February 27, 2001

 ETHIOPIANS IN THE SUDAN DENIED THEIR RIGHTS AND IN GRAVE DANGER

SOCEPP has received reliable information from the Sudan that quite a number of refugees have been subjected to the dubious screening process of the UNHCR and, despite their protests, have now been informed that they are no longer refugees. The refugees whose status has been revoked and who have been exposed to possible deportation are almost all members or supporters of the opposition Ethiopian people's Revolutionary Party (EPRP).

Most refugees had earlier expressed their strong opposition to the arbitrary action by the UNHCR and some had gone on a hunger strike to highlight their grievances.The Petition Committee for Ethiopina Refugees in the Sudan had in its January 18 letter to Mr. W.R.Urasa (the UNHCR representative in the Sudan)made it abundantly clear that the screening program was seriously flawed and against the rights of the refugees. Legitimate questions tabled on the motives of the UNHCR personnel, the screening process, the questions posed, the political and ethnic bias all remain unanswered.

 While the EPRP members and others have been denied their refugee status, the members and supporters of the opposition Oromo Liberation Front have been deemed in danger and accorded protection. Members of the EPRP had in the past been deported from the Sudan and disappeared by the EPRDF government in Ethiopia.

Allegations that the UNHCR action is politically motivated and prompted by the government in Addis Abeba cannot now be easily dismissed. As the Sudanese newspaper, The Monitor, wrote in its January 22 Straight Talk column: "Thanks to the refugees who revealed the involvement of Ethiopian government officials in screening Ethiopian refugees, many outsiders now have mixed feelings about the UNHCR which is required to be neutral in dealing with refugees. Although the UNHCR boss in the Sudan assured us that the Ethiopian government agent who posed as an interpreter within the screening committee was removed, a lot of questions about the credibility of UNHCR officials still hangs on...The incident in which an Ethiopian government agent was found to have penetrated the UNHCR system must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

 The UNHCR officials in Khartoum should know that our African refugees can return home when the conditions which forced them out are over." SOCEPP calls again on the UNHCR to stop the illegal action that violates the rights of the political refugees. SOCEPP holds the UNHCR responsible for the lives of those who are deported as a result of its arbitrary decision. One returnee, Leul Kassa, has already been detained by the EPRDF and the UNHCR's denial that he was part of the returnees has not been accepted by anyone. SOCEPP calls on Ethiopians in the Diaspora to protest (through letters, demonstrations, etc..) the arbitrary decisions and actions of the UNHCR in the Sudan.

SOCEPP