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UNHCR urges government to stop recruitment of refugees

The UN Refugee agency (UNHCR) this week in a letter urged the Ivorian government, among other things, to stop recruiting refugees into the ranks of loyalist forces. Briefing journalists in Geneva on Friday, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said the agency also asked that the authorities to instruct Ivorian youth groups controlling numerous checkpoints to allow passage to Liberians fleeing the conflict. Many have reported being halted at the checkpoints, he said. The agency also called on Ivorians to stop viewing all Liberians as rebels, noting that Liberian refugees had already fled a cruel conflict at home and now they were caught up in the middle of another one and were extremely vulnerable. "They need protection and safety," Janowski said. The situation remained tense near the southwestern town of Tabou after rebels of the Justice and Peace Movement (MJP) took control of neighbouring town of Grabo. "We have reports of large population movements out of Tabou this week," he said adding that hundreds of frightened Liberian refugees sought shelter at the UNHCR compound and Catholic mission. The attacks, he said, also pushed more than 6,000 Liberians back into Liberia at the Plebo crossing because of the presence of numerous security checkpoints. "We welcome the positive meeting that was held with the local authorities in Tabou and their positive response with regards to the Liberian refugees in the area," Panos Moumtzis, acting head of UNHCR office in Abidjan told IRIN on Friday. "We also welcome the positive response and assurance by the government that the recruitment of refugees will not take place and that it will sensitize the local community not to regard all Liberians as rebel collaborators," he said adding that the letter to the government had also renewed UNHCR's request for an area to relocate the refugees. Almost 60,000 people have fled to Liberia since the crisis spread to western Cote d'Ivoire in late November. That figure includes 35,000 Liberians and 20,000 Ivorians. In eastern Liberia, the agency was strengthening its emergency operations to assist the new arrivals and transport them to safety. UNHCR also reported on Friday that all but one of the 12 detained Liberians had finally been freed in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. The 12, who belonged to a musical group, had lived in Cote d'Ivoire for a few years and were part of a group of 27 Liberians who were flown home from Abidjan on 14 December. They were detained for almost three weeks, undergoing security checks. They said they had been well-treated and provided with food and water. UNHCR was trying to gain access to the remaining returnee, who was still in detention in Monrovia, the agency noted. In a related development, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was covering medical needs in the Ivorian northern town of Korhogo that has been in the hands of rebels of Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI) since 19 September. For the operation, MSF brought in medical supplies and five international staff, it said in a news update on Thursday. It provides assistance to the 450-bed Korhogo hospital and to eight health centres in the region, covering a population of about one million people, it noted adding that the biggest health problems are malaria, respiratory diseases and diarrhoea. MSF could immediately provide assistance to 10,000 people for a period of three months in terms of medical care, shelter, water and food, it added. Meanwhile, France late Thursday stressed the urgency of having an effective ceasefire in place in Cote d'Ivoire, following the bombing of Grabo by two army helicopters on Thursday resulting in the death, according to rebels of 15 civilians, AFP reported. "Two combat helicopters of the Ivorian government forces are said to have bombed the town of Grabo, near the Liberian border this [Thursday] morning," it quoted the French Foreign Ministry as saying in a communique released through its spokesman Bernard Valero. "In the absence of confirmation at this stage, France wishes to lay emphasis on the urgency of establishing an effective ceasefire operating in the whole of the Cote d'Ivoire," it said, adding that in "liaison with ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] representatives, the French authorities on the ground are engaged in securing the signing of such a ceasefire, which must lead to the full grounding of all helicopters in the whole territory". It also warned that France "will take all necessary steps to ensure that such an undertaking is honoured"[...] Ivorian army spokesman Lt-Col Jules Yao Yao confirmed on the Thursday that government troops were "engaged in operations" in Grabo region but could neither deny nor confirm that helicopters had been used, BBC reported. The attack came less than a week after the Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo pledged to observe a ceasefire and ground helicopter gunships and stop using foreign mercenaries after his meeting with the French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin last week in the commercial capital, Abidjan. "If Gbagbo promised to ground helicopters, it also meant the rebels had to stop moving,” BBC quoted Yao Yao as saying.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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