VOLUME 2 • NUMBER 131 • 2003 “Millions of civilians have been killed in the flames of war... But there is hope too… in places like Sierra Leone, Angola and in the Horn of Africa.” —High Commissioner RUUD LUBBERS

at a CrossroadsAfrica N°131 - 2003

Editor: Ray Wilkinson French editor: Mounira Skandrani Contributors: Millicent Mutuli, Astrid Van Genderen Stort, Delphine Marie, Peter Kessler, Panos Moumtzis Editorial assistant: UNHCR/M. CAVINATO/DP/BDI•2003 2 EDITORIAL Virginia Zekrya Africa is at another Africa slips deeper into misery as the world Photo department: crossroads. There is Suzy Hopper, plenty of good news as focuses on Iraq. Anne Kellner 12 hundreds of thousands of Design: persons returned to Sierra Vincent Winter Associés Leone, Angola, Burundi 4 AFRICAN IMAGES Production: (pictured) and the Horn of Françoise Jaccoud Africa. But wars continued in A pictorial on the African continent. Photo engraving: Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Aloha Scan - Geneva other areas, making it a very Distribution: mixed picture for the 12 COVER STORY John O’Connor, Frédéric Tissot continent. In an era of short wars and limited casualties, Maps: events in Africa are almost incomprehensible. UNHCR Mapping Unit By Ray Wilkinson Historical documents UNHCR archives Africa at a glance A brief look at the continent. Refugees is published by the Media Relations and Public Information Service of the United Nations High Map Commissioner for Refugees. The 17 opinions expressed by contributors Refugee and internally displaced are not necessarily those of UNHCR. The designations and maps used do UNHCR/P. KESSLER/DP/IRQ•2003 populations. not imply the expression of any With the war in Iraq Military opinion or recognition on the part of officially over, UNHCR concerning the legal status UNHCR has turned its Refugee camps are centers for of a territory or of its authorities. 28 attention to helping to return military recruitment. some of the estimated Refugees reserves the right to edit all 500,000 longtime Iraqi Burundi articles before publication. Articles refugees living across the and photos not covered by copyright © globe who may now go back A change of power in a troubled land. may be reprinted without prior to that country. permission. Please credit UNHCR Congo and the photographer. Glossy prints The legacy of Africa’s worst ever and slide duplicates of photographs not covered by copyright © may be made documented war. available for professional use only. Border A typical hard day at an African frontier English and French editions printed post. in Italy by AMILCARE PIZZI Angola S.p.A., Milan. Circulation: 224,000 in English, A new start. French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. 28 IRAQ ISSN 0252-791 X After the war, what now for Iraq? Cover: UNHCR/E. PARSONS/DP/SOM•2003 Africa: an uncertain future. UNHCR/R.WILKINSON/CS/CIV•2003 Some people call her PEOPLE a new Mother Teresa. 30 UNHCR Italian doctor P.O. Box 2500 30 Africa’s very own Mother Teresa. Annalena Tonelli has won the 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland Nansen Refugee Award for www.unhcr.org decades of work among Somali civilians.

REFUGEES 3 THE EDITOR’S DESK

The Iraq effect…

hile the world was mesmerized by the would force a halt in food deliveries to refugee camps war in Iraq, Africa’s refugees have in Africa. slipped a little bit deeper into misery and But within a week of issuing an appeal for $1.3 bil- Wdespair. lion to feed Iraq’s hungry people (who had two When coalition forces moved into Iraq, aid work- months supply on hand), the World Food Program re- ers and journalists stood by in Jordan, Iran, Syria and ceived pledges of $315 million—nearly three times the Turkey, ready to receive hordes of Iraqi refugees who amount called for in the African appeal. never came. In recent testimony before the U.S. Congress, even Meanwhile, nearly 100,000 civilians escaped from before news filtered out of another appalling mas- the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire into sacre of nearly 300 civilians in northeastern Demo- eastern Liberia, itself wracked by cratic Republic of Congo, the advocacy group another conflict. On the outskirts Refugees International pointed out that more people of Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, had died in the Congo in one week due to violence, there were no embedded journal- malnutrition and disease than died in the war in Iraq ists to cover a rebel attack on a dis- to that date. UNHCR/S.MANN/CS/UGA•2002 placed persons camp in which Editorial pages and talk shows have been abuzz hundreds of civilians were report- with scenarios for the rehabilitation of Iraq. The first edly abducted or slaughtered. anniversary of the end of Angola’s 27-year civil war Remember Guinea, the West passed virtually unnoticed, as did calls for the World African country that was in the Bank to extend the scope of its reintegration assistance news when it was being courted to cover not just the former UNITA rebel soldiers, but for its vote on a Security Council also thousands of Angolan women abducted and resolution? More than 7,000 forced to become ‘wives’ of rebel troops. Liberian refugees, many with Opening a Model U.N. in Ottawa, Stephen Lewis, Sudanese women flee rebel attack.. gunshot wounds, arrived there re- the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for cently. Aid workers struggled to HIV/AIDS in Africa, mused about what could happen transport them to a safer area away if the Global Fund set up to fight AIDS, malaria and from the border. tuberculosis were fully funded, before telling 800 In southern Chad, more than 30,000 refugees from university students that the fund was nearly the Central African Republic sleep under trees, wait- bankrupt. ing to see what will happen at home following the So while Iraq dominates the world spotlight, spare overthrow of the Patassé government recently (not a thought for Africa’s silent emergencies and the hope much was heard of the regime change there). of one African refugee: “If only a coalition would Of course, it was hard to mobilize interest in come to rescue us.” Africa’s refugees even before the fighting started in

Iraq. On Valentine’s Day the U.N. Refugee Agency JUDITH KUMIN, UNHCR’s Representative in Canada, and the World Food Program warned lack of funding first wrote this opinion piece for the Montreal Gazette.

2 REFUGEES Africanimages HOPE: ©S. SALGADO•AGO After a decades-long war, Angola looks forward to a brighter future. © S. SALGADO•ZRE African images The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been described as the worst in Africa’s WAR: recorded history.

An estimated three million people perished. Africanimages the country together again, following a ten year-long war. Some 240,000 Sierra Leoneans have returned home to try to patch GOING HOME:

UNHCR/J. AUSTIN/CS/SLE•2000 AfricanON THEimages MEND Even when refugees return home, the future may still be very tough, as in Eritrea. THE FUTURE:

UNHCR/S. BONESS/CS/ERI•2001 UNHCR/M.KAMBER/DP/CIV•2003 AFRICA on the The human toll has been appalling, but is the light at the end of

by Ray Wilkinson

n an era of short wars, ‘controlled’ numbers of ca- eras, hundreds of people were being slaughtered al- sualties and sanitized images such as those emerg- most unnoticed in the latest atrocity in one remote ing from Iraq, events in Africa seem almost in- corner of the Congo region. comprehensible. During the course of the conflict which began in IDeep in the heart of the Congo basin, some three 1998 and which at times involved six armies from sur- Liberian refugees flee back to their million people, perhaps many more, perished during rounding countries, countless militias and home- own country after an ongoing war described as the deadliest document- grown gangs of thugs, 2.5 million people were ripped conflict erupted ed conflict in Africa’s history. And even as American from their homes and forced to seek shelter in steam- in neighboring Côte marines mopped up last pockets of resistance in Bagh- ing rain forests and neighboring states. d’Ivoire. dad in the full glare of thousands of television cam- Angola suffered a similar fate. In a civil war lasting

12 REFUGEES Far to the north, Sudan has been destabilized by civil conflict virtually from independence in 1956, and once more the human toll was one of biblical propor- tions rather than the quick and limited conflicts the public in industrialized countries now expect. Two million people died, four million roam the northern desert wastes and southern savannah grasslands of the continent’s largest country, and a half million refugees were forced to flee even further afield. Those, of course, were only the largest and longest of a series of upheavals which wracked and then wrecked large swathes of Africa: Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Western Sahara, Liberia, Congo-Brazzaville and most recently Côte d’Ivoire and the Central African Republic. Then there was Rwanda: as many as one million people were slaughtered in the mid-1990s in the world’s latest genocide. And again, images of endless flood tides of refugees shuffling along in billowing clouds of dust, buffeted mercilessly by the latest chaos.

