From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: Somalian Refugees Died
Date: 11 Oct 92 15:07:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700620:000:3510
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Oct 11 08:07:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: Somalian Refugees Died

/* Written  8:53 pm  Oct 10, 1992 by jnr@igc.apc.org in igc:hunger.general */
APn  10/09 0707  Somalia-Refugees

Copyright, 1992. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 


By DIDRIKKE SCHANCHE    

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- A U.S. advocacy group claims deliberate
neglect has killed up to 4,000 Somalis who fled to northeastern
Kenya, but the government and the United Nations today disputed
the contention. 

The Washington-based U.S. Committee of Refugees issued a
statement Thursday claiming the "easily preventable" deaths
occurred among the 70,000 refugees who have established squatter
camps in Mandera and El Wak. 

"While refugee camps in other regions of Kenya receive
assistance, Kenyan authorities and U.N. officials regard refugees
at Mandera and El Wak as opportunistic nomads and an unwanted
burden in a region struggling to cope with drought," said the
group in a statement sent to news organizations in Nairobi. 

It claimed the refugees were denied tents, blankets, water
containers, cooking utensils, plastic sheeting, camp sanitation
and regular food distribution in an effort to discourage further
arrivals. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees "has been
hoping these people will give up and crawl back across the border
to whatever fate awaits them in Somalia," said the committee. 

It said 2,000 to 4,000 refugees had "perished unnecessarily"
since May. Its report was based on a recent three-week tour of
refugee settlements by committee analyst Jeff Drumtra. 

Since the collapse of government in Somalia following the January
1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, more than 400,000
refugees have fled to Kenya and are living in camps strung along
the East African nation's drought-stricken eastern and northern
borders. 

Clan warfare has exacerbated the region's severe drought, causing
a catastrophic famine in Somalia where more than 100,000 people
already have died and 2 million are threatened. 

UNHCR spokesman Panos Moumtzis today admitted the agency did not
provide full assistance to the refugees when they first began
crossing into Mandera in May, hoping to discourage further
arrivals. 

But he described the report as exaggerated. 

Moumtzis said there has been regular food distribution and 13
feeding centers for the last three months for what UNHCR
estimates as 50,000-60,000 people in Mandera and El Wak. 

He said other assistance was upgraded after the aid group Doctors
Without Borders did a health survey and found an "appalling" 40
percent level of malnutrition among the children. 

Moumtzis described the mortality figures cited by the U.S.
Committee for Refugees as fabricated, but admitted that large
numbers of refugees died after arriving in the camps severely
weak and malnourished from their treks out of Somalia. 

"It is very critical, but is coming under control," said
Moumtzis. 

He said health facilities and feeding centers had been increased
for the arrivals and that blankets and shelter materials would be
distributed in before the annual rains come at the end of the
year. 

Mortality rates rise dramatically among the famine-stricken
during rainy seasons, when victims are less able to ward off
illness and increasingly succumb to disease. 

James Simani, a spokesman for Kenya's foreign ministry, dismissed
the U.S. Refugee committee's report as "mischievous ...
particularly when Kenya already is hosting thousands and
thousands of refugees."