CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: AMID WORSENING VIOLENCE, UN REFUGEE AGENCY WARNS AGAINST FORCIBLE RETURNS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 30 Apr 2013 13:00:00 -0400
Subject: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: AMID WORSENING VIOLENCE, UN REFUGEE
AGENCY WARNS AGAINST FORCIBLE RETURNS
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: AMID WORSENING VIOLENCE, UN REFUGEE AGENCY
WARNS AGAINST FORCIBLE RETURNSNew York, Apr 30 2013 1:00PMThe United
Nations refugee agency today urged countries to refrain from
repatriating refugees to the Central African Republic (CAR), amid
worsening violence and human rights abuses there.

"Our aim through issuing this advisory is to see that humanitarian and
asylum principles are upheld until conditions in CAR allow for safe
and dignified returns," a spokesperson for the Office of the UN high
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards,
<"http://www.unhcr.org/517fb6d79.html">told a
<"http://www.unhcr.org/517f9c569.html">news briefing in Geneva.

"It is also important that asylum remain civilian in nature, and for
this reason we are recommending that States exert caution to identify
combatants and separate them from the refugee population," Mr. Edwards
continued, adding that the agency's advisory also stressed the
exclusion from refugee status might apply beyond combatants to people
involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The situation in the CAR has taken a turn for the worse since last
December when rebels belonging to the Séléka faction launched a number
of attacks from the north before taking over the capital, Bangui, in
late March.

According to UNHCR, targeted killings, arbitrary arrests and
detention, torture and the recruitment of children as well as rape,
disappearances, and kidnapping are being widely reported throughout
the country with the violence in recent months causing up to 173,000
people to be displaced internally and almost 50,000 refugees.

Moreover, the country's instability has been further fuelled by ethnic
tensions in the north, rebel activity and the presence of members of
the armed Ugandan group known as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),
which has caused significant internal displacement.

In a statement issued to the press late Monday, the Security Council
also voiced concern over the worsening humanitarian and security
situation, as well as the weakening of the Central African Republic's
institutions in the wake of the rebel takeover.

"The members of the Security Council expressed serious concerns at
reports of human rights violations and abuses. They emphasized that
those responsible for violations and abuses of international
humanitarian and human rights law, including those involving violence
against civilians, torture, summary executions, sexual and
gender-based violence and recruitment and use of children in armed
conflict, must be held accountable," the 15-member Council declared,
while calling for "a swift investigation of those cases in order to
bring to justice all such perpetrators."

Council members also expressed continued support for regional efforts
spearheaded by the Economic Community of the Central African States
(ECCAS) and the African Union to consolidate peace in the CAR and
urged all countries concerned to also resume their efforts in
addressing the threat posed by the LRA, as soon as possible.Apr 30
2013 1:00PM
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