Senior UN official expresses concern at IDPs' plight

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie has expressed concern "about reports of the forced displacement of internally displaced persons" in Liberia, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday. McAskie said in a statement that armed men had forced at least 10,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) to leave a temporary IDP camp at Sawmill, about 100 km north of the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Witnesses said that the armed men - which the BBC reported as belonging to a dissident group called Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy - entered the camp on Sunday, told the occupants to leave, and began firing gunshots into the air. BBC reported on Tuesday that government troops had re-entered Sawmill. The shooting in Sawmill on Sunday also caused about people from the nearby town of Tubmanburg to seek refuge in Klay, which is about 50 km from Monrovia. "UN agencies and NGOs were able to quickly assess the conditions of about 25,000 newly displaced persons at Klay (Junction) on 27 January, but have since been denied access to IDPs there," Mc Askie said. UNHCR reported on Tuesday that the newly displaced included Sierra Leonean refugees. The agency said that, according to government figures, there could be as many as 100,000 displaced persons in Klay Junction. Relief agencies estimate that another 9,000 IDPs are still in Sawmill, but are unable to assess their conditions because the area is too dangerous for them to work in, she said. NGO sources had reported that security forces had prevented IDPs from moving closer to Monrovia. BBC said government troops had set up barriers to that effect. "I remind all concerned that international humanitarian law forbids the forcible displacement of civilian populations." McAskie said. "Further, I call on the government of Liberia to take the measures necessary to protect civilians in armed conflict and to ensure that humanitarian workers have safe, unhindered access to conflict-affected civilians without fear of being deprived of their means of transportation."