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Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention (Part IV) which
states that civilians should not be the object of
attack (Article 51). As refugees are civilians, they
are covered by this and need no other special status.
Indeed, the US consider that unqualified condemnation
of armed attacks could imply that refugees are entitled
to special status and that camps should be totally
immune from attack, regardless of what was going on
there.
7.
The US suggested that Ambassador Chiba, the
Japanese Chairman of EXCOM, could report to the October
EXCOM meeting that he had worked hard to find mutually
acceptable ground in accordance with his mandate from
the 36th EXCOM to hold consultations, but this had not
proved possible and he therefore recommended that
discussion of the issue be postponed. The US added
that individual states could still, if they so wished,
make statements and condemnations of armed attacks.
8. UNHCR had hoped to avoid having this controversial
issue on EXCOM's agenda for yet another year. They
tried hard to get the US to agree to our amendments,
but unsuccessfully. Predictably, this state of affairs
has not gone down well with the Africans.
Consultations on the two texts have come to a
standstill because of the US position and the
Tanzanians have now inscribed the issue on the agenda
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