A SCAR These images are familiar to a global audience. So much so that British Prime Minister Tony Blair in- sisted in one keynote address that the anarchy could not continue and “The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world, but if the world focused on it, IN 1995, we could heal it.” So, two years after that clarion call, how is Africa UNHCR doing? ASSISTED Donor countries, aid agencies, national govern- ments do provide large amounts of assistance to the SEVEN MILLION continent. UNHCR’s current annual budget for REFUGEES. Africa, for instance, is nearly $400 million. And there is other good news. In 1995, UNHCR as- TODAY, THAT sisted seven million refugees. Today, that figure is less than half (though the refugee agency does now also FIGURE IS LESS help some other classes of distressed civilians, includ- THAN HALF. ing victims of war and persecution living in their own countries. The overall number of uprooted people throughout Africa is still a staggering 15 million). The West African nation of Sierra Leone suffered EDGE through a decade of civil war in the 1990s where the severing of the arms and limbs of civilian victims be- the tunnel a little brighter? came a loathsome signature of that brutal conflict. To- day, the country is enjoying a fragile peace. Anywhere between one million and 1.5 million in- ternally displaced Angolans and another 100,000 refugees from one of the world’s longest wars have re- turned home ‘spontaneously’ following a peace accord almost three decades, an estimated one million people signed last year. Hundreds of thousands will follow were killed, and anywhere from three to five million suit this year if the guns remain silent. were again uprooted from their ancestral villages and In a vast swirl of peoples constantly on the move towns. They trudged across a destroyed landscape across the length and breadth of the continent, around from one temporary sanctuary to another, often forced 440,000 longtime refugees returned to their former to eat berries and roots to survive and in constant dan- homes in the Horn of Africa in the last couple of years. ger of being killed or maimed, not only by the combat- Nearly two million refugees from Burundi, Sudan, ants, but also from millions of mines which made one Somalia and the Congo region are pinning their own of the continent’s richest countries a vast and deadly hopes of seeing their homes again in the near future booby trap. on various peace negotiations currently underway. Ã

REFUGEES 13 AFRICA ON THE EDGE

Countries such as the United States which tradi- since departed Angola. This outside involvement was tionally offer to resettle particularly vulnerable a catalyst for many of the continent’s problems, but refugees, are paying increasing attention to Africa when the foreigners walked away, Africa was left to (though Washington’s overall resettlement program suffer largely in silence and without the help neces- has still to recover from the aftereffects of the terror- sary to clean up the mess. ist attacks there in September, 2001). Economies, which could be self-sustaining, are DEEP IN THE A project called the New Partnership for Africa’s short-circuited by rules made in distant capitals. Development (NEPAD) which aims to promote conti- African farmers could help feed the world, but agri- HEART OF THE nental peace and stability through sustainable devel- cultural subsidies granted to producers in the world’s opment has received an enthusiastic global response. industrialized countries undercut one of the few vi- CONGO BASIN, In any new era of calm, a majority of displaced persons able options the continent has to break out of its cycle AN ESTIMATED would also be able to restart their lives. of deprivation and poverty which in turn help to fuel wars and refugee flight. THREE MILLION A CROSSROADS Wealthy donors and international institutions But Africa undoubtedly remains on a knife-edge. have spent millions of dollars on short-term humani- PEOPLE High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said: “Africa is tarian relief, especially when thousands of people PERISHED again at a crossroads.” While “millions of civilians were dying in front of the television cameras as hap- have literally been killed in pened in Rwanda, but they DURING AN the flames of war, there is have little appetite to help hope too… in places like Sier- underwrite long-term devel- ONGOING WAR ra Leone, Angola and in the opment. DESCRIBED AS Horn of Africa.” Health, education and so- David Lambo, the head UNHCR/S. WRIGHT/524 cial services crumble. THE DEADLIEST of UNHCR’s Africa Bureau, HIV/AIDS has reached epi- DOCUMENTED insists that on purely hu- demic proportions in many manitarian issues, “We are a African countries and more CONFLICT IN little further down the road than two million people died than six months ago. The from the disease there in AFRICA’S light is getting a little 2001 alone. Another eight HISTORY. brighter at the end of the million succumbed to other tunnel. But it is equally true easily treated ailments such that the continent is at a new as malaria, measles and diar- divide.” rhea. At that rate of mortali- Why, when an increas- ty, the population of a mod- ingly smaller world can lav- estly sized European coun- ish such attention and assis- try such as Britain or France tance—at least short-term— would be totally wiped out in on places like Afghanistan Algerians: Africa’s first refugees. less than a decade. and latterly Iraq, does Africa But some of the above as- still seem so desperate and sumptions may be wrong. so ignored? Africa is no longer ‘far away.’ Tens of thousands of The continent continues to produce its own Africans trudge thousands of miles each year to the despots and misguided policies, but the malaise goes northern shores of the continent where they embark deeper than that. Africa is still viewed as far away, hu- on leaky boats to try to gate-crash Europe. Warns manitarian crises are ‘over there’, both donor capitals David Lambo: “There is a sense of total desperation and refugee hosting countries suffer from ‘refugee fa- among many Africans and these kind of people will tigue’, what help is provided simply is not enough and literally fight their way” into Europe and other pros- Millions of refugees the continent is appar- perous regions. 18.0 ently no longer strate- Africa may also turn out to be the soft underbelly 16.0 Africa gically important. in the industrialized world’s fight against global ter- 14.0 Global Only a few years rorism. Refugee camps and the chaos of such places as 12.0 ago, such places as Somalia provide not only effective shelter for existing 10.0 Zaire and Angola terrorists such as Al Qaida, but are breeding grounds 8.0 were prized for their for future gunmen. East Africa has already been 6.0 scarred by lethal attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya 4.0 oil and minerals. But 2.0 Cuban and white and Tanzania and against Israeli tourists in Kenya. - 1951-1955 ‘56-‘60 ‘61-‘65 ‘66-‘70 ‘71-‘75 ‘76-‘80 ‘81-‘85 ‘86-‘90 ‘91-‘95 ‘96-‘00 2003 South African troops— proxies for the big THE DOUBLE STANDARD powers—have long And then there is the reputed double standard: up- Ã

14 REFUGEES Africa at a glance

B There are an estimated 15 million refugees, internally displaced and other uprooted persons throughout the African continent. UNHCR cares for nearly 4.6 million of them with a regular 2003 budget of nearly

$400 million. UNHCR/E. PARSONS/BW/TCD•2003

B Overall, this was a slight increase compared with 4.2 million people the previous year. The agency’s assistance peaked in 1994 when it helped seven million refugees, many of whom had fled the Rwandan genocide of that year.

B In 2002, more than one million people fled their homes, while an estimated 600,000 refugees and IDPs returned with UNHCR assistance. However, in Angola alone Temporary shelter in Chad. between one million and 1.5 B B million internally displaced Angola suffered a similar war Burundi is one of the world’s access to clean drinking water persons also returned home starting in the 1960s. At least poorest and smallest countries, and more than two million spontaneously. one million persons were but a decade-long conflict there infants die annually before killed, four million were killed more than 200,000 reaching their first birthday B Africa’s largest refugee displaced internally and people and produced nearly B populations came from the another half million fled as one million uprooted persons, HIV/AIDS reached epidemic following countries: Burundi refugees. or nearly 14 percent of the total proportions in many countries 570,000; Sudan 490,000; Angola population and in 2001 more than two B 421,000; Democratic Republic of Conflict in the Democratic million died from the disease. B Congo 395,000; and Somalia Republic of Congo starting in Politically, there were Eight million others died from 357,000. 1998 was described as Africa’s encouraging developments. malaria, measles, tuberculosis first ‘World War.’ It involved a Following the signing of a peace and diarrheal diseases. B African countries hosting the half dozen armies, reputedly accord in early 2002, civilians B largest refugee populations killing between three and five began returning to their homes An estimated 40 million include: Tanzania 690,000; million people either as a direct in Angola and the pace of return Africans in Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo result of war or because of was expected to increase in Sahel and West Africa face 330,000; Sudan 328,000; Zambia disease and malnutrition. Two coming months. Tenuous peace starvation according to the 247,000; Kenya 234,000; and million people fled to nearby deals were signed in Burundi and World Food Program. Uganda 217,000. neighborhoods and 300,000 Congo. Following a decade-long civilians became refugees. civil war in Sierra Leone, that B Refugees are people who have B Since the end of the colonial country continued to stabilize. fled their country in search of B era, Africa has been the scene of The entire West African region safety from war and repression. B some of the longest and worst was destabilized after civil war Wars and displacement have Internally displaced persons left for global conflicts. Sudan was erupted once more in Liberia in been fueled by economic and similar reasons, but remain in their wracked by civil war between 1989. Nearly 70 percent of that social upheaval. The number of own countries. UNHCR assists all the mainly Muslim north and country’s population, an people living in absolute refugees globally. It began to help Animist and Christian south estimated 2.4 million people, poverty in sub-Saharan Africa some, but not all, internally virtually since independence in were displaced and 150,000 is likely to rise from 315 to 404 displaced persons in the 1990s. 1956. An estimated two million killed. Neighboring Côte million in the next 15 years, Thus, statistics in the charts and people were killed, four million d’Ivoire, once one of the making the continent the tables accompanying articles in this people displaced internally and continent’s most stable nations, world’s poorest region. issue are sometimes available for half a million people fled to toppled into civil war in late only one of these groups during B neighboring countries. 2002, displacing up to 800,000 Half the population survives certain time periods. people and forcing 400,000 on less than one dollar a day, more to flee the country. more than 50 percent has no

