Sudanese refugees in Cairo start hunger strike, accusing UN of failing them
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-14 14:21

Leaders of more than 1,000 Sudanese refugees who have been camping in a park for six weeks said Sunday they were starting a hunger strike in protest against the United Nations, accusing the world body of failing to help them.

"We want the UNHCR to look into our problems," said Bahr-Edin Adam, 28, a refugee from the war-torn Darfur region of west Sudan. "No UNHCR representative met us, and we don't want to go back to Sudan because the Sudanese government is not interested in us."

In fact, representatives of the UN High Commission for Refugees have met leaders of the protesters, who are crammed into a 400 square metre park between a main road and a side street in the fashionable Mohandiseen district of Cairo.

"We have sent several mandated representatives (to the protesters) and discussed with them their demands. Many of them are illogical," said Amina al-Korey, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR, whose offices are about 200 metres from the park.

The UNHCR said in a statement last month that a large number of the refugees were economic migrants who did not qualify for political asylum and resettlement in a third country. Adam denied this.

"We don't want to go to America or Europe," Adam said. He said the refugees would return to Sudan if the Sudanese government "ended the war in Darfur . . . and cleaned the land of mines . . . We don't want to go back to become victims again."

In their 45 days in the park - where they sleep on blankets or planks and cover themselves with plastic sheets - the protesters have set up a rudimentary organization. Certain refugees perform security duties, others deal with the media, and some run an administration of sorts and wear special identity badges.

Egyptian authorities are watching them. Dozens of plainclothes security men waited around the park on Sunday and five lorries of riot policemen were parked nearby in case the protesters took to the street.

The refugees have used the park's railings and lampposts to string up banners in Arabic and English that accuse the world of turning its back on them.

"Save us Mr. Koffe from the office of UNHCR in Cairo," said one banner, referring to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who visited Egypt last week.

"We will not go back under the rule of (Sudanese President Omar) al-Bashir and the Janjaweed," said another banner referring to the pro-government militia that the United Nations and aid groups have blamed for the bulk of atrocities in Darfur, where more than 180,000 people have died and about two million others have been displaced since the conflict began in February 2003.

The leaders said the camp's 100 children would not take part in the hunger strike. On Sunday The Associated Press saw two mothers feeding their children. There are about 200 women in the park.

"If the UNHCR was doing its job, we wouldn't have been in this situation. Nobody from the Red Cross, the UNHCR or any Egyptian organization visited us," said Amer Jaber, a refugee from the Nuba Mountains region of south-central Sudan who has been in Egypt for two and a half years.

The refugees demand that the Egyptian government integrates them into local society and that the UNHCR provide more aid and other forms of assistance.

The UNHCR says the refugees' schooling and health care are the responsibility of the Egyptian government.

"We have tried to help them by establishing with our partners five learning centres for children, and an agreement with 15 health services where the refugees pay only 25 per cent of the cost," al-Korey said.

However, she acknowledged that the UNHCR in Cairo did not have a big enough budget to provide adequate assistance for the 15,000 Sudanese refugees registered in Egypt.

"We don't have the full financial means to do more," al-Korey said.