Tragically, fighting and human rights abuses in Sierra Leone have led to a dramatic new refugee emergency. More than 500,000 Sierra Leoneans are now refugees in Guinea and Liberia . Some have been victims of shocking atrocities. All require, once again, extraordinary displays of solidarity from these neighbors and from the international community. The images of this recent refugee exodus remind us that refugees by definition are people who have been excluded from their own societies, and in exclusion lies the seed of division and conflict which will erode societies from within and destroy the work of peace makers.
Refugees are people who have been forced by persecution and violence to leave their homes.
Sometimes, when a conflict has its roots in inter-ethnic strife, displacement is one of the very objectives of the conflict. It is in especially such cases that refugees can become a factor of regional instability. There are two overlapping layers of responsibility for helping refugees. On one level, states are responsible for implementing the principles of protection contained in the OAU Convention. This includes ensuring that asylum is granted to those fleeing persecution and violence, while at the same time taking practical measures to make sure that giving asylum does not create security problems for countries hosting refugees or for their countries of origin.