REFUGEES 15 war in Iraq would go. One European delegation point- edly remarked that “Angola is a country rich enough to fund its own repatriation” this year to which a des- perate aid official asked aloud if the same rules would be applied to Iraqi refugees. African commentators pointed to the huge but empty tent cities on the desert fringes of Iraq waiting for refugees who never arrived and compared that to the low level of interest and media coverage as tens of thousands of people fled the West African state of Côte d’Ivoire. High Commissioner Lubbers insisted: “I am con- cerned that the interest being shown in Iraq has di- minished the interest in Africa. Whenever money is needed for Africa, the funding is going down, not up.” Projections suggest that the refugee agency’s Africa budget this year will fall at least 15 percent short, an amount Lubbers called “less than the cost of an hour’s war in Iraq”—but which nevertheless will necessitate painful cuts in education, self- sufficiency and other basic programs. The World Food Program estimated 40 mil- lion Africans faced starvation and James Mor- ris, WFP’s Executive Director recently told the U.N. Security Council: “As much as I don’t like it, I can- rooted not escape the thought that we have a double stan- Africans sim- dard. How is it we routinely accept a level of suffering ply do not get as much and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in comparable aid as refugees in any other part of the world? We simply cannot let this UNHCR other parts of the world, a problem stand.” begins its highlighted by the Iraq crisis. Noting that at the start of the Iraq war each family involvement As that war loomed, Afghan President Hamid there had one month’s supply of food, Morris said the in Africa in 1957. Karzai pleaded with Washington: “Don’t forget us if Africans facing hunger “most of them women and Iraq happens.” children, would find it an immeasurable blessing to His country had seen a Soviet invasion and a sub- have a month’s worth of food.” sequent big power struggle, virtual abandonment for years by a disinterested global community, another SHORTCHANGED foreign intervention and, finally, renewed pledges So are Africans being shortchanged? Comparing “THE LIGHT that the past would not be repeated and the industri- how much money is spent on each refugee in differ- alized world this time would stand by Kabul. ent parts of the world can be a slippery business and IS GETTING Realpolitik being what it is, Karzai was not con- may not necessarily reflect the ‘effective’ amount of vinced. help each person receives. The cost of building shel- A LITTLE For critics of the current global humanitarian set- ters in the Balkans, for instance, may be higher than BRIGHTER AT up too, the Iraq conflict has been a litmus test. For in Africa and would undoubtedly distort any direct them, it vividly underlined the so-called double stan- dollar-per-refugee comparison. THE END OF dard: the willingness to commit massive military, eco- But UNHCR has approved a minimum standard of THE TUNNEL. nomic and financial resources in the Middle East in assistance every refugee should receive and even support of goals which could equally apply in Africa— these basic benchmarks covering such necessities as BUT IT IS supporting freedom and democracy, providing hu- food, water and shelter are regularly breached in manitarian assistance to a desperate population, up- Africa because of lack of adequate financial and man- EQUALLY TRUE rooting terrorism. power resources. THAT THE The United Nations system launched its biggest The World Food Program reduced already border- ever appeal for $2.2 billion in humanitarian assistance line rations to some refugee camps by half. Displaced CONTINENT IS in Iraq, a target which undoubtedly would have been persons in the Horn of Africa, one of the most inhos- met had the conflict been a prolonged one. pitable places on earth in the sweltering summer AT A DIVIDE.” In the same period, fund raisers trying to find cash months, should receive a minimum 20 liters of water for Africa uniformly reported that early in the year per day, but in the 1990s emergency some were forced traditional donors ‘sat on their hands’, refusing to to survive on less than three liters. Similar shortages commit to other goals until it was clear which way the are common today. In some camps only around 30 per- Ã

16 REFUGEES Africa’s Uprooted Peoples

Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya

Egypt Western Sahara

Mauritania

Eritrea Niger Chad Sudan Guinea Nigeria Central Ethiopia Sierra African Leone Côte Republic d’Ivoire Liberia Somalia Uganda Republic Kenya ofCongo Rwanda Democratic Congo Major Displaced Burundi Populations Tanzania

Angola Malawi Zambia

500,000 Mozambique Zimbabwe 2,500,000 5,000,000 Namibia Refugees IDPs Returnees South Africa

Major Tanzania 690,000 Uganda 217,000 Democratic Congo 330,000 Guinea 182,000 Refugee Sudan 328,000 Algeria 169,000 -Hosting Zambia 247,000 Ethiopia 133,000 Countries Kenya 234,000 Republic of Congo 109,000 Turning refugees into gunmen Power and adventure versus poverty, boredom and isolation in a battle for the hearts and minds of the young

he recruiters came at sundown currently serving in armies and militias with fistfuls of cash and promises around the world, some of them plucked of adventure, power and women. straight from refugee camps. Untold Within three hours, 150 young numbers of older, but still vulnerable youths, TLiberian men at the Nicla refugee camp in have also been recruited. Girls are western Côte d’Ivoire had signed up to particularly vulnerable, becoming foot become government mercenaries in a unit soldiers or sexual slaves, or both. nicknamed the Lima force. UNHCR/R.WILKINSON/CS/CIV•2003 National governments, not humanitarian They each pocketed 10,000 local CFA agencies, are responsible for the security of francs ($17), jumped aboard two trucks and, refugee camps, but when they cannot or will led by a fighter wearing a red bandana and not enforce proper security, organizations brandishing a 50-caliber machine gun such as UNHCR or Caritas, which is present mounted on the back of a jeep, roared out of in Nicla, face difficult choices. the camp telling other refugees who When more than one million Rwandans witnessed the incident, “We want money. fled from that country’s genocide in the mid- Here we are nothing and we have nothing.” 1990s, the dreaded Interahamwe militias After training, these new guns for hire used camps in then eastern Zaire not only to were expected to fight on behalf of the recruit, but also to launch raids back into government against other Liberians in several Rwanda. With the national security apparatus invading rebel groups who were operating in disintegrating, UNHCR unsuccessfully and around the highly volatile border area appealed to U.N. member states for military between the two West African countries. assistance and then paid for its own security Nicla had been a sleepy backwater kind force—with limited results. of place, a rural village similar to surrounding Effectively, it took the controversial Ivorian hamlets, offering sanctuary to just a decision to continue caring for hundreds of small pocket of the hundreds of thousands thousands of genuine refugees, knowing at of refugees who had fled neighboring Liberia Nicla camp–military recruits take heed. the same time that the gunmen were also 35 kms to the west following more than a benefiting from the aid and international decade of renewed turmoil in that country. humanitarian presence. The great majority of the Liberians Unsurprisingly, however, given its For months the agency has been working integrated easily into Ivorian villages rather proximity to a highly volatile border, nearby on ‘solutions’ for Nicla, ranging from local than moving into refugee camps, but when conflict and a ready pool of able-bodied programs to promote education and small Côte d’Ivoire itself was wracked by civil male and female refugees, the camp became self-help projects to trying to relocate the conflict in September 2002, many of these instead a hotbed for recruitment. camp away from the immediate fighting uprooted civilians were forced to flee again. There have been regular confrontations zone and asking other countries to accept Between 6,000 and 8,000 packed into Nicla, between humanitarian ideals and military the most vulnerable Liberians for seeking the safety of an international imperatives for many years, Nicla being just resettlement. sponsored camp rather than run the risk of a one of the latest and most blatant examples. tide of xenophobia sweeping through the An estimated 300,000 underage child WILD WEST countryside. soldiers, 3,000 in Côte d’Ivoire itself, are But though the site was named Peace

THERE IS NO WORK, NO MONEY, SPREADING POVERTY, LITTLE EDUCATION AND FEW OTHER ACTIVITIES FOR THE REFUGEES—ONLY STIFLING BOREDOM AND GROWING RESENTMENT AND FEAR.

