Amnesty calls for protection of IDPs

Amnesty International (AI) called on the UN Security Council to take a lead role in urging the international community to provide adequate protection and assistance to internally displaced people (IDPs) in Liberia. In a statement on Thursday, AI welcomed the "timely" Council debate on West Africa on Wednesday, but expressed concern that the increasingly critical plight of IDPs was not adequately discussed. "Since April this year the instability in north-west Liberia has progressively worsened, reaching a point of crisis in recent days as over 20,000 internally displaced people have been forced to flee southwards, as fighting between government and militia forces increase," AI said. AI said agencies on the ground described the IDPs as "totally impoverished and without any protection", and suggested their "immediate relocation" to safer zones. "The Liberian government is preventing their movement to safer areas close to the capital Monrovia, whilst at the same time failing to provide protection to them where they are", the human rights watchdog added. The Council's action on this "urgent matter", it said, would constitute a positive response to the clear recommendation in the UN Inter-Agency Report on West Africa of March 2001 which stressed "the importance of ensuring human rights protection at all times". The debate had also expressed "grave concern about the situation at the border between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, including lack of access to the population and large numbers of refugees and internally displaced people".