THE “MOST MURDEROUS” AND “MOST PITIFUL” WARS OF 1999

The editorial of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) French Magazine (Vol. 3 #16) of 1999, considered the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea to be the “most murderous” war of 1999 and the Sierra Leonean war the “most pitiful” war of that year.  It also said Afghans constituted the greatest number of refugees totaling more than 2.6 million.  The internally displaced persons (IDPs) were not taken into consideration in the assessment of the magnitude of those wars.

Records show that in 1999 Sudan had the largest number of IDPs in the world in recent times, with almost twice as many IDPs in the country with the next largest population of IDPs.  It is also on record that the Sudan has more than eight times as many IDPs as have been caused by the conflict in Kosovo and that the Sudanese have been displaced between fifteen and forty times longer than the IDPs in Kosovo.  Below is a list of some countries having IDPs in 1999.

(Figures taken from different sources including The World Refugee Survey, IDP Global Survey 1998, UNHCR, UN, etc.)
* Denotes that larger percentages of IDPs have returned home/to residence.

The causes of displacement range from the ongoing 18-year old civil war and famine to economic migration.  Records show that in most countries listed above, the IDPs have now been able to return home or have become refugees, thus entitling them to the protection of other states.  In Khartoum State, Sudan, the IDPs form almost half the population of the state and constitute the largest population of IDPs in the world.  They are treated with the laws having a “disproportionate adverse effect” on them, thus drawing the attention of many foreigners.   A proposed draft agreement on their protection is still to be accepted and signed by the government of Sudan and the member states of the United States.  The UNHCR memorandum of April 28, 1993 and the UNHCR Executive Committee’s Conclusion #75 (1994) on IDPs mean nothing to the government.  Dr. Francis Deng, a Sudanese and Assistant UN Secretary General for IDPs, drafted “Guiding Principles” which are principles of existing international human rights law restated with special reference to IDPs similar to what has been done with refugees, women, migrant workers and children.  They identify many human rights that IDPs have under existing international law and provide a few new ones.  The government gives tacit recognition to these high ideals in the UN Commission on Human Rights and stop there.

Vis-à-vis this defiance, no member of the international community is prepared to protest for fear of burning their fingers.  UNHCR and the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinating Unit (UNHCU), which are mandated to intervene, are unwilling to accept the responsibility in order to “avoid any possible negative reaction from the Sudan government” though the IDPs are exposed to genocidal conditions.  This attitude partly explains why the numbers of IDPs and their plight could not be taken as parameters in the UNHCR’s assessment of the gravity of the wars of 1999.  All NGOs operating in the Sudan are scared of the Sudan government.  In a way they condone the unjust policies of the rogue regime.  There is nobody, therefore, the IDPs can look to for redress.  Any volunteers, since UN has failed?