18 REFUGEES Returning fishermen in Jaffna.

Town by the refugees, it has more the appearance of the Wild West. UNHCR/A. HOLLMANN/CS/DZA•1998 A recent visitorEmergency was startled distribution. to see dozens of wildly cheering youths, accompanied by the inevitable machine gunner and his red bandana, careening through the camp on trucks in broad daylight (similar military activities in other refugee camps are often carried out more surreptitiously under the cover of darkness). Bursts of gunfire often rupture daily routine when the ‘soldiers’ return to camp to visit their families. One group of school children tumbled out through both doors and windows in panic when bullets whizzed past their school house recently. Refugees said they lived their lives on a Saharan refugees in Algeria. knife-edge in such conditions. “Just talking to UNHCR/R.WILKINSON/CS/LKA•2003 you like this could get me killed,” one refugee said in refusing to be identified. “It is like a huge cattle barn here,” another cent of children receive any type of education. complained to a camp official. “What Jeff Crisp, the head of UNHCR’s evaluation unit, happens when there is a massacre? You will said that desperate conditions in some camps deterio- come back in the morning (UNHCR workers rated the longer they remained in existence, reflect- do not live in the camp overnight) to collect ing general ‘fatigue’ with protracted crises and the di- the dead bodies. And that will be our version of scarce resources to other projects. bodies.” The agency has now begun to compile a compre- It is easy to understand the military lure hensive ‘gap analysis’ between the minimum estab- for young refugees. Ivorians, often with the lished targets and the reality on the ground. same tribal background, who once welcomed Continent wide, conditions vary and the survey ABIGAIL IS them, now look on most Liberians as ‘rebels’ covered only refugees in established camps or transit LIVING THE and areas surrounding Nicla have become ‘no centers and not those living in local communities. go’ areas. Cooped up in their camp, there is And the shortfalls are hardly the stuff of interna- ULTIMATE no work, no money, spreading poverty, little tional headlines, but do underscore the point made REFUGEE education and few other activities for the by WFP’s James Morris that the daily living condi- refugees—only stifling boredom and growing tions of many uprooted peoples are unacceptable by NIGHTMARE. resentment and fear. any international norm. In such circumstances many feel they Kenya’s Kakuma and Dadaab camps are among SINCE THE AGE have no alternative but to ‘join up.’ Others the largest in Africa, sheltering between them OF 13 SHE HAS are attracted to the excitement and the raw 180,000 people. The survey showed even such mun- power afforded to anyone with a gun. dane items as blankets, jerrycans and kitchen uten- BEEN ON THE Young girls have been recruited and are sils were last distributed on a large scale seven years affected in other less direct ways. Some can ago and those items have probably long since per- RUN SEEKING A now earn money through a flourishing ished. The report warned: “The non-renewal of SAFE PLACE TO prostitution racket, servicing the newly (such items) will aggravate the already precarious affluent young fighters. There is sexual situation in camps. This will result in the outbreak of LIVE… harassment (a 12-year-old who was being a number of diseases associated with cold, lack of hy- ritually abused by men was recently moved gienic facilities, etc.” HOWEVER, SHE to new foster parents), but other young girls, In Dadaab, where summer temperatures can JUST KEEPS who should be in school, willingly become reach above 40 degrees Celsius, refugees currently drinking partners in the camp’s six or seven receive 17 liters of water per day, but they are also ex- BUMPING INTO bars and then girlfriends of the gunmen. pected to feed their livestock from this amount. AFRICA’S Jette Isaksen has worked in Rwanda, There is only one toilet available for every 275 stu- Afghanistan, Kosovo and Liberia, but her dents at school compared with a target of one for ev- LATEST WAR. current job as a field officer visiting Nicla ery 20; there are 144 children for every classroom daily is different to those other frontline and one teacher for every 60 children. Because of assignments. “I’ve never been so scared as funding constraints, the gap will not be bridged in the here,” she said walking around the camp. “I near term and the report said the agency “will not don’t like the mood.” B have fulfilled its duty of addressing the basic rights of Ã

REFUGEES 19 AFRICA ON THE EDGE

the child to primary education.” protection from respiratory and other associated dis- Seventy-five percent of pregnant women are eases, privacy and emotional security.” anaemic. The space available to each refugee is less than three square meters—minimum standard is 3.5 FIGHTING FOR FUNDS square meters—and “shelters are in pathetic condi- Except for high profile emergencies such as Iraq, tions.” The report added that “failure to upgrade liv- money for any of the nearly 22 million people UN- ing conditions of the refugees... would hinder their HCR helps is increasingly difficult to obtain from tra-

Violence and upheaval since independence But Burundi is again at a crossroads

Tanzania, while there are several hundred thousand others who have lived abroad for several decades and are not officially counted. In the bizarre climate of central Africa, even as negotiations and fighting continued UNHCR/L.TAYLOR/CS/TZA•2002 side by side, so an estimated 40,000 Burundi- ans returned to peaceful parts of the country while a similar number fled the ongoing fight- ing elsewhere to seek refuge in a neighboring state. “I feel deeply that I had to come home,” Nduwimana, a 25-year-old mother of one child said, reflecting the optimism of the re- turnees looking forward to a more peaceful future. “I saw that other people from my area Seeking safety in neighboring Tanzania. were coming home and I didn’t want to miss the chance,” she said after hitching a ride on a twice-weekly UNHCR convoy from Tanzania, organized to help anyone wanting to take a chance on peace. t has been convulsed by violent conflict Hutu. The refugee agency has tried to bolster the for 30 years. Though it is one of Africa’s The two populations have competed for long-term chances of a successful outcome by smallest countries, in the last decade power virtually since national independence in also building schools and health centers for alone around 150,000 civilians were 1962 and a peaceful transfer of power was a rare both refugees and local communities, assist- killedI and 1.5 million more uprooted in the event. The future of the country and its six million ing the vulnerable and elderly and even help- landlocked state of Burundi. The world at population will now depend on the success of this ing to launch a ‘judicial clinic’ that travels large paid little attention. latest attempt to forge a lasting peace. through northern Burundi trying to settle dis- And like the continent as a whole, Burundi Even during the transition, there have been putes between local residents and returning is again at a crossroads. After years of patient mixed signals. Clashes between the Tutsi dom- refugees. diplomacy, first by Tanzania’s late President inated army and two major Hutu rebel groups, At the presidential handover, UNHCR’s se- Julius Nyerere and latterly by former South the Forces for the Defense of Democracy nior regional official, Wairimu Karago said the African President Nelson Mandela, the coun- (FDD) and the National Liberation Forces con- move was “very welcome and raises hopes for try in early May reached the mid-way point in tinued in parts of the country. a solution for the refugees. It may mean they the life of a three-year transitional national can come back home and end many years government. LARGEST REFUGEE POPULATION spent outside of Burundi. I would like to see To mark that occasion, President Pierre Burundians comprise the largest single this saga come to an end.” Buyoya, an ethnic Tutsi, handed over the of- refugee population in Africa. Some 570,000 The country has been here before, how- fice he seized in a coup in 1996 to his Vice civilians are officially recognized refugees, ever, and the future continues to hang in the President, Domitien Ndayizeye, an ethnic the great bulk of them living in neighboring balance. B

20 REFUGEES On the move in Sudan. ©PANOS/S. TORFINN ditional donors in the industrialized world. down to $70. Eventually we settled on something in TWO MILLION Some critics charge humanitarian agencies them- between. I felt I was in a bazaar in Istanbul bargaining selves have contributed to Africa’s funding problems for a carpet rather than trying to save people’s lives.” PEOPLE DIED by anticipating what donors are prepared to offer rather than realistically assessing actual needs on the HOPE AND DESPAIR FROM HIV/AIDS ground—effectively self-censoring requirements. West Africa is a microcosm of both the hope and IN 2001. That may be a good, levelheaded business ap- despair gripping the entire continent. It offers a warn- proach. A massive and ‘unreasonable’ increase in de- ing that things in even the most seemingly stable of ANOTHER mand for ‘regular’ African funding from levels the societies can quickly spin out of control or conversely, lenders have come to expect, might have the opposite that with the right help, countries can be patched EIGHT MILLION effect and could conceivably trigger a backlash affect- back together again. SUCCUMBED ing other global programs. In 1998 a village tailor and father of seven children But three years ago, Julia Taft, then the U.S. Assis- called Alie K. was captured by rebels in Sierra Leone TO OTHER tant Secretary of State, Bureau of Population, and in a gruesome ritual which became commonplace Refugees and Migration, effectively America’s top in a decade-long civil war, the guerrillas slashed off EASILY refugee official, told REFUGEES: “The dichotomy of his left hand. “Three of them did it, one pointing a TREATABLE how refugees were treated in say, Guinea, versus how gun, the others cutting,” Alie said. They also slashed those from Kosovo were treated, was totally unaccept- his right hand and whipped him before he fled into AILMENTS. AT able for all of us; unacceptable to spend less than $20 the bush. Because of profuse bleeding, “I ripped away THAT RATE THE million on 500,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and the rest of my left hand and threw it away because I then ask for $240 million for an equivalent number of could not hold it together while running,” he said. POPULATION refugees in Kosovo. It is not fair and it is not right.” Such atrocities became commonplace, but today, in Taft then outlined an approach Washington has a remarkable turnabout, Sierra Leone is enjoying a OF A urged ever since in funding discussions on Africa: “If fragile recovery after a 10-year-long civil war ended MODESTLY necessary, the donors should be the bad guys—UN- in 2002. A civilian government has been elected, the HCR ought to tell us what is really needed and force police and military are being rebuilt, some 14,000 SIZED the donors to say ‘We can’t afford that’ rather than set- United Nations troops help to keep the peace. UN- tling on the standard to what you think donors will be HCR and other humanitarian agencies have assisted EUROPEAN willing to give.” more than 220,000 refugees and hundreds of thou- COUNTRY Despite that rejoinder, little has changed and over- sands of internally displaced persons return home in all funding levels have continued to shrink. Regional the last two years, including around 26,000 refugees WOULD BE offices throughout the world are forced to fight and thus far in 2003. barter for every scarce dollar available in a bruising A so-called 4Rs pilot project was launched. High WIPED OUT IN annual process. One recent arrival in West Africa, un- Commissioner Ruud Lubbers described the 4Rs ini- LESS THAN A used to this cut and thrust, came away from his first tiative as an attempt to create a ‘seamless’ flow of assis- budget session literally shellshocked. “The field of- tance from governments, humanitarian and develop- DECADE. fice originally had targeted around $185 for every dis- ment agencies during the four major phases of a placed person to be helped,” he recalled. “This was cut refugee return—repatriation, reintegration, rehabili- Ã

