<font color=blue> Unlike many conservatives, I don't want to be the policeman to the world. Its why I was opposed to going into Iraq. The situation in Africa is an absolute mess from one end of the continent to the other. They have their own manifest destiny to work out. Let them do it is my view! <font color=black>
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U.N. body says situation in Liberia ''horrific''
GENEVA, July 22 — The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday the situation in Liberia is ''horrific'' and voiced its grave concern over the fate of tens of thousands of terrified people now crowding into Monrovia.
To make the situation worse, the agency said, it has had to suspend an emergency sealift it had been operating since the start of the month to move Sierre Leonean refugees in Liberia back to their country's capital Freetown.
And it said High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers was renewing his appeal for support for calls from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the rapid deployment in Liberia of an international peacekeeping force.
''The UNHCR is gravely concerned over the horrific situation in Liberia and the fate of tens of thousands of displaced people and refugees now jamming Monrovia,'' the agency said.
Hundreds of people were seeking refuge in the UNHCR compound, including many Sierra Leoneans who were hoping to be taken home on the ship that had been used for the rescue operation, the MV Overbeck.
But the vessel, which had evacuated some 1,500 refugees in four journeys between Freetown and Monrovia had to return empty at the weekend because it developed problems while waiting for fighting to ease so that it could dock.
''As soon as the security situation allows, it will return to Monrovia to continue the emergency evacuation,'' the UNHCR said.
Some 15,000 Sierra Leoneans, who originally fled a civil war in their own country, had been living in and around the Liberian capital. The UNHCR said it had lost contact with many of them since a resumption of fighting last Friday.
The agency has evacuated all its international staff from the city, and its operations are being maintained by locally- recruited personnel.
One, whose home was now behind rebel lines on the edge of the city, reported on Monday that the situation there was ''calm but tense,'' and that the local community had formed a neighbourhood watch to prevent looting.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. |
