The Caribbean Community Web Site Home of The Boston Connection Magazine  

Kosovo Crisis Exacerbates Plight of African Refugees Fact Finding Team to be Dispatched Immediately By:  Torli Krua  

     Responding to recent reports of the mounting plight of African refugees, the Universal Human Rights Center is issuing a Humanitarian Alert for refugees in third world countries, especially in Africa.

1. Immediately dispatching a fact-finding team of human rights experts to the worst crisis areas and refugee centers in Africa, in a bid to bring the deteriorating conditions of victims and their stories to the attention of the world.

2. The issuance of an emergency call to African Governments hosting refugees and African human rights organizations to immediately commence their own investigations into reports of an upsurge in decapitations, rapes, amputations, starvation and other human rights abuses.

3. Conference at Calvary Church International,    8   Parish   St.,     Boston, Mass., USA, to re-focus on the plight of all victims including Africans, whose plights seem lost in the shadows of Kosovo.

The above steps have become necessary for the following reasons:

1. Recent reports indicating an escalation of rape, torture, decapitation, and starvation in refugee camps and in the worst crisis areas of Africa.

2. A recent U.S. Government report indicating worsening conditions and problems facing relief agencies including the United Nations in Africa.

3. The slow pace of processing resettlement applications for 12,000 African refugees since October 1998.

4. Diversion of resources, personnel, media and relief supplies from Africa to Europe.•