REFUGEES 21 AFRICA ON THE EDGE UNHCR/R.WILKINSON/CS/LKA•2003 ©S. SALGADO•ZRE

UNHCR HAS tation and reconstruction. Some earlier refugee oper- As a teenager she fled Liberia in 1990 as that coun- ations were blighted by breakdowns in the chain of try plunged into its latest round of civil war. She APPROVED A aid, creating an infamous ‘gap’ in assistance and trekked on foot along the disease-ridden coastline of threatening to undermine the entire peace process the Guinea Gulf and eventually reached the capital of MINIMUM and create new waves of refugees. neighboring Côte d’Ivoire. A decade ago, Abidjan was STANDARD OF As UNHCR phases out its own participation in the epitome of the post-colonial African dream, a city Sierra Leone by 2005, having spent between $80 and of gleaming office towers, sophisticated French ASSISTANCE $100 million there, development agencies such as the restaurants, dapper diplomats, thriving business and World Bank will take over, accelerating long-term re- black Africa’s only iceskating rink overlooking an- EVERY REFUGEE construction of increasing numbers of schools, clinics cient mangrove swamps. SHOULD and other infrastructure. Liberian refugees and hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leone recently opened a Truth and Recon- guest workers from neighboring states fueled the eco- RECEIVE BUT ciliation Commission, similar to the panel South nomic expansion but lived in somewhat less salubri- Africa created to help that country overcome the ous circumstances, in a chain of Abidjan slums. EVEN THOSE trauma and crimes of the apartheid era. President Abigail managed to complete her education and BASIC Ahmed Tejan Kabbah said this commission would of- became a teacher in the town of Tabou, near the bor- fer “a therapeutic contribution to the peace process, der of the two countries, but late last year the Ivorian BENCHMARKS the healing of trauma and the removal of the emo- dream, which had been slowly unravelling for several COVERING tional scars of the armed conflict.” years, imploded into civil war between the govern- The first witness, Tamba Finnoh, described how ment and military rebels. SUCH he had been abducted and had his right arm severed, The unthinkable happened. Panic-stricken Liberi- but then added, “I have put everything behind me and an refugees, Ivorian citizens and guest workers fled NECESSITIES AS I am ready to forgive.” the country, nearly 100,000 of them to Liberia, itself FOOD, WATER still in the grip of that same conflict Abigail had fled 13 ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE years earlier. The Liberian teacher was again among AND SHELTER In comparison, 26-year-old Abigail is continuing the civilian flood tide on the move, undertaking what to live the ultimate refugee nightmare, a symbol of the New York Times called a journey from “one bank ARE just how quickly things can go wrong in the most un- of hell to another… a darkly absurd and what may REGULARLY likely of places. prove to be an ultimately futile voyage for safety.” Since the age of 13, she has been constantly on the And so it turned out for Abigail. A UNHCR pro- BREACHED IN run, seeking a safe place to live. That refuge, however, tection unit spot-checking the border region recently has eluded her and she just keeps bumping into came across her at a checkpoint inside Côte d’Ivoire. AFRICA. Africa’s latest war. “I knew the horror that I was returning to in

22 REFUGEES the country. “There was no food. There was no law and order,” she said. “Men with guns took anything

UNHCR/R. CHALASANI/CS/YUG•2001 they wanted. The whole country was in a panic.” For a second time she decided to do the unthink- able—escape from one war for the ‘safety’ of another, retracing her steps once again. Carrying one small ny- lon bag containing two sets of clothing and a few cos- metics, she again walked to the frontier, crossed and hitched the bus to her old ‘home’ in the coastal town of Tabou before the soldiers stopped her. Having escaped possible death, she now faced the Refugee conditions can be very different in Africa prospect of rape. One of the soldiers took away her compared with Europe. refugee identity card and said he might return it the next morning—but only if she slept with him. Liberia,” she said quietly sitting beside an ancient bus “I will do it,” the woman, single, attractive and to- with 26 other passengers as nervous but belligerent tally vulnerable to such coercion, told UNHCR pro- Ivorian soldiers poked through their belongings and tection officer Chiara Cardoletti. “What is one night of debated her immediate fate. “My father and most of misery compared with a whole life of degradation?” my family were killed in the last few years,” she said. Negotiations, phone calls, threats and bluster. Abi- “But the radio said things were quiet in Liberia, better gail was eventually released unharmed. A small but than here” where all Liberians increasingly were be- important protection victory was achieved amid ing labelled as rebels or dope smugglers. widespread misery and suffering. She walked for two days in Liberia to reach the vil- lage where her mother lived, but the war there was CHANGING EXPECTATIONS steadily engulfing eastern as well as western parts of Panos Moumtzis, a veteran of earlier refugee emer-

Africa’s worst war It may be ‘mission impossible’ to help all the uprooted civilians in the heart of the continent brightly colored United Nations nored in the world at large as the bloodletting cratic Congo. Field staff there and colleagues map tells the story of the Congo. continued unabated. in surrounding states were charged with trying It is a crazy patchwork of yel- The combatants have now signed a series to assist all the hapless civilians repeatedly lows, greens, blues, pinks and of peace pacts, most foreign troops withdrew criss-crossing each others tracks and national Aeven soft pinks and is a vivid representation and the United Nations dispatched a tiny frontiers and eventually returning the major- of the reality on the ground—areas con- 4,300 garrison to reinforce the fragile peace. ity to their home villages. trolled by the government and various rebel Clumps of refugees are spread across tens splinter groups. A diagonal slash—a so-called THE HUMAN COST of thousands of square miles of often impene- demilitarized zone—divides the territory of- Some two million Congolese civilians were trable rain forest and savannah grassland. ficially known as the Democratic Republic of internally uprooted in the latest conflagration There are virtually no roads, basic security is Congo which has been riven by war for nearly and another 400,000 left the country entirely, often nonexistent and periodic massacres five years. seeking sanctuary in surrounding countries. continue. Nearly nine years after they first re- The Washington based International Res- But some of those ‘host’ nations were also treated into these forests, the remnants of an cue Committee recently put a price tag on the in a state of war. In a tragic cross fertilization army of Rwandan refugees who escaped that conflict: an estimated 3.3 million people per- of misery, 330,000 civilians from Angola, country’s genocide, are still emerging every ished in a war which at times sucked in six Uganda, the neighboring Republic of Congo, week from the eerie heart of the continent. armies from surrounding countries in what the Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Re- A major operation to repatriate thousands advocacy group called “the deadliest docu- public made the trek into Democratic of Angolans is getting underway this year, but mented conflict in African history.” Congo—searching for assistance in a country in the face of such enormous difficulties, the But like many of Africa’s long-running wars, so many others were trying to leave. overall humanitarian rescue mission for many and despite being among the most deadly in On the humanitarian front, UNHCR estab- refugees could turn out to be a ‘mission im- recent history, this one, too, was largely ig- lished a network of 10 offices across Demo- possible.’ B

REFUGEES 23 | COVER STORY |

ON THE MEND Crossing the border A wall of fear and major consequences for millions of people

