UNHCR ‘shocked’ by police killing of refugee
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday expressed shock at the shooting dead of a young female refugee during a riot at one of the country’s refugee camps early this week.
The late refugee from an unnamed country was killed when police were called into Maheba refugee camp in the north west of the country to quell rioting refigees. Trouble began when 200 refugees staged a protest at the administration offices to prevent a new administrator who had been appointed to oversee them from taking office.
Some of the refugees were also demanding to be offered asylum to the United States of America, and in the ensuing confusion police were called in to stop the protest.
The police opened fire, killing the teenage refugee instantly.
UNHCR country representative James Lynch told journalists on Friday that the UN agency was shocked that live ammunition had been used on the refugees. He said although he did not support the actions of the refugees, it was saddening that deadly force had been used to break up the disturbance, leading to the killing.
He welcomed the commitment made by the Zambian government that it had instituted an investigation to establish how live ammunition was used to quell the riot.
APA
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Lets hear the whole story. Why did the refugees not want this new administrator? What do we know about his/her past performance that 200 vulnerable people felt so strongly about him/her that they organised together to protest.
Why did this young girl die? Rememeber when UNHCR called the Egyptian police and they shot over 20 Sudanese refugees dead.
Come on UNHCR -tell. What was the problem.
Too many corrupt officers in UNHCR- was this another one.
Reminds me of the cbu student who was shot. shoot first ask questions later
Very bad move on the part of the Police, but I have never heard of refugees rioting or rebelling unless they feel their rights are being infringed where they have sought asylum, remember you guys a privilege is not a right. If the refugees want to go to America, I am sure there are other ways in which this could be done, in fact most countries in the western world would send back all the troublemakers to their countries of origin. If it is Angola, there is no war anymore and actually most neighbouring countries can ably maintain their own people. We have enough problems in our country to be expending our energies on other nationals.
LIVE BULLETS BU MMD
SOOOO SAD! WHY NOT USE RUBBER BULLETS OR WATER CANONS? NABENA ASSYLUM TO THE U.S.A WHEN INKONDO YALIPWA KU MWABO?
Am sure the deceased was an Angolan national, so lets wait and see what the Angolan Govt will do about this senseless murder. I hope the Angolans put in a very strong protest internationally, this foolishness should come to end.
This is sad indeed. This refugee, run away from being killed, may be even her family members were killed! Or may be she was the only surving daughter from old refugee, on on the worse side and orphened refugee. Iyee! God forbid, some one must pay heavily for this un mankind type of tactics of resolving issues
How dare they murder a refugee?
She ran away from the threat of death in her Country, only to be brutally murdered by the people who were supposed to protect her.
Government and UNHCR must discuss ways of helping Zambia Police. The culture of carrying lethal weapons belongs to a world of yesterday. Not every Bwalya and Haantobolo should carry a gun just because he or she serves in Zambia Police.
Can we not find some latest techniques of managing demonstrations and riots? While we claim to value human life in Africa, we contradict ourselves by finding it so easy to shed human blood by taking away human life.
We need to re-licence only a certain number of Police Officers to handle fire arms. Remember that the Police are not the Army. The Police are so unprofessional that they now hide behind guns. They are bullies, using violent force to subdue people rather than helping people to resolve their issues.
Our unprofessional police service and use of live bullets to quell riots is disappointing. The police service command seem not to learn from past experiences. Its sad that genuine demands by refugees ends up into loss of life.