ETHIOPIA: UNHCR to reconsider refugee
status
UNHCR will no longer confer automatic
refugee status on Ethiopians who fled their country before 1991 under the
regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ethiopians in all countries of asylum will be affected, but "UNHCR
will assist them if they choose to be repatriated", UNHCR spokesman
in Geneva Ron Redmond said. Those who do not, will be screened and continue
to be protected under the refugee law only if they can still claim a valid
fear of persecution in Ethiopia. Since the country's democratic elections
in 1995, the government has declared its willingness to welcome home all
refugees who fled under the Mengistu regime, and has committed itself to
assisting them reintegrate, Redmond said.
In the 1980s, Sudan hosted more than
500,000 Ethiopian refugees, an estimated 12,000 of whom are still living
in camps in the eastern part of the country, the agency said. After an
information campaign last December, 3,800 of the refugees applied for voluntary
repatriation. UNHCR now says the screening process for those who are "reluctant
to return" will start
in the camps in mid-March "to find alternative solutions in accordance
with Sudanese immigration law". Redmond said a similar exercise was
being carried out in Kenya, which hosts some 3,600 Ethiopians who are mainly
integrated into urban areas. Almost one million Ethiopians have returned
home from Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya in the past 10 years, UNHCR
said.
ETHIOPIA: Raging forest fires continue
More than 30,000 hectares of land has
been destroyed by raging fires which broke out in Shakiso district, in
Borena zone of Oromiya State, southeast Ethiopia over three weeks ago.
"The fire is still out of control," counsellor at the Ethiopian
embassy in Nairobi, Mengistu Ayalew, said on Friday. "Help from the
international community is yet to come." The fire
has caused the deaths of hundreds of animals at the National Park in the
Bale Mountains, destroyed forests, electricity poles, residential houses
and bee hives. "It is a catastrophe," he told IRIN. The fire
is believed to have been started by either farmers who were preparing their
lands for cultivation or people looking for wild honey. Mengistu said investigations
were underway and several people had been arrested.
ETHIOPIA: Eritreans told to renew residence permits
Ethiopia's Security, Immigration and
Refugee Affairs Authority (SIRAA) on Tuesday ordered Eritreans living the
country to renew their residence permits for the coming six months, a statement
from the authority said. The registration of Eritreans living in Addis
Ababa is due to take place between 28 February and 22 March at Ethiopia's
Department of Immigration
and Nationality. Those living outside the capital should "appear in
person" and register until 8 April, whether at branch offices of the
authority or at district police stations, SIRAA said. It also warned that
it would take "necessary legal measures" against Eritreans who
failed to renew their resident permits. It is estimated that some 150,000-200,000
Eritreans are living in Ethiopia.
ERITREA: Diaspora holds peace rallies
Eritreans in the diaspora on Tuesday held peace rallies to urge the international community to step up its efforts to end the war between their country and Ethiopia. A statement from the rallies' organisers in Canada said it was part of a worldwide effort to call upon the international community to help bring about an end to the "senseless slaughter that now seems to characterise the border conflict". The demonstrations were held in the US, Europe, Africa, Canada and Australia. Among the key demands of the marchers were an immediate ceasefire and a peaceful resolution of the conflict. They also called upon Ethiopia to accept the OAU peace plan.
ERITREA: OAU special envoy leaves Asmara
The Organisation of African Unity's (OAU) special envoy Ahmed Ouyahia left Asmara on Friday after talks with President Isayas Aferwerki and government officials, according to a foreign ministry statement. The statement quoted the envoy as saying the OAU would "continue its search for peace". He expressed confidence that Eritrea, which had formally accepted all three components of the peace plan presented to it by the OAU, would continue to cooperate with the organisation's endeavours. President Isayas said his country "was committed to peace and would continue to cooperate with the OAU". The envoy has now gone to Addis Ababa.
SOMALIA: Puntland authorities ban political meetings
The Puntland regional government recently
banned political meetings until June 2001, the region's local newspaper
'Kaaha Bari' said. In a circular dated 17 February, the director-general
for international relations Ahmad M. Egal said that "political activities
had been banned until June 2001, when the two-year transition period ends".
The circular said the move was taken to avert civil war, social unrest
and to "ensure that law and order is maintained in Puntland".
It warned that workshops and seminars meant to discuss social development
should not be turned into political forums.
Organisers of workshops and seminars were further required to submit to
the relevant authorities a list of items they wished to discuss 15 days
in advance.
SOMALIA: WHO representative visits Mogadishu
A WHO representative, Dr Ajay Kumar Gupta, arrived in Mogadishu on Tuesday to look at polio eradication programmes and other WHO activities. A WHO official in Nairobi told IRIN that although Mogadishu was "not on a normally accessible level", the agency had had a programme office functioning "throughout" in the region with two doctors.
SOMALIA: Aid to Mogadishu "suspended"
Italian special envoy to Somalia, Francesco
Sciortino, announced on Thursday that international aid to Mogadishu will
be withheld "until security conditions in the Somali capital improve".
"Armed confrontations between clans, kidnappings, destruction and
sacking of property are preventing law enforcers from helping the population
of Mogadishu," the
Italian news agency ANSA quoted Sciortino as telling journalists in Mogadishu.
The envoy was in the town with European Commission's Somalia representative
Joao Duarte de Carvalho to foster talks and establish peace. They held
talks with various politicians, members of civil society and public organisations
to discuss the "role of the public in the Djibouti peace conference".
Faction leader Hussein Aideed refused to meet the two because "they
represent ideas which would not be acceptable to our backers", the
Somali 'Qaran' newspaper said.
HORN OF AFRICA: Below-normal rains forecast in east
"Far below normal" rainfall
is forecast for the March-May season in eastern parts of the Horn of Africa,
according to the Nairobi-based Drought Monitoring Centre. A statement on
the findings of a forum held in Tanzania from 9-11 February said there
were "enhanced probabilities" for near-normal rainfall conditions
over much of the "greater" Horn of Africa.
But in most of Somalia, eastern Kenya and southeastern Ethiopia, below-normal
rainfall associated largely with 'La Nina' weather phenomenon was anticipated
over the next three months, while normal to below-normal rainfall was most
likely for northern Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. "In some of these
areas, the accumulated rainfall deficits may not be offset
even if normal rainfall conditions are experienced," the statement
said.
[ENDS]
[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]
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