VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR) RUUD LUBBERS COMMENTS ON SIERRA LEONE SITUATION

Record ID: 275175

  • Title: VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR) RUUD LUBBERS COMMENTS ON SIERRA LEONE SITUATION
  • Date: 16th February 2001
  • Summary: LUNGI, SIERRA LEONE (FEBRUARY 14, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. MV U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR) RUUD LUBBERS GETTING OUT OF AIRCRAFT AT SIERRA LEONE'S MAIN AIRPORT, LUNGI 0.07 2. MV/SCU LUBBERS MEETING AND GREETING REFUGEES RETURNING TO SIERRA LEONE (3 SHOTS) 0.24 3. SLV VILLAGE; MV PEOPLE GATHERING (3 SHOTS) 0.34 4. MV/SCU VILL
  • Embargoed: 3rd March 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LUNGI AND PETIFU JUNCTION, SIERRA LEONE/ KISSIDOUGOU, GUINEA
  • City:
  • Country: Guinea Sierra Leone
  • Reuters ID: LVA5DK2H6KVZ5VCKWY2QOCUNKTEM
  • Story Text: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
    Ruud Lubbers says he has begun talks with Sierra Leone rebels
    to obtain a safe passage for refugees returning to the
    country. But if a peaceful settlement may be possible in Sierra
    Leone, elsewhere in West Africa violence is spreading, and
    Guinea's army chief of staff on Tuesday (February 13) vowed to
    take his country's border conflict deep into Liberia.

    Lubbers said he had asked the rebel Revolutionary
    United Front (RUF) to allow the return home of thousands of
    refugees currently in southern Guinea through rebel-held areas
    in Sierra Leone rather than make a long detour by land and sea.

    "I have received the first messages and they are still
    to be confirmed, that they want to cooperate," he said
    whilst visiting a settlement for returning refugees at Petifu
    Junction, north of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown," said
    Lubbers.

    The former Dutch premier is making his first trip to see
    his agency's field operations since he took over as U.N. High
    Commissioner for Refugees in January, 2001. His UNHCR agency
    has identified southern Guinea as the world's worst refugee
    crisis.

    Guinea is host to over 400,000 Liberian and Sierra Leonean
    refugees who fled civil wars in their countries in the 1990s.

    Many of them have now been caught up in battles between
    Guinean troops and shadowy groups of dissidents, which Guinea
    says are backed by Liberia and the RUF.

    Guinea's Army Chief of Staff Colonel Kefalla Camara said
    his army had regained control of the strategic southern town
    of Gueckedou earlier this week after a tough battle against
    intruding Liberian forces and fighters of the (RUF).

    Witnesses told Reuters the town was flattened during the
    fighting, in which the Guinean army used helicopter gunships
    and artillery.

    Camara threatened to escalate the conflict further.

    "We will bring war to Liberia and we will go far, " he
    said before departing to the frontline.

    Lubbers is due to travel to Liberia on Thursday (February
    15) to meet President Charles Taylor. Earlier this week he
    called for tough sanctions against Taylor for his role in the
    war.

    The U.N. is considering broad sanctions against Liberia
    because of Taylor's arms-for-gems trade with the RUF, the
    rebel force which controls much of Sierra Leone's territory.


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