UNHCR urges restraint on all sides

The new UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, on Friday called on all parties in the DRC and the Great Lakes region “to make every effort to avoid inflaming an already-volatile situation” in a country which had seen enough human suffering and displacement. Lubbers, who took over at UNHCR on 1 January, said “the people of the DRC have suffered enough”. UNHCR currently provides care for about half a million refugees and displaced people inside the DRC, as well as some 330,000 Congolese refugees outside the country. Lubbers urged the warring parties to remain calm, a call echoed on Friday by OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim, who said Laurent-Desire Kabila’s assassination was “an act in total violation of the principles enshrined in the OAU Charter.” Salim called on all parties to the DRC conflict to re-commit themselves to the implementation of the Lusaka peace accord. Meanwhile, UNHCR Assistant-Commissioner Soren Jessen-Petersen is to visit refugee camps and assess the agency’s preparedness in the event of new refugee flows from the DRC into Zambia in the course of a visit to southern Africa this week. Zambia is currently host to about 38,000 Congolese refugees and 75,000 from Angola.