The sinister strangeness of silence.

As representatives of the Zairian Government and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) prepared to meet in South Africa, a Joint Statement on the crisis in eastern Zaire was released by: Emma Bonino, European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid; Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); A. Namanga Ngongi, Deputy Director, World Food Programme (WFP); and Brian Atwood, Administrator, USAID. The following is excerpted from that statement:

"We appeal to the participants in the talks to fully consider the urgent humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced Zairians stranded in the war zone.

"We call on the parties to respect humanitarian principles and the Geneva Conventions, to allow aid agencies free access to refugees and displaced persons among whom are thousands of children, and to enable aid workers to reach and assist them. Aid agencies should be able to work without any restrictions to save many thousands of refugees who are exhausted after months of roaming desperately through the jungle and whose lives are currently hanging by a thread. These peoples' needs must not be overlooked as the Zairian parties prepare for political negotiations over their country's future. They need help and they need it now.

"We have witnessed the plight of the refugees ourselves. These people fled into the rain forest to escape the fighting and violence in the region. We are now trying to help them and to prepare them for repatriation.

"Over the past week, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and other aid agencies - with the help and strong support of donors like the European Union, the United States and Japan - are trying to aid more than 100,000 refugees who have re-emerged from the forest. However, many thousands of Rwandan and Burundi refugees, as well as internally displaced Zairians, remain out of reach. We are appealing to the international community for urgent assistance to help us reach these people, provide them with emergency aid and - eventually - repatriate those who wish to return home and provide asylum for bona fide refugees who continue to need it."

Airlift

On 15 April, UNHCR said it hoped to start the airlift of Rwandan refugees to Goma soon, moving people from the makeshift camps south of Kisangani. UNHCR, working with WFP and the International Committee of the Red Cross, had moved some 1,500 refugees so far, according to the Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Juan Carlos Brandt.

The airlift operation, which faced a number of obstacles, was supposed to start initially with an air bridge to Goma if accepted by the ADFL. UNHCR has continued to negotiate the airlift to Goma as well as the possibility of using other areas for the return of the refugees. The first group was expected to consist of some 80 unaccompanied children.

Children: 'Not even crying'

Also on 15 April, UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director and former coordinator for its study on the "Impact of War on Children" Stephen Lewis briefed correspondents in New York on his recent trip to eastern Zaire, where "Kilometre 41" of the Kisangani-Ubundu access had held "the greatest concentration of human desolation and numbers".

Mr. Lewis said it was anticipated that some 5,000 children needed repatriation. That process, which would conclude with the massive return of large numbers of adult refugees, was "really complex". The refugees were not easily accessible and, with the rainy season upon them, the area was a virtual swamp.

"The children are in extremely rough shape", he said. At Kilometre 41, several hundred children were divided into two groups - one group had received some physical and emotional rehabilitation; the other cluster was very, very sick. The illnesses ranged from dysentery to malaria and acute respiratory infections. Much was being done to attend to them, but even those children considered to be slightly better off were in a "dreadful psychological state".

"The children are sitting almost lifelessly", he continued, "communicating not at all, looking vacantly out towards the world". He called the silence "eerie", saying there were very few situations where 80 to 100 children were together, and "you don't hear laughter, you don't hear crying, you don't hear sounds of any activity". Some of the children had been given to aid workers from the arms of mothers who lay dying. He had met a 15-year-old girl who had been looking after four siblings for six months during the course of the trek through the jungle. Others were exhausted and near death.

Mr. Lewis also said that an earnest effort was under way to trace the identities of the children and begin the process of reunification. UNICEF and Save the Children hoped to reunite between 60 and 70 per cent of the children even before the bulk of them started moving. He said names were being called on bullhorns throughout the various encampments and posted in a particular tent. Photos were being used where possible, along with daily broadcasts, in a desperate effort to reunify families before further unsettlement began. Many youngsters were separated from parents and extended families during the most recent trek. It might, therefore, be possible to reunite them. The children would be transported to the Goma transit centre, which could take up to 1,000 children or more, and moved to Rwanda as quickly as possible.