(New York, July 5, 2001)
Checkpoints along the roads are
particularly dangerous locations,
where refugees are often subjected to arbitrary strip searches,
beatings, sexual assault and extortion. In the report, "Refugees Still
at Risk: Continuing Refugee Protection Concerns in Guinea," Human Rights
Watch has also documented the cases of refugees who were tortured or
beaten to death while detained in Forecariah Prison, southeast of
Conakry.

"These people are fleeing terrible civil wars, and they should not be
subjected to more abuse when they reach their place of refuge," said
Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division of Human
Rights Watch. "This is not simply a moral argument, it is a fact of
international law. Guinea must live up to its responsibilities."

For a decade, Guinea has hosted several hundred thousand refugees who
have fled the conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. This is one of the
largest refugee populations in Africa, surpassed only by that in
Tanzania, which is a bigger country.

More than 40,000 of these refugees have recently been relocated from
embattled border areas to camps in the interior of Guinea. Despite this
improvement, the refugees' long-term safety is still under threat, Human
Rights Watch said.

Refugees have very little information about the situation in the new
camps, on the roads in Guinea or in their home countries, and have great
difficulty in accessing and obtaining the help of the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The number of
UNHCR protection officers in the rest of Guinea is insufficient and
subject to a high turnover.

Many refugees have been arrested for such arbitrary reasons as their age
and size and have been held for periods up to several weeks in Guinean
detention facilities in Forecariah, Guéckédou, and Kissidougou, often
without charge. Still more refugees are vulnerable to all of these
abuses because no valid refugee identification cards have been
distributed by the Guinean government.

Many Guineans blame the refugees for the conflict at the border. While
Guinea does have legitimate concerns about the threat to national
security posed by rebel infiltration from Sierra Leone and Liberia,
these concerns do not excuse the harassment and physical threats that
cause refugees in Guinea to live in fear, Human Rights Watch said.

Since September 2000, a combination of Sierra Leonean Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) rebels and armed Liberian forces have repeatedly
attacked and burned refugee camps and Guinean villages along the border,
killing, injuring, abducting, and forcing their residents to flee. The
Liberian government has also launched cross-border attacks, accusing
Guinea of providing support and hosting a Liberian rebel group, the
Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).

In September 2000, Guinean President Lansana Conte made an inflammatory
speech indiscriminately blaming refugees for the border destabilization
and calling on the Guinean population to defend their country against
foreign invasions. Police, soldiers and civilian militias launched
widespread violence against thousands of refugees in the camps and in
the capital Conakry following this speech. In the months that followed,
a number of cross-border attacks into Guinea by Liberian forces and
Sierra Leonean RUF rebels resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Guineans
and refugees, and displaced thousands of refugees and local residents.

Refugees in Guinea are presented with choices that all pose risks to
their long-term personal safety. They can remain in the border area
which is under attack; move to new camps within Guinea, where they may
be more vulnerable to hostility from the local population; or return to
Sierra Leone or Liberia, which both remain unstable.

Recently, UNHCR in Guinea has focused on the relocation of refugees away
from the border area. The operation was completed in May 2001, but many
refugees remain in the border areas where they are now entirely without
international protection. Donor governments have also failed to provide
the needed funding for assistance and protection of refugees in Guinea.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the relocation process as a major step
towards assuring refugee protection, but urged UNHCR to pay closer
attention to abuses being committed against refugees by the Guinean
authorities and civilians hostile to the refugee presence.

The report, "Refugees Still at Risk: Continuing Refugee Protection
Concerns in Guinea," is found at
.

For more information on the refugee crisis in Guinea, please see:

No "Safe Passage" Through Rebel-Held Sierra Leone (HRW Press Release,
April 3, 2001) at http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/04/refugee-0403.htm.

Rebel Abuses Against Sierra Leonean Refugees Returning from Guinea (HRW
Testimonies, April 3, 2001) at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/04/sl-testimonies.htm.

Guinean Forces Kill, Wound Civilians in Sierra Leone (HRW Press Release,
February 28, 2001) at http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/02/guinea0227.htm.