t is the last and most difficult obstacle must honor the 1951 Geneva Conven- between fear and chaos and possible sal- tion.” vation. Every one of the more than 50 A passing UNHCR group is delighted million refugees UNHCR has helped since to discover support for the Refugee 1951I has undergone the ordeal. Untold num- Convention in such an unlikely place, bers of others have tried and failed. even if it may be just a calculated ges- The immense tide of ‘normal’ global travel- ture to the visitors. ers and tourists who cross frontiers each day UNHCR/R. WILKINSON/CS/CIV•2003 with minimal inconvenience have little sense CUTOFF of the immense barrier of worry fraught with Life can be tough, not just for the unimaginable consequences the same process refugees, but also for the locals here. presents to the would-be refugee. A negative Moore has not seen or heard from his response may mean renewed persecution, family in Monrovia, the cutoff and dis- starvation or even death in the country they tant Liberian capital, for two years. He are trying to escape; a ‘yes’ the chance of has been paid only fitfully. He is eager to refuge and a new start to life. talk to strangers. “Why are we Africans Today, fleeing civilians may traverse bor- killing each other all the time?” he asks. ders in gleaming aircraft, sleek trains, by car or “There should be peace here. We are by truck. Human traffickers have turned the from the same tribe. But they are killing business of transporting people on the run each other in Iraq, too,” he adds. into a multi-billion dollar enterprise strad- The refugees begin to cross, eight to dling the globe. a single dugout canoe, their few remain- Africans often take the old fashioned ing possessions piled high around them. route, walking or hitching rides on ramshackle A ‘dash’ (bribe) here and there, a huge buses for days to reach a crossing—a small hut fare for the dugout canoe is common to with a single pole slung across the road, or a Shakedown at the Ivorian border. speed the process. forbidding natural river barrier—where they One woman has delivered a baby in can be greeted with remarkable friendship or the bush and her five-year-old sister cra- subject to an official gauntlet of interminable dles the newly born girl. Another woman delay and financial and sexual harassment. middle of two wars, some are now beginning has walked for five days with her daughter to They move in small groups or, as in the case to return. reach this spot. The four-year-old youngster is of the exodus from Rwanda in 1994, flooding The situation is confused. One Ivorian said named Promise. into then eastern Zaire, hundreds of thou- the border was sealed; another said it was And now the ritual humiliation. The Patri- sands each day for several days. open. ‘Officialdom’ is represented by several ots, enjoying their unaccustomed power, sim- unsavory Young Patriots, a government militia ply tip the arrivals belongings onto the OFF THE BEATEN TRACK thrown together to man road and river barri- ground. The cross-dresser in the black evening Nero is a nondescript border point on the cades. They are armed with ancient rifles, ma- gown is particularly vigorous. ‘Suspicious’ Cavally River between Liberia and Côte chetes and knives. One wears a woman’s black items such as radios and torches are examined d’Ivoire, several hours off the main tarmac evening gown. minutely. A few things are confiscated and road through a maze of oil palm plantations Liberian representatives use a dugout ca- thrown into a pile. Civilians are interrogated. and rain forest. It is a difficult place to find noe to cross the 100 meter barrier to discuss They have virtually no money left, little even when someone is looking for it. A bam- the situation. The Liberian side is also closed food, few possessions and once they move in- boo flag pole, an open-sided lean-to and a re- though 50-60 civilians are gathered there, land will again face the hostility of Ivorians ception area of beaten earth mark the spot. fleeing a war edging closer to the frontier who have seen their own country pulled One hundred meters across the sluggish river, each day. They may have no alternative but to apart. the Liberian flag hangs limply in the heat. return to the conflict. Despite that, the crossing has been rela- Several months ago, tens of thousands of Edward Moore, the Liberian Collector of tively benign; completed in one day and ev- Liberians, Ivorians and guest workers fled the Customs explains in perfect English: “We have eryone allowed to enter. chaos enveloping Côte d’Ivoire for the equally had instructions that no one can cross.” But Now, from somewhere deep in the bush dangerous territory of Liberia. Caught in the then he adds, “But we will let them go. We they must find a bus… or start walking again. B

24 REFUGEES gencies including the aftermath of the first Gulf War, Somalia and Africa’s Great Lakes crisis in the mid-1990s, had been looking forward to his transfer to Abidjan as something different in the refugee ex- perience. “I had such a positive feeling. For once, amidst so much misery, this would be a happy project.” Along the coast in Tabou, the new head of that office, Anne Dolan, another old hand at ‘normal’ refugee emergencies, had that same hope. “Surprise, surprise,” Dolan said later. At one point, Côte d’Ivoire hosted some UNHCR protection officers interview fleeing Liberian refugees.

200,000 Liberian refugees. Many had been UNHCR/R. WILKINSON/CS/CIV•2003 welcomed “as brothers and sisters in dis- tress” by the country’s founding father, President Felix Houphouet-Boigny and had integrat- pariahs in neighboring states, branded as trouble ed into local communities. There was only one small makers or worse—rebels, gun runners, drug dealers. refugee camp called Nicla for around 3,000 people. Conditions inside the country, sandwiched between In such a seemingly benign atmosphere, Moumtzis the hope of Sierra Leone and despair of Côte WEST AFRICA IS and Dolan expected to concentrate on projects to pro- d’Ivoire, have continued to deteriorate. mote integration, education and self-help “something On a recent visit High Commissioner Lubbers A MICROCOSM really positive and more satisfying than seeing so said flatly: “The picture is pretty clear: it’s a disaster” much suffering and death all the time in other crises.” and he went on to accuse the Liberian government OF BOTH THE In the capital, on the night of September 18-19 last of “killing your own people.” One senior aid official HOPE AND year, Moumtzis woke to the rattle of gunfire—the start described Liberia as the ‘rogue elephant’ of West of a conflict which sent the once stable country into a Africa, a country at war with itself since 1989, but DESPAIR tailspin and change the lives of not only the refugees also exporting chaos and anarchy to its neighbors sheltering there, but also many tens of thousands of like a ‘cancer.’ GRIPPING THE locals and guest workers from surrounding countries. Much of the country is now off limits. Aid work- CONTINENT. IT “Virtually overnight, there was a 180-degree turn ers withdrew from eastern Liberia following the in UNHCR operations,” Moumtzis said. “Building brutal murder of three officials from the American OFFERS A schools, clinics, infrastructure, helping refugees to Adventist group ADRA earlier this year. In a gener- continue to integrate was out. We moved into normal al state of anarchy several weeks later, just across WARNING THAT emergency mode—trying to provide people with a the border in Côte d’Ivoire, four local Red Cross THINGS IN EVEN safe place to stay, getting them out of dangerous situa- workers were also deliberately killed. tions. Xenophobia and nationalism destroyed the The World Food Program reduced food rations THE MOST brotherhood and good neighborliness.” to recipients for April and May. By spring, wary STABLE OF As Dolan helped a sad procession of people to cross donors had provided just two percent of the $42.6 into Liberia she recalled: “Everyone was faced with million funding requested in a U.N. humanitarian SOCIETIES CAN this awful dilemma. ‘Should I stay here where I might appeal for this year. well be killed, or should I go to Liberia where I might At a high-level strategy meeting in Geneva, hu- QUICKLY SPIN also be killed, but maybe less quickly?’ It was so dread- manitarian officials debated the possible options OUT OF ful to watch.” available to help Liberia’s stricken civilian popula- In April, some of the civilians who fled to Liberia tion: establish safe corridors for aid convoys; air- CONTROL OR, began to return. With virtually no aid officials present drops; physical safe havens; an international peace in eastern Liberia, UNHCR monitored the common force; cross-border operations. Each was examined CONVERSELY, border, providing assistance where it could, trying to and put aside as unworkable without a political so- COUNTRIES CAN help several thousand refugees move into several lution also being implemented. hastily established transit centers for their own safety, BE PATCHED asking neighboring countries to take some of the THE FIRST CONTACT threatened Liberians. There were few offers. UNHCR began operations in 1951, principally to TOGETHER “It is a sad reality that what might take decades to help refugees in Europe in the aftermath of World AGAIN. build up can be destroyed almost overnight,” War II, but several years later, the agency began its Moumtzis said. long association with Africa. On 31 May 1957, the then Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Bourguiba ROGUE ELEPHANT asked UNHCR to “examine the way in which the Long suffering Liberian refugees have become High Commissioner will be able to help my govern- Ã

REFUGEES 25 AFRICA ON THE EDGE

ment resolve the problem of Alge- Jeff Crisp of UNHCR’s evaluation unit traced the rian refugees” who were fleeing to beginning of a ‘deteriorating climate’ towards neighboring states from that refugees and their increasing incarceration in camps country’s war of independence to the mid-1980s. Western countries had, he said, be- against France. gun to toughen their legislation towards asylum seek- The agency responded and ers, encouraging African countries to follow suit; during the same crisis it became refugee numbers increased dramatically at the same UNHCR/A. HOLLMANN/CS/ZRE/•1994 involved for the first time in so- time as African economies deteriorated; and per- called post-conflict situations— versely the spread of democracy allowed an increas- helping former refugees once they ing number of politicians to use refugee issues as po- had returned home. “The fate of litical footballs. repatriated ex-refugees can no Today, an estimated 2.4 million people live in 267 longer be disassociated from that camps worldwide, 170 of these sites being in Africa. A massive refugee camp for Rwandans of the Algerian population as a Images of tents and huts sprawling seemingly for- in Tanzania. whole without seriously endan- ever across the African landscape have become syn- gering the country’s social stabili- onymous with the plight of refugees and video footage ty,” High Commissioner Felix Schnyder wrote at the has dramatically captured the often squalid condi- time, establishing an important benchmark for UN- tions of tens or hundreds of thousands of people HCR’s future protection work. packed tightly together, spawning disease and crime, In 1969, Africa made another important contribu- damaging the local environment and becoming natu- tion towards overall refugee protection when the Or- ral recruiting centers or hiding places for bands of “IT IS A SAD ganization of African Unity (OAU) adopted its own armed militias. REALITY THAT convention which, for the first time extended refugee Increasingly, however, African governments who recognition to people fleeing in large groups and es- are ultimately responsible for deciding where WHAT MIGHT caping such things as external aggression, occupation refugees should be located, decided that for security TAKE DECADES or foreign domination. It included the now universal- reasons, to protect the interest of local communities ly accepted principle of ‘voluntary’ repatriation. threatened by a large influx and to more easily ‘show TO BUILD UP During those early, post-colonial days, many civil- case’ large concentrations of refugees to visiting jour- ians seeking safety in African countries simply moved nalists and politicians in a search for international CAN BE into established communities—in official parlance funding, camps were the preferred option despite DESTROYED they became locally integrated. their obvious drawbacks. In succeeding decades, however, this pattern According to Jeff Crisp these camps can have other ALMOST changed and more and more refugees were housed in useful purposes. Some refugees may prefer to inte- sprawling camps—sparking lively and often acrimo- grate locally if their new neighbors are from the same OVERNIGHT.” nious debate among governments and humanitarians ethnic background. But they may cling to camps for about who was responsible for spreading this ‘camp safety reasons if they find themselves in a different culture’ and the advantages or disadvantages of the ethnic environment. Too, the compounds may serve system. as the safety net component of a larger survival strate-

