations and maps used do not imply the expression By Corinne Perthuis of any opinion or recognition on the part of UNHCR concerning the legal status of a territory or of its authorities. 21 ICELAND Refugees reserves the right to edit all Refugees find an unlikely haven articles before publication. Articles in a faraway place. and photos not covered by copyright © By Ray Wilkinson may be reprinted without prior Iceland is an unlikely permission. Please credit UNHCR and destination for the photographer. Glossy prints and 21refugees. But some 24 TIMOR slide duplicates of photographs not recent arrivals are helping to covered by copyright © may be made change many of the island’s Going home is only half the battle. available for professional use only. habits, including its cuisine. By Paul Stromberg English and French editions printed in Switzerland by ATAR SA, 26 KOSOVO Geneva. Circulation: 206,000 in English, An evaluation of UNHCR’s performance French, German, Italian, Japanese, during the Kosovo emergency. Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. 28 SHORT TAKES ISSN 0252-791 X UNHCR / H.J. DAVIES Brief stories from around the world. Cover: Sierra Leonean refugees await a food distribution in neighboring Guinea. 30 PEOPLE AND PLACES UNHCR / C. SHIRLEY UNHCR An independent 31 QUOTE UNQUOTE P.O. Box 2500 evaluation assesses 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland 26UNHCR’s www.unhcr.ch performance during the Kosovo emergency. It underlined several major weaknesses but added that many important factors were beyond the agency’s control. CORRECTION: IN REFUGEES ISSUE 117 THE PHOTO CREDIT ON PAGE 24 SHOULD HAVE BEEN UNHCR / B. NEELEMAN. REFUGEES 3 | COVER STORY | WEWE WILLWILL FORGIVE…FORGIVE… WEWE WILLWILL NEVERNEVER FORGETFORGET Sierra Leone tries to put a brutal war behind it and build a lasting peace By Ray Wilkinson he very name of the place, Casablanca Field, is redolent with the same sense of romance and intrigue inspired by the Hollywood classic movie, Casablanca. In the near distance palm trees sway gently in an onshore breeze and a gentle swell from the Atlantic Ocean laps the Tbeach. A ramshackle village, alive with all the noise, cooking smells and bustle of any African township, spreads higgledy-piggledy across the flank of a softly sloping hill. Turn to page 6 Ã UNHCR / C. SHIRLEY War amputees at a special camp in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown. Market women, members of a powerful civic action group, meet in Freetown to discuss local events and peace prospects. Ã A visitor, already warned about But just as Bosnia will forever be as- the tragedy of the township, is sociated with “ethnic cleansing” and nevertheless beguiled at first by Rwanda with genocide of the Tutsis, the the splash of color, the very live- struggle in Sierra Leone is symbolized UNHCR / C. SHIRLEY liness and the apparent normalcy by the fate of one particular group of of the place. Then, as one local victims—the thousands of innocent gives directions to a passer-by, he civilians whose arms and legs were gesticulates animatedly with what hacked off indiscriminately by rebel sol- is left of the stump of his right diers whose sole aim appeared to be to arm. A smiling girl, perhaps six spread terror among the population and years old, gaily hops by on intimidate the government. crutches and waves. In the shade More than 1,800 of these amputees of a nearby hut, a barber expertly and their families live in the officially cuts the hair of a customer, one- A hopeful sign for the future in downtown Freetown. named Amputee and War Wounded handed. Shockingly, reality in- Camp at Casablanca, which is situated trudes and is overwhelming. in a suburb of the capital, Freetown. This is a center for some of the Two-year-old Memuna is the youngest victims of one of the most vicious wars of and Liberia, to become refugees. Tens of victim here. Her mother and father were modern times, the nearly decade-old civil thousands of persons were killed and killed during a 1998 invasion of the city. conflict in the west African nation of wounded, unknown numbers of women Her right arm was amputated after it was Sierra Leone. Virtually all of the country’s and girls were raped, entire villages were shot away by a gunshot wound. On the ve- 4.4 million people were forced to flee their razed and their occupants kidnapped in a randah of one house a group of men, all homes at one time or another, seeking conflict rooted in ethnic and regional ri- with a single arm, is learning how to be- safety in the surrounding bush or trekking valries and an ugly scramble for the coun- come barbers. A small factory, the only to neighboring states, especially Guinea try’s rich gold and diamond deposits. one of its kind in Sierra Leone, turns out 6 REFUGEES | COVER STORY | UNHCR / R. WILKINSON artificial limbs for the vic- process does hold? “We only say we will have to try to bury the horror, and forgive tims.
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