AGENCIES CONDEMN RIGHTS ABUSES IN REFUGEE CAMPS

December 11, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) RELIEF agencies in settlement camps for Sudanese refugees in West Nile have decried the high rate of human rights abuses in the camps.

Chris Ochowun reports that agencies implementing United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) programmes in the camps are alarmed by the abuse of women and children's rights.

The implementing partners representative and the assistant programme co-ordinator of German Development Services (DED), Ismail Onzima, said there were many cases of defilement, wife beating and rape in the camps.

He said this at the end of a 16-day campaign against sexual and gender based violence at Siripi Primary School in Rhino Camp recently.

"We have dismissed four teachers from Siripi Primary School who defiled their pupils," Onzima said.

He said some DED staff had been sacked over the same.

Onzima said the camps had high cases of sexually transmitted diseases.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200312110542.html