Hope replaces ‘misery and desperation’ Angola contemplates a brighter future, but will need help for a long time.

his is the nightmare. The dead That was the assessment four years ago of country’s rebel movement, UNITA, and An- already number in the hun- Catherine Bertini, then head of the World gola has undergone a remarkable transfor- “ dreds of thousands, the muti- Food Program, talking of Angola. mation. lated more than 100,000 and Earlier this year, U.N. Secretary-General The shooting stopped, fighters were de- theT displaced well into the millions. Because Kofi Annan, in a report on the same country, mobilized, as many as 1.5 million of the coun- of the killings, kidnaps, land mines and dis- concluded that “Angolans can live without try’s four million persons displaced within ease it is the worst place in the world for fear of a recurrent and devastating war.” the country returned home ‘spontaneously’, children to grow up in, and should they sur- Three decades of murderous civil conflict as did around 100,000 of some 470,600 vive, they will inherit a vast plain of scorched effectively ended in April last year following refugees who were living in surrounding earth.” the death of Jonas Savimbi, the head of the countries.

26 REFUGEES ©S. SALGADO•AGO

gy—younger and stronger refugees venture further establish themselves in nearby villages and towns, Education is the afield to seek work while women and children remain find jobs and, hopefully, become productive members key to successful in a camp where they are assured a degree of safety of Zambian society. refugee reintegration. and at least minimum humanitarian supplies. Iraq, and Afghanistan before it, suggested that the To try to balance conflicting interests, humanitar- international community focuses on one major crisis ian groups such as UNHCR developed a range of at a time. Africa, however, remains in permanent cri- more flexible programs. Increasing attention has sis and UNHCR’s David Lambo worried that “We are been paid to assisting both refugee and local commu- fighting for space on the world stage. But we cannot nities in the construction of schools, clinics or roads. give up on Africa.” While camps will always be necessary in some cir- For his part, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers cumstances, the refugee agency has encouraged ex- insisted he would continue to “raise the issue with de- panded local integration whenever possible. In Zam- veloped countries that they must focus more on bia, for instance, one recently launched project will African refugees” whatever the situation in other assist some of the 247,000 refugees in that country to parts of the world. B

An organized repatriation of other said. They often survived on berries and to begin farming or work again, even if given refugees gets underway this summer by UN- roots. “Many were found in the bush where the opportunity. Food supplies may begin HCR, which has opened several offices in they were born and where they grew up and appearing in marketplaces, but most people border regions as partner agencies busily re- many didn’t even know the war had finished.” are too poor to buy anything. Schools may habilitated schools, clinics and water points The country’s entire infrastructure—roads, reopen but many children don’t even speak in anticipation of an ongoing return. bridges, schools, hospitals, the environ- Portuguese, the official language. Families ment—was destroyed, making it difficult and have been split up and out of touch, often DIFFICULT FUTURE often impossible for people to return to their for decades. Malnutrition and early death Encouraging though those developments old villages and begin life again, and for hu- from easily treatable diseases are huge. have been, Angola faces a very difficult future. manitarian agencies to reach and help them. Potentially rich though it may be in min- Much of the country was off limits to the It remains one of the most booby-trapped erals and oil, faced with such overwhelming outside world during the conflict and when countries in the world with unimaginable difficulties Angola will need international aid officials began investigating they found numbers of mines buried in the fertile earth. support for many years to complete the “a world of misery and desperation,” accord- Civilians face a jolting return home. Many transition from war to stability, but it re- ing to UNHCR’s Lucia Teoli. “A large part of have been dependent for years on food mains unclear whether such assistance will the population was close to starvation,” she handouts, and it will be a difficult transition be forthcoming. B

REFUGEES 27 IRAQ: What happened? The recent war did not produce a flood of refugees,

hey were among the most anticipated military plans rarely survive the first few by the coalition forces: “It seems that the crises in modern humanitarian histo- days of any war. The same is true in trying early allied military strategy of bypassing ry. Millions of refugees, were expect- to plan humanitarian crises. Surprise is the major cities, selective bombing of military Ted to flood across porous borders to es- only non-surprise in any emergency. targets and warnings to civilians to stay at cape the impending military onslaught. At the beginning of the Kosovo conflict home and off the main roads limited the Appeals for funds were launched. Emer- in 1999, not even the most sophisticated number of civilians on the move.” gency supplies were stockpiled amid pre- government intelligence agencies predict- Sten Bronee, UNHCR’s Representative dictions of catastrophe. Teams were dis- ed that Serbian forces would deliberately in Jordan said: “People had property and patched to mountain and desert outposts. empty the region of hundreds of thousands they didn’t want to leave. Fatigue set in. The The global media, which has become an of ethnic Albanians at the point of a gun. In conflict was déjà vu for the Iraqis.” And integral part of all major crises, dispatched those circumstances, even if humanitarian British journalist Jonathan Steele added: its own formidable legion of hundreds of organizations had anticipated the ethnic “People developed a nonchalance about the reporters, photographers and cameramen cleansing—which they did not—they would bombing. By the time water and power to cover the unfolding dramas. have been powerless to mobilize major re- shortages began to hit, the fact that Saddam But first, on the borders of Afghanistan sources in the face of big power scepticism. was already gone cancelled things out.” two years ago, and early this year with Iraq, This time, there were conflicting con- the horizon remained largely empty and clusions. There were many solid reasons to THE FUTURE the anticipated flood tides of fleeing civil- plan for a major civilian exodus from Iraq Now what? ians were little more than a trickle. Aid of- once American-led forces began their as- In reviewing events, Ron Redmond said: ficials waited. Journalists became frustrat- sault. Several million Iraqis had abandoned “It was imperative that we prepared the ed that the action was passing them by. the country in previous decades. Following necessary programs based on unfolding So what happened? the first Gulf War in 1991, an estimated two events. We did that and were satisfied with Predicting refugee outflows is an inex- million people fled from their homes. In an- our planning. We were not unhappy that act science at best. Planners review a situa- ticipation of this ‘medium case’ scenario, hundreds of thousands of new refugees tion, especially if war is likely, the history of UNHCR drew up plans to assist as many as were not created, adding to the nearly 22 the region, earlier civilian exoduses, re- 600,000 refugees. At the same time, how- million people we are already trying to help ports from their own regional field offices ever, senior spokesman Ron Redmond pub- around the world.” and any government and military intelli- licly cautioned that, depending on develop- In the aftermath of the short, Ameri- gence they can glean in reaching an assess- ments in the war itself, few if any refugees can-led war in Afghanistan, UNHCR ment of how events may unfold and the as- might try to leave. switched plans from dealing with a poten- sistance that will be needed. In the event, of course, few did. The In- tial exodus, to helping long exiled refugees ternational Institute for Strategic Studies go the other way, back into the country. SURPRISE, SURPRISE in London said the nonappearance of More than two million people returned the It is a historical truism that the best laid refugees was tied directly to the tactics used first year and that repatriation is ongoing.

