Warring parties must protect displaced, Global IDP Project says

Rebels and the government must protect people fleeing civil war in Burundi, Global IDP Project said on Wednesday. In a new report released from its headquarters in Geneva, it stated that at least 100,000 people had fled their homes since the beginning of 2003. "As ever, the main victims are innocent women and children, whom both the army and rebels have a clear duty to protect," Greta Zeender, a researcher on Burundi affairs, said in the report. Global IDP said villagers fled when rebels turned up, threatening people and looting property. They also fled the army out of fear that they would be accused of supporting the rebels or failing to report a rebel presence. "And they flee when the army shells rebels passing through their villages," it added. It reported that newly displaced people had been moving from hilltop to hilltop in search of safety. In the war-torn provinces of Ruyigi and Gitega, it said, people had gathered near schools and public buildings seeking protection. "Others have been stranded in forests without basic supplies, sick, cold and hungry," it said. Returnees had found their properties looted, forcing them to become aid dependent, it added, going on to note, however, that many people thus displaced were beyond the reach of aid agencies. Because large tracts of the country remained inaccessible, it said, the needs of their populations could not be assessed. "UN relief agencies have been poorly financed, and international donors reluctant to provide adequate funds amid the fighting," Global IDP reported. It said the newly displaced were among the most vulnerable of Burundi's 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) - about 13 percent of the population. Most IDPs, it said, were living in "displacement sites", where they suffered high rates of malnutrition, disease and HIV/AIDS. The report noted that "over 300,000 people", mainly civilians, had been killed in the civil war since 1993. "Without improved protection, people's trust in the whole peace process risks being undermined," it warned, pointing out in this context that the transitional government had committed itself to protecting IDPs and implementing the UN's Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Global IDP Project describes itself as an international non-profit-making organisation that monitors internal displacement caused by conflict. The project is part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, founded in 1946 in Oslo, and it seeks to aid and protect refugees and IDPs in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. For more details, see 'Burundians flee raging conflict'