Mission Calls on Sudan to End Squatter Relocation

UN Mission Calls on Sudan Government to End Attempts to Forcibly Relocate Squatters

New York, May 24 2005 3:00PM

While supporting the Sudanese Government's intent to re-plan current locations for displacement camps, the United Nations mission in the country has again called for an end to the forcible relocation of refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs).

A team dispatched by the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is on the scene investigating preliminary reports that earlier today, Government military and police forces opened fire on IDPs during an operation in the Soba Aradi squatter area, near the capital, Khartoum, a UN spokesman said.

The Government forces are said to have sealed the area in an effort to prevent IDPs from leaving - in line with its aim of relocating them another location, near an official IDP camp. But UNMIS has also received reports that the security forces opened fire on IDPs who resisted, Stephan Dujarric said at the daily briefing in New York.

The Mission's concern follows a similar incident last week and it said then that the process by which demolitions, relocations and plot allocations was being carried out constituted human rights violations, including forced return.

ENDS

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