(04/03/01) -- Rebel attacks on refugees returning home to Sierra Leone cast doubt on a new United Nations plan for "safe passage" through rebel-held territory, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch research found that Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels are raping, killing and abducting Sierra Leonean refugees fleeing desperate conditions in refugee camps in Guinea. The findings raise serious questions about the viability of so-called "safe passage" or humanitarian corridors through rebel territory for returning refugees, as proposed in February by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).Human Rights Watch documented abuses against refugees from December 2000 through mid-March 2001 in the Koinadugu, Kailahun and Kono districts of eastern Sierra Leone. It said RUF soldiers are attacking returnees in Sierra Leone as they trek for days, and sometimes weeks, in an attempt to reach the government-held towns of Kenema, Kabala and Daru.
"The so-called 'safe passage' for refugees is far from safe," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division. "The United Nations must not lend its authority to a scheme that will only mean more suffering for traumatized refugees."
The returning Sierra Leonean refugees have been under siege in refugee camps in Guinea since September 2000, when cross-border attacks flared between Sierra Leonean, Guinean, and Liberian government forces, rebels, and militia groups. The Guinean government estimates that hundreds have died in this border violence, and that over 100,000 Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees and thousands of Guineans have been displaced.
The recently appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, visited the sub-region in February 2001, to assess the refugee crisis described by UNHCR as the worst in the world. After meetings with the leaders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, he proposed relocating the refugees to camps further within Guinea. Lubbers also suggested a strategy of "safe passage," allowing refugees to return to Sierra Leone both overland through RUF territory and by boat from the Guinean capital of Conakry to Sierra Leone's government-controlled capital, Freetown. UNHCR established contact with the RUF to seek a commitment to allow the "safe passage" of refugees.
Since early February, tens of thousands of refugees have been relocated from the border region by UNHCR. According to UNHCR, as of March 23, 2001, some 59,000 Sierra Leonean refugees had returned from Guinea to Sierra Leone since September 2000, many of them of their own accord. Some 40,000 have returned by boat from Conakry, and some 13,000 by foot to Lungi, north of Freetown. Some 5,000 are believed to have passed through RUF-held areas of Sierra Leone. However, more than 135,000 are still stranded in the Guinean refugee camps located in the Parrot's Beak region bordering RUF-held areas of Sierra Leone. These camps remain vulnerable to attack, largely cut off from food assistance and protection.
Based on its findings of continuing RUF brutality against returning refugees, Human Rights Watch believes that the protection of refugees would be seriously compromised if UNHCR goes ahead with plans to establish "safe passage" through RUF territory. Despite assurances received by UNHCR during its meetings with RUF leaders in Sierra Leone, any form of overland travel by refugees through RUF territory should be discouraged by UNHCR.
Instead, UNHCR should make as its priority the protection and relocation of the refugees to more secure camps further inland within Guinea. Refugees should be provided with full and objective information on which to base decisions about return, and those who wish to return should be assisted with transport to Conakry where they can safely return by boat to Freetown.
The international community, including UNHCR, should provide assistance to returning refugees, many of whom join the already over-crowded camps for displaced persons around Freetown.
Among the scores of returnees who gave detailed accounts of serious rebel abuses to Human Rights Watch, numerous men who passed through the diamond-rich district of Kono and the rebel stronghold of Kailahun described recruitment of able-bodied men and boys as young as fifteen to fight with the RUF forces or to carry out forced labor in the diamond mines or with the rebel army. Four men were killed for refusing recruitment, disobeying orders, or being physically unable to work. Human Rights Watch interviewed an elderly woman whose twenty-five-year-old son was shot and killed in front of her in December 2000, after refusing to be recruited. A woman described how her husband was executed in early December for refusing to hand her over to the rebels, while another woman described how her ailing husband was beaten to death in the mid-March 2001 for no apparent reason.
Numerous women returnees described being abducted, raped and/or sexually abused. Human Rights Watch interviewed six women who had been raped and numerous more who were either held or taken away to rebel bases, for a time span varying from a few hours to several weeks. One woman described how she was gang-raped by RUF rebels in Kailahun in late January 2001, after she and five other women were chosen from a group of returnees detained at a rebel checkpoint. Human Rights Watch interviewed a man who managed to escape in mid-January after two weeks of forced labor, but had to leave his wife behind in a rebel base in Kono.
According to witnesses, the RUF routinely screened returnees, and sometimes forced them to move to other locations where they were pressured to settle within rebel territory. Returnees who had been detained described being held for anywhere from several hours to several weeks. In addition to the abuses suffered along the way, most refugees described being robbed of some or all of their possessions.
For fuller testimony of refugee victims of RUF abuses please check this page.
Related Material
Rebel Abuses Against Sierra Leonean Refugees Returning from Guinea
Testimony
Guinean Forces Kill, Wound Civilians in Sierra Leone
Press Release, February 28, 2001