28 REFUGEES What next? but many longtime exiles may now go home UNHCR/L. BOLDRINI/DP/JOR•2003 Though the international spotlight has around one half of this group may need tional law enforcement institutions,” the been turned down somewhat on Iraq, the help in going home. spokesman added. “Material safety includes refugee agency is now putting some of the From the above group, Iran hosts half of access to basic services, things like potable manpower, financial and stockpile re- the 400,000 Iraqi refugees living in places water, food and health services. sources already in place to similar uses in as far flung as Sri Lanka, South Africa and “Over the longer term, we need to see that country. Argentina, and around 165,000 people from measures to ensure sustainable reintegra- The situation inside Iraq remains un- this group may eventually return. tion. Legal safety includes the redress of certain. Fragile religious and ethnic ten- A further 183,000 refugees are solidly human rights violations, non-discrimina- sions could yet spark a future civilian out- integrated in industrialized nations and a tion and unhindered access to justice.” flow, especially since the roads have become small number, perhaps 35,000, may opt to The returnees, like the population at comparatively safe for civilian travel. go back to their ancestral homeland. large, will face a series of other daunting Stockpiled emergency items such as Of the 84,000 Iraqis currently seeking practical difficulties, ranging from an esti- tents, stoves, cooking pots, blankets and asylum, primarily in developed nations, mated eight million land mines strewn plastic sheeting will remain in place for the some 60,000, are expected to repatriate. across the northern part of the country, to a time being and eventually will be used in- Of the 450,000 Iraqis living in ‘refugee- barely functioning infrastructure and the side Iraq or elsewhere. like’ situations, primarily in Jordan and large-scale destruction of public property And there is now an ambitious new pro- Syria where they work illegally, as many as records, citizenship papers and other im- gram to help not the anticipated new 240,000 may return. portant documentation. refugees created by the latest war, but as Two-thirds of returning refugees are ex- many as 500,000 of an untold number of EXPANSION pected to go back to urban areas in central Iraqis who had fled their country in earlier To oversee this mass return, UNHCR and southern Iraq and the others to rural years, but who may now wish to go home plans to expand its current Middle East net- areas, primarily ethnic Kurds to Iraq’s three and restart their lives there. work, mobilizing 250 mostly Iraqi staff to northern provinces. The budget for preliminary repatria- open 15 offices around the country and man Other unfinished humanitarian busi- tion and reintegration is $118 million over six mobile monitoring teams. ness includes the future of some thousands eight months, which would mean the agen- All returns will be screened to ensure of civilians displaced within Iraq itself, so- cy working within the levels of the previ- that they are ‘voluntary’ and that the Iraqis called internally displaced persons. ous Iraq emergency budget of $154 million. are not harried or ousted from their host UNHCR’s mandate does not directly Several million Iraqis probably left dur- countries. A series of benchmarks are be- cover IDPs, but since their experience and ing Saddam Hussein’s rule. Of those, the ing established “to provide for the physical, situations are often similar to refugees, U.N. refugee agency estimated some material and legal safety and well-being of UNHCR has often helped both groups as it 900,000 were asylum seekers, refugees or the returnees,” Redmond said. did in the Balkans. other civilians living in refugee-like situa- “This includes an end to violence and It may do the same again in Iraq if called tions. Preliminary estimates suggested insecurity and the establishment of opera- upon to do so by the United Nations. B

REFUGEES 29 A NEW MOTHER TERESA An Italian doctor is honored for decades of lonely work to combat disease and prejudice in a forgotten corner of the world

by Kitty McKinsey

five-year-old boy, his hunchback spine testify- tients in fluent Somali. Children call her ‘grandmoth- ing to his battle with tuberculosis, picks up his er’ and snuggle close as she explains that these now aluminum walking frame and determinedly thriving toddlers were brought in as severely mal- weaves between the hospital beds just to show nourished babies, weighing—at six months old—less thatA he can. A 39-year-old woman whose arms and than a newborn should. She ends her rigorous routine legs contracted into a fetal position a year ago, takes a in the early hours of the next day, writing letters of SHE HAS few steps from her own metal bed to show that she has thanks to private benefactors. regained her health. The face of Marian Hassan Almost seven years ago she made her home in Bo- BRAVED Duale, a 60-year-old woman who was brought to hos- rama, an arid town where a fierce wind funnels desert BEATINGS, pital in a coma, lights up as she described the “miracle” sand into tornado-like formations, a place with far of her own recovery. more goats and camels than cars. Her hospital treats KIDNAPPING, Their ‘savior’ is a 60-year-old Italian doctor named some 200 inpatients and another 200 outpatients. Annalena Tonelli, who has braved beatings, kidnap- Eight of the wards were built for her by UNHCR, in- BANDITRY AND ping, banditry and death threats to wage a 33-year- cluding the only two-storey building in town, still un- DEATH long, one-woman battle against tuberculosis, AIDS, der construction. illiteracy, blindness, malnutrition and female genital She spurns the comfortable life and repeatedly em- THREATS TO mutilation in the middle of nowhere in the Horn of phasizes her lifelong passion to a visitor. “ I am desper- Africa. ately in love with TB patients” she says at one point WAGE A In recognition of her lifelong and lonely crusade, and adds later “I want to be poor up to the last day of 33-YEAR-LONG Dr. Tonelli was recently awarded the 2003 Nansen my life.” Refugee Award, a prize created in 1954 to honor indi- She lives simply, eating the same food—meat only ONE-WOMAN viduals or organizations that have distinguished twice a week, more often maize meal or rice and BATTLE themselves in work on behalf of refugees. The Award beans—that she feeds her patients. Her home has a was named after Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian polar television so that deaf children can watch videos in AGAINST explorer and the world’s first High Commissioner for sign language, but she never watches it herself. She refugees and includes $100,000 to be donated to a learned about the war in Iraq only from the Somali TUBERCULOSIS, refugee project of the recipient’s choice. doctors on her staff. AIDS, Dr. Tonelli, Annalena to her patients and a new The doctor owns just two modest caftans. Her san- Mother Teresa to some visitors, works alone, person- dals were given to her by a patient, and her headscarf ILLITERACY, ally raising the $20,000 cash needed every month to was a gift from her staff. She feels her poverty is essen- fund medical projects and pay a staff of 75 at her hos- tial to breaking down walls between herself and the BLINDNESS pital. She broke her vow to ‘stay hidden’ and avoid pub- people she serves. “I would never be able to render ser- AND FEMALE licity to accept the Nansen Award in the hope it would vice if I had clothes and furniture and all the things refocus the international spotlight on the chronic which are normal for our society,” she says. GENITAL problems of Somalia, long since overshadowed by other world hotspots. INEVITABLE CLASH MUTILATION But don’t talk to her about sacrifice—it’s a word that IN THE MIDDLE GRUELING DAYS makes her laugh. A devout Roman Catholic, she says: A slim woman with grey hair pulled into a bun and “The word ‘sacrifice’ has no meaning in my life. I don’t OF NOWHERE. covered modestly with a shawl in the manner of the hide it has been a very hard life in many senses, but it local women, Dr. Tonelli has trained herself to sleep has been a life of joy, a life of happiness, gratification, a only four hours a night. privilege.” She begins her workday at 7 a.m. consulting with It’s the life she wanted from the age of five: “My her foreign-trained Somali physicians. As she then longing, my yearning, my pining from the time I was makes her daily rounds, Dr. Tonelli chats with her pa- so small was to serve people who are suffering.”

30 REFUGEES UNHCR/E. PARSONS/DP/SOM•2003 not a fully qualified physician. In the 1970s, a new drug reduced TB treatment to six months, rather than 12 to 18, which had been standard before. Dr. Tonelli pioneered the “short-course” TB treatment in Africa, an approach that since has been adopted as a model by the World Health Organization (WHO). What makes her treatment so effective—she claims a cure rate of 96 percent—is that she forces many of the Somali no- mads to live in her compound until they are truly cured. Outpatients are tracked diligently. Since 1986, she has made her home in Somalia, first in the capital, Mo- gadishu, where she supplied food to thousands of starving residents, and later Merca, in southern Somalia, again treating tuberculosis patients. After being repeatedly beaten up, and kidnapped once, she fled; the woman doctor she trained to replace her was killed a year later. She then responded to a request by WHO to continue her fight against tuberculosis, this time in relatively peaceful Somaliland. She expanded her activities, help- “Mother Teresa” and patient. ing to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, an opportunistic disease which preys on She has found plenty of them in her long years in weakened TB sufferers. She set up a school for deaf Africa. Fresh out of law school at 26, she moved to and disabled children and sponsors the visit twice a northeastern Kenya to teach Somali nomads and it year of surgeons from a German charity who have re- was there in 1970 that she became aware of the plight stored the vision to 3,700 people suffering from of people stricken with tuberculosis. She was touched cataracts. She is also passionate about the fight against not only by their physical suffering, but also by the female genital mutilation and says she has persuaded emotional pain they underwent at being outcasts be- nearly all the traditional circumcision practitioners in cause of their disease, one that flourishes in conditions Borama to give up the practice and join her campaign. of poverty, overcrowding and malnutrition. Even at 60, Dr. Tonelli shows no signs of slowing In addition to her law degree, she went on to earn down. If she’s ever forced to leave Somalia, “I will help diplomas in tropical medicine, community medicine, people who suffer somewhere else,” she says quietly. and control of tuberculosis and leprosy though she is “The world is full of people who suffer.” B

Sadruddin Aga Khan

ormer High Commissioner Prince for 12 years through one of its most turbulent UNHCR/J. LOWE FSadruddin Aga Khan died in Boston in periods. This included the 1971 Bangladesh cri- early May after a long illness. Prince Sadruddin, sis in which 10 million people were uprooted, the uncle of Karim Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the 1972 exodus of hundreds of thousands of 12 million Ismaili Muslims, devoted his entire Hutus from Burundi and the exodus of the adult life to humanitarian work before his death Indochinese boat people in the mid-1970s. at the age of 70. He became the youngest person Sadruddin Aga Khan, in 1974. ever to lead UNHCR when he became High After leaving UNHCR in 1977, he continued his Commissioner in 1966 at the age of 33, having humanitarian work on behalf of the U.N. in var- received international recognition including served the previous three years as Deputy High ious parts of the world including Afghanistan the French Légion d’honneur and the United Commissioner. He guided the refugee agency and Iraq. He published several books and Nations Human Rights Award.

REFUGEES 31