Conte: Refugees should go home

Witnesses report that families have been arrested and were being held in village halls or police stations.

The Guinean authorities began their crackdown on Saturday after President Lansana Conte blamed the refugees for helping armed dissidents who led three border raids this month.

The raids, along Guinea's border with Liberia and Sierra Leone, left 79 people dead and 10 missing.

"We know that there are rebels among the refugees," Mr Conte said in an address on the state radio.

"I am giving orders that we bring together all foreigners in (Guinean) neighbourhoods, so that we know what they are doing... and that we search and arrest suspects," he added.

An estimated 125,000 Liberians and 330,000 Sierra Leoneans are currently in Guinea, according to the UNHCR. Some of the refugees have been there for the last ten years.

Police patrols

Police conducted patrols throughout Conakry, the capital, forcing hundreds of frightened Sierra Leoneans to seek refuge in their embassy.

The Sierra Leonean ambassador told the BBC that while some refugees complained of being beaten up by their landlords, others said the soldiers were beginning to evict them.

"They are unwanted. Even the amputees who have come for some amputee programmes to the UNHCR are here. I have about 30 to 40 amputees in my compound now."

Refugees rounded up by the Guinean authorities have not been given anything to eat since late Saturday, according to witnesses.

The UNHCR's representative in Guinea, while describing the situation as unprecedented, asked the Guinean government not to expel the refugees.

"[The refugees] too are victims of the inhumane barbarity of the rebels," Chrysantus Ache told the Guinean state television.

Liberia is planning to repatriate its nationals from Guinea, and Sierra Leone has also asked Guinea for permission to allow its ships to ferry the refugees.