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Joint humanitarian call on Zaire

Joint statement by Ms. Emma Bonino, European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Ms. Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ms. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF, and Mr. A. Namanga Ngongi, Deputy Executive Director, World Food Programme, issued on 4 April 1997.

As representatives of the Zairian government and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire prepare to meet in South Africa, we appeal to the participants in the talks to fully consider the urgent humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced Zairians stranded in the war zone.

We call on the parties to respect humanitarian principles and the Geneva Conventions, to allow aid agencies free access to refugees and displaced persons among whom are thousands of children, and to enable aid workers to reach and assist them. Aid agencies should be able to work without any restrictions to save many thousands of refugees who are exhausted after months of roaming desperately through the jungle and whose lives are currently hanging by a thread. These people's needs must not be overlooked as the Zairian parties prepare for political negotiations over their country's future. They need help and they need it now.

We have witnessed the plight of the refugees ourselves. These people fled into the rain forest to escape the fighting and violence in the region. We are now trying to help them and to prepare them for repatriation.

Over the past week, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and other aid agencies - with the help and strong support of donors like the European Union, USA and Japan - are trying to aid more than 100,000 refugees who have re-emerged from the forest. However, many thousands of Rwandan and Burundi refugees as well as internally displaced Zairians remain out of reach. We are appealing to the international community for urgent assistance to help us reach these people, provide them with emergency aid and - eventually - repatriate those who wish to return home and provide asylum for bona fide refugees who continue to need it.

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