IDPs call on aid agencies to introduce more humane burial procedures

October 21, 2014 (KAMPALA) – Internally displaced people (IDPs) lsheltering inside a UN camp in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state have complains of poor burial procedures for their deceased relatives.

Lang Diar Hoth, a youth leader for IDPs at the UN camp, told Sudan Tribune by phone on Tuesday that the way aid agencies conducted burial arrangements was unfair for relatives of the dead.

“When an IDP person dies within the camp the aid agencies who handle health cases refer the body to Juba teaching hospital. From there they pay the hospital staffs to arrange the burial without relatives present,” said Hoth.

As a result he said many people had no information regarding the whereabouts of their loved one’s final resting place.

“It is very important for the member of family to know where the body was laid to rest,” he said.

“But for the case of internally displaced persons in the UN camp it has never happen,” he added.

Hundreds of thousands of people sought shelter at UN sites across the country after violence erupted in mid-December last year amid fears they could be targeted based on their ethnicity.

However, conditions inside the camps remain extremely overcrowded, with basic amenities often lacking.

IDPs are calling on international aid agencies and the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to adopt a more compassionate policy on burial procedures, saying hospital staff should not be paid to bury the dead without the family’s involvement.

“We urge the UNMISS and NGOs that fight health status of IDPs in the camp to look for another means for burial arrangement,” said Hoth.

“We need to be [a] part of burial [arrangements]; it is not enough to throw our dead in Juba teaching hospital without knowing [whether] they had [a] proper burial,” he added.

The group has expressed concerns that burials were becoming a business for Juba teaching hospital and have urged UNMISS and NGOs to engage in talks with the government to identify a suitable site for burials.

It has been alleged that over 20,000 people were killed based on their ethnicity since the conflict broke out.

Many of those who sheltering in UN compounds are unable to return to their homes and are extremely traumatised after witnessing killings carried out by the country’s rival parties in their communities.

(ST)