Sir - A human catastrophe is waiting to happen on the borders of Siera Leone, Liberia and Guinea in West Africa. Some 600,000 of the most war-afflicted people on earth are now on the run again from a third nation's war, having already fled from the wars of two others.
Since bloody civil wars began in both Sierra Leone and Liberia more than a decade ago, the area around Gueckedou in South Western Guinea has provided a haven for hundreds of thousand of refugees fleeing from both conflicts. Now, that area of Guinea has become the centre of hostilities between the Guinean army and rebels. The area has been under constant attack since September last year and is rapidly descending into chaos.
The result is that most refugees have now taken to the road for fear of the fighting; they are without food and are at the mercy of the warring factions. They have no protection except for the UNHCR, since a statement of the Guinean President in September accusing all refuges of collaborating with the rebels and being the cause of the attacks. The refugees are desperate to be repatriated to their own countries but cannot do so because the borders are closed by the fighting. The situation is rapidly building towards another Rwanda. The UNHCR has described it as "the worst refugee crisis in the world".
The urgent short-term priority is that the international community provides funding for the UNHCR to relocate the refugees in new camps at a safe distance from the conflict or to assist their repatriation. A longer term urgent priority is that the government of Sierra Leone, in particular, be assisted with its war against rebel RUF and thus stop the export of this war into Guinea.
Given Ireland's close links with West Africa and its position in the Security Council of the United Nations it is well motivated and well placed to advance these urgent objectives. - Yours, etc.,
Martin Rowan, Sierra Leone Ireland Partnership, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.