Ogata draws attention to human cost of conflict

UNCHR chief Sadako Ogata on Friday concluded her six-nation mission to Africa, by drawing the attention of the DRC leaders to the human costs of conflict in their country. Ogata met DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila and senior government officials and urged them to take into account the plight of an estimated 1.8 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country, a UNHCR spokesman said in Geneva. She said her agency would look into the possibility of helping the displaced population in areas where it was already involved in refugee programmes. The organisation is currently assisting some 200,000 refugees in the DRC. Ogata visited the eastern town of Goma where she looked at the agency's return operation for Rwandan refugees. Some 45,000 Rwandans have returned since 1 January 1999, UNHCR estimates.