MSF demands release of workers
2005-06-06 08:12
Geneva - Medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) has called for the "immediate and unconditional release" of two employees seized on Thursday in Ituri in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The two men, a French aid worker and a driver, disappeared as they headed to a camp in the troubled region of Ituri. Witnesses said they had been stopped and led away by unidentified armed men.
MSF said on Saturday the pair were in good health.
In a statement released on Sunday the group said: "The medical humanitarian organisation calls for the immediate and unconditional release of its two employees.
"In the meantime, MSF urges all parties involved in the conflict to refrain from any activities on the ground that could jeopardise the safe release of its employees."
On Saturday MSF spokesperson Aymeric Peguillan said in Geneva MSF, whose name means Doctors Without Borders, was in discussion with several armed groups as well as peacekeepers in the region, to prevent an upsurge of fighting that would harm efforts to free its employees.
"We are in talks with the United Nations (UN) mission in DRC (Monuc), the Armed Forces in (the provincial capital) Bunia, as well as with our contacts within the region's various armed groups," Peguillan said.
The group recalled "MSF teams of volunteers have always worked with total independence, neutrality and impartiality since they started their intervention in Ituri in 2003".
Christian Captier, General Director of MSF Switzerland, added "the only goal of MSF has always been to provide medical assistance to the DRC people without discrimination".
The statement went on: "Faced with the present situation, MSF has reluctantly decided to suspend all its medical activities outside of Bunia. However, in the town of Bunia, the MSF hospital Bon March will continue to assist all patients who may require medical or surgical attention."
The abduction took place in the same area as an attack on Nepalese UN peacekeepers on Thursday, one of whom was killed and three wounded when their helicopters came under fire about 50km north of Bunia.
The helicopters had been carrying a human rights mission investigating claims of rape and kidnapping of women by fighters of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), an armed militia of the Lendu ethnic group.
MSF warned three months ago of a horrific escalation in the scale of rapes in Ituri affecting thousands of women, children and some men, aged between four and 80 years old, as fighting also surged.
Inter-ethnic clashes between Hema and Lendu fighters in the volatile Ituri region, near the Ugandan border, have claimed at least 60 000 lives and forced more than 500 000 people to flee from their homes since 1999.