2007年VOA标准英语-ICRC to Keep Villagers in Darfur From Fleeing t

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
21 April 2007

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the security situation in Sudan's conflict-ridden province of Darfur continues to worsen and getting access to people in remote villages is getting harder.  An ICRC delegate, who has just completed a one-year mission in Sudan, tells VOA the Red Cross is trying to make life in the villages sustainable so people do not feel they have to flee to the camps.  Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from ICRC headquarters in Geneva.

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Darfur refugees in this derelict section of Es Sallam camp say they have been waiting nine months to be relocated to decent shelters, 25 Mar 2007

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the only international aid agency working in the rural areas of Darfur.  The main focus of its work is to get help and provide protection to people living in remote villages that are vulnerable to attack. 

ICRC communications officer Jessica Barry has just completed a one-year mission in Sudan.  She tells VOA that Red Cross aid workers regularly talk to all the various warring factions² to try to make them understand that civilians³ must be protected.   Unfortunately, she says, the message does not always get across.

"What is the real concern is that the more that this very difficult security situation continues and the more people are not able to return to their villages, finally, of course, they will have no choice but to migrate to the camps," she said.  "Now the camps are already very full and this is a big concern." 

About 2 million internally displaced people are living in UN-run camps.  Barry notes the camps are well organized and peoples' basic needs for food, water, health and education are being met.  But, she says camp life is a poor life compared to being able to live safely at home.

Although the Red Cross wants to focus on the rural villages exclusively, Barry says this is not always possible.  She says the ICRC has been managing Gareida, one of the biggest camps in southern Sudan, since it was set up in 2004 because no other aid agencies were working there. 

Over time, she says, private aid agencies arrived to provide services to the displaced people.  The ICRC began to make plans to withdraw from the camp and focus more attention on the villages.  But, at the end of last year, she says the camp and the aid workers came under severe attack.  After that, she says, all aid agencies withdrew, leaving the ICRC as the only organization remaining. 

"The ICRC immediately, when this incident happened, had contact with all the different sides and all the different parties and asked for security guarantees and ensured the security guarantees to be able to allow us to remain in the camp," she added.  "And, of course, we had to assess the needs of the people against the risks to us to stay and we believed that we should stay and this was why we stayed." 

But, Barry says, the Red Cross presence in the camp is not unconditional⁴.  If the security guarantees break down and something terrible was to happen, she says Red Cross workers might be forced to leave.  She says she does not like to think of what would happen to the more than 100,000 displaced people in the camp if no one were there to look after them.

1 mar   

vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟

参考例句：

• It was not the custom for elderly people to mar the picnics with their presence.大人们照例不参加这样的野餐以免扫兴。
• Such a marriage might mar your career.这样的婚姻说不定会毁了你的一生。

2 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

3 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

4 unconditional   

adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的

参考例句：

• The victorious army demanded unconditional surrender.胜方要求敌人无条件投降。
• My love for all my children is unconditional.我对自己所有孩子的爱都是无条件的。