NICARAGUA: Zelaya's Followers at Risk of
Humanitarian Emergency
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, Jul 30 (IPS) - The huge number of
supporters of ousted Honduran President
Manuel Zelaya who have flocked to a small
farming town in the north of Nicaragua have
caused a social emergency that could spiral
into a full-fledged humanitarian crisis,
said United Nations officials visiting the
area.
Spokespersons for the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) representative
in Nicaragua, Alfredo Missair, told the
press that an official U.N. mission toured
the northern province of Nueva Segovia, on
the border with Honduras, after Zelaya
showed up in the area late last week,
announcing his plans to return to his
country.
The U.N. mission carried out an assessment
of the humanitarian conditions in the border
area, which has drawn hundreds of followers
of the ousted president, who set up his base
of operations in the town of Ocotal, which
is near the Las Manos border post.
Zelaya did briefly cross into Honduras on
Jul. 24. But after taking just a few
symbolic steps into the country, he returned
to Nicaragua, saying he did not want to be
the cause of violence. Since then he has
urged his followers to join him and ensure
his "triumphant return" to the country and
the presidency.
On Thursday, Jul. 30 he headed to Managua.
The U.N. delegation was headed by Jozef
Merkx, representative of the Office of the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
in Costa Rica, and María Rubiales,
Nicaragua's permanent representative to the
U.N.
The mission was accompanied by delegates
from Nicaragua's health and food agencies,
to draw up a list of people who have crossed
the border in the last few days, assess
their needs and evaluate the situation.
In several towns of Nueva Segovia, where
Zelaya's supporters are staying in shelters
and makeshift tents, the mission met with
local officials, police and military chiefs,
and non-governmental organisations.
Zelaya was dragged from his house by
soldiers on Jun. 28 and put on a plane to
Costa Rica, still in his pajamas. The de
facto regime headed by Roberto Micheletti
issued a warrant for his arrest on a number
of charges, including an attempt to carry
out a non-binding popular referendum, which
was ruled unconstitutional by the courts.
Under the "CA-4" migration accord between
Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El
Salvador, Hondurans are free to enter
Nicaragua with just their identity card, and
can stay as long as they like.
The U.N. mission said in a communiqué that
it would issue a report on the humanitarian
situation in the area in the next few days,
along with specific recommendations for the
authorities to guarantee the human rights of
the Hondurans who have crossed into
Nicaragua.
The objectives of the mission include
assessing whether the Hondurans are all in
Nicaragua voluntarily, why they came, and
where they crossed the border – through
border posts or areas not controlled by the
authorities.
The delegation will also find out whether
all of the visitors have documents
confirming their identity and nationality,
and thus their right to freely cross the
border between the two countries.
Key aspects that the U.N. mission wants to
clarify is how long the Hondurans plan to
stay in Nicaragua, and how supplies of food,
drinking water, basic services and health
care can be provided, in accordance with the
capacities of the central government and
local authorities.
In addition, the mission must determine
which of the Hondurans wish to apply for
asylum or refugee status, in order to assess
the needs for international and humanitarian
protection.
The curfew imposed by the Micheletti regime
since Jun. 28 has been extended on the
Honduran side of the border, making it
difficult for Zelaya's supporters to cross
over and purchase supplies in local
businesses.
The idea is for other international
agencies, like the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the Pan-American
Health Organisation (PAHO), to provide food
aid and medical assistance to the Hondurans
massed at the border.
Nicaraguan Health Minister Guillermo
González, who visited Nueva Segovia with the
U.N. mission, told the press that the
government is willing to help those
considered refugees, but that the country's
economic difficulties make it hard to do so.
"As a country, we do not have the capacity
to ensure them certain minimum conditions
that would allow them to get by in adequate
conditions," González said at a meeting
Wednesday between the members of a national
inter-institutional committee and the
international mission at the hospital in
Ocotal.
"We believe that a health emergency is
flaring up here, and that it is thus our
responsibility to call on the United
Nations, in order for this to translate into
concrete support," said González.
The curfew in Honduras has created a
humanitarian emergency, said activist Tom
Kucharz, who formed part of a
non-governmental International Mission of
Solidarity, Observation and Accompaniment to
Honduras, which visited the border area and
took part in the meeting with the U.N.
delegates and Nicaraguan officials.
Kucharz, an activist with the Spanish NGO
Ecologistas en Acción, said human rights
workers confirmed that there are hundreds of
people trapped at army and police
checkpoints along the highway from
Tegucigalpa to the Nicaraguan border, who
have not been allowed to cross the border in
response to Zelaya's call or return to their
hometowns.
These people are facing hunger, thirst and
cold, because they are exposed to the
elements on the side of the highway and are
not allowed to move forward or go back, said
Kucharz.
According to the activist, more than 1,000
people are facing a humanitarian emergency
in the camps set up on farms and vacant lots
in the border region.
Zelaya, who did not take part in the meeting
with the U.N. mission, was staying at a
small hotel under Nicaraguan police guard,
and in the daytime was visiting the shelters
and camps where his supporters are staying,
with the aim, he said, to organise "militias
that will enter the country to restore
democracy in my fatherland."
A delegation from Nicaragua's Procuraduría
para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos
(ombudsman's office), which also visited the
border area, said in a statement that
authorities had "lost count of the number of
Hondurans who have crossed into the national
territory, but they are estimated at more
than 2,500 people along the over 900-km
shared border."
Up to now, the Hondurans have received
health care and food from the Nicaraguan
Health Ministry, local city governments,
NGOs, religious groups, and the general
public.
The main shelter is a sports stadium in the
centre of Ocotal, where mattresses have been
put on the floor. But the ombudsman's office
said the stadium does not provide minimum
conditions of security or hygiene.
A more precarious shelter is a vacant lot
known as "Las Colinas", where plastic and
cardboard shelters have been set up in a
swampy area at risk of flooding as a result
of the frequent heavy rains of the last few
days. The people at the camp have no
latrines or clean water.
"People have started to suffer respiratory
ailments and diarrhea," said the ombudsman's
office. |
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