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S.Africa: 100 Somali Refugees in mass suicide bid to draw United Nations attention
Date Posted: Monday 09-Jun-2008[This is pretty sad really. It tells you how desperate these people are. The Somali refugees in South Africa have been attacked and murdered by black South Africans for quite a number of years now. Jan]
By Andrea Hart and Jean Yung
At least one Somali national has attempted suicide by jumping in the Atlantic Ocean as 100 others threatened to do the same in a desperate bid to get the United Nations' attention.
While police and the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) prevented a mass suicide at Soetwater near Cape Town on Sunday, rumours spread that refugees were still missing, causing scores of people to go swimming to look for them.
Husein Faras, who attempted suicide, was rescued by other Somalis and carried back to the camp after having spent several hours in the ocean, refugees said.
Community members surrounded the shivering 25-year-old Faras as he rubbed the bloodied cuts on his legs.
"He wanted to die because of his stress," said community leader Abdulaani Wenliye.
"His brother was murdered by robbers in Du Noon in 2006 and now he has nothing to eat."
Unrest was sparked in the refugee camp after an unsatisfactory meeting between refugee leaders and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Saturday in Cape Town.
Immediately following the discussions, Somalis in Soetwater went on a hunger strike that escalated into threats of suicide.
They were "left with no options and no one else to appeal to", and "had no choice but to resort to desperate measures to get the world's attention", said the Soetwater refugee leadership committee.
The NSRI pulled the people looking for the missing four from the water, said incident commander Ian Klopper. Three rescue ships and a team of swimmers had been sent to the scene at 10am.
"We woke up and heard that four people had gone in the water to kill themselves," said Fatima Hiljk, who went searching in the water with 20 other community members and was pulled out by the NSRI several hours later.
"It is quite a dangerous situation because they (community members) were not trained for rescue and those waters are extremely cold and unsafe," Klopper said.
At the scene, more than 50 people were standing on the rocks, still looking for people in the water.
"We are fighting with the UN because they don't give us assistance," said Hiljk, pointing to a pile of stale bread and bottles of expired juice delivered to the camp the previous day.
In addition to meeting with Soetwater community members on Saturday, two representatives from the UNHCR Pretoria field office, Arvin Gupta and Yusuf Hassan, met displaced expatriates from Caledon Square, Blue Waters and His People Centre.
Though he could not discuss the specifics of the weekend's talks, Hassan said South Africa did not have a resettlement programme and that the UNHCR's plan was to help the government with the reintegration of the displaced people - an option not welcomed by most camp leaders.
"We submitted our request to quit this country," said Burundian Damas Nigonkuru, from His People Centre at N1 City.
"(The UNHCR) told us they can't do anything except to help the government reintegrate us. That was not something we were expecting to have - we were shocked."
Blue Waters camp spokesperson Yves Bonyeme said they were writing to the UN to ask for a visit from a resettlement expert.
According to Hassan, resettlement was an option, but an extremely rare one. A single resettlement application took between 18 and 24 months to process.
"It's not that the UNHCR has a key to open the doors to all these countries, which is a deeply embedded view in the minds of these people," said Hassan.
Rather, its focus is on the safety and security of the large number of displaced people and to ensure that they are receiving momentary assistance.
"We cannot look at the medium- and long-term solutions," he said
In light of the Soetwater crisis, the Treatment Action Campaign has once again requested all levels of government to take action and close down the refugee camps.
Activists have demanded that President Thabo Mbeki deliver a mandate to the UN to repatriate or resettle displaced people to a third country.
"A tragedy is unfolding as people who fled xenophobic terror now face the uncaring machinery of the state," the TAC said.
While the SA Police Service said the situation at Soetwater was back to normal, some Somalis were still threatening suicide.
"I'm ready to jump in the sea with my eight children because I have no hope," said Raxma Moalin.
Clutching her five-month-old daughter, she added: "I have nothing to give my children."