UN warns of huge Colombia crisis
Many thousands have fled Colombia to neighbouring countries. A senior UN official has said Colombia is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis outside Africa.

The Assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Kamel Morjane, said the situation was only worse in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Between two and three million people have been forced from their homes in Colombia's 39-year civil war.

The UN official urged the international community not to ignore the crisis and pledged to press donors for more aid.

"Internally displaced people in Colombia are one of, if not the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere," Mr Morjane said after a trip to Colombia and Ecuador.

"I felt I was in one of the most impoverished African countries, it was shocking to see the conditions they live in," Agence France Presse news agency quoted him as saying.

The UNHCR official said the crisis was a regional and an international problem.

Thousands of Colombians have fled to neighbouring countries or sought refuge in the United States and Europe to escape the violence.

The UNHCR hopes to find ways to focus world attention on the plight of the displaced and refugees.

"The internally displaced people are invisible in this crisis, not only internationally but even in Bogota," Mr Morjane was quoted as saying by Associated Press news agency.

The humanitarian crisis has been obscured by the focus on drug trafficking or the conflict between the Colombian government and rebel groups, the UN official reportedly claimed.

 

Peru indignant over Japanese politician's support for Fujimori
The Peruvian government said Thursday that it would express "surprise and concern" over support by Japanese political leader Shizuka Kamei for former President Alberto Fujimori's aspirations to regain the Peruvian presidency.

¡¡¡¡Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez declared that the Peruvian government would present a formal complaint against recent statements by Kamei, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Kamei, also a former minister, expressed his support for "a possible candidacy of the deposed leader Fujimori to the presidency of Peru." He was speaking at an unofficial political gathering this week, Rodriguez said.

The Japanese press quoted Kamei as saying: "Let's gather the strength of Japanese citizens so that Fujimori can once again be president (of Peru)."

Rodriguez said: "A person with the political experience of the ex-Japanese minister...cannot make the statements calling for public office for someone like Fujimori, a fugitive from justice who is disqualified to hold office."

Using his double Peruvian-Japanese nationality, Fujimori fled to Japan in November 2000 and managed to avoid legal actions against him, including extradition. He is disqualified from occupying a public position until 2011.

He was forced to step down two months after the release of a video showing his adviser and former chief of the National Intelligence Service, Vladimiro Montesinos, giving money to an opposition legislator to increase the relative "Fujimorist" majority in the parliament.

Peru, which has charged Fujimori with dereliction of duty, embezzlement, murder, illegal arms purchases and human rights violations, is seeking his extradition from Japan.

However, Japan has refused to extradite the former president, saying Japan's law prohibits its citizens from being tried in another country.

 

4 more Cubans are `prisoners of conscience'
Amnesty International on Wednesday added four more Cubans to its list of ''prisoners of conscience,'' reinforcing Cuba's status as the country with the highest number of such prisoners in the Western Hemisphere.

''At least in terms of prisoners, it's not getting any better in Cuba,'' Eric Olson, Amnesty's Americas advocacy director, said in a telephone interview from Washington.

The move brought to 84 the number of ''prisoners of conscience'' in Cuban jails. That includes all 75 government opponents convicted in summary trials during an islandwide sweep last spring.

''The arrest of these four dissidents for their peaceful participation in nonviolent protests flies in the face of international human rights protections,'' Dr. William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.

Amnesty identified the four new ''prisoners of conscience'' as Rolando Jiménez Posada, Rafael Millet Leyva, Miguel Sigler Amaya and Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

Amnesty defines ''prisoners of conscience'' as people detained for their political beliefs or because of their ethnic origin, gender, color, language, sexual orientation, national or social origin or economic, birth or other status -- provided they have not used or advocated violence.

The number of all political prisoners in Cuba has been estimated at more than 300 by human rights activists on the island.

Officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington dismissed Amnesty's announcement.

''Amnesty always refers to these prisoners as prisoners of conscience or peaceful freedom fighters, but the reality is that they disrupt public order, do mercenary work and even place national security at risk,'' spokesman Lázaro Herrera said.

''We're still waiting to see what they have to say about the abuses that have been committed against the five Cubans convicted in Miami'' as spies in 2001, Herrera added. ``They are victims of abuse, manipulation and arbitrary action. Their rights should be defended with the same passion.''

Jiménez and Millet, both from the Isle of Pines, have not been charged despite about 10 months of incarceration, according to Amnesty. Sigler, from Matanzas, is serving a 26-month sentence on charges of ''disobedience'' and ''resistance.'' Zapata, from Havana, is charged with ''disrespect, public disorder and disobedience'' but has not gone to a trial.

All were active with dissident organizations, and Zapata was involved with the Varela Project, which calls for a referendum seeking sweeping democratic reforms.

In Havana, meanwhile, a delegation from the National Council of Churches USA failed to persuade the government to give amnesty to the 75 dissidents as a goodwill gesture toward efforts in the United States to lift the embargo on Cuba.

''They were appreciative of our concern . . . but there was no action,'' the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the council, said in a phone interview from Washington.