No famine, UN envoy says

The following are extracts from a press conference in Nairobi on Wednesday given by Catherine Bertini, UN Special Envoy for the Secretary-General, on her return from visits to Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and northern Kenya. While denying that the food crisis had reached famine proportions, Bertini urged the international community to respond generously to alleviate the suffering of millions of affected people in the Greater Horn of Africa. Q: Given the insecurity in the Ethiopian-Eritrean region, how much is this man-made as opposed to a natural disaster? A: Drought is nature, drought is a natural phenomenon. The response to the drought has to be man-made - this is true whether in rich agricultural lands in California or whether it's where people are living with their livestock in the Horn of Africa. The response has to be by all of us. In that response we have to overcome certain challenges, and some of those challenges are the security issues. Droughts of this magnitude where there are no rains for many months always are potential disasters. I show you as an example the 1992 drought in southern Africa - where there were not security concerns, but there were 80 million people at risk. And it was critical that the international community be generous in that case so that those people could avoid malnutrition and starvation. The international community was extremely generous and food moved through out the region; there was no question of insecurity but there was a huge need for aid because of the natural disaster. That is the case here as well. Q: Ethiopia has rejected a recent statement by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that response to the crisis by the international community has been swift. What is your comment? A: I had a very positive meeting with the prime minister of Ethiopia...He acknowledged the fact the international community had been very generous in Ethiopia and hoped that it would continue to be generous - and I think that's the case. We talked about the needs however for a considerable amount of coordination and development and support for the transportation systems in different areas of the country and from the transportation system from Djibouti, and from the port... Q: What has the impact of the Ethiopia-Eritrean war been on the region, and have you tried to persuade the leaders to stop this war? A: I am here as a humanitarian - and to the extent that humanitarians by bringing their goods and their support and supplies are peace-makers, then hopefully we can help to make peace. But it's not my mission or my mandate to discuss the issues of conflict between the countries in the region. It is my mission to find out the needs of people living through the drought and be in a position to be able to recommend what's necessary or to support the people in need. The one area that is problematic - because of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea - is the fact that the Eritrean ports are not readily available for us to use at this point in time. We are updating the Djibouti port and planning to use it and the port in Berbera, to accommodate the needs of the Ethiopian food and other items. Q: Eritrea has apparently offered its port to use for aid during this crisis but Ethiopia has rejected this offer. If this is so, what reason did Ethiopia give to you for rejecting the offer of the port? A: Eritrea has told us that the port of Assab is available today - that was their quote. We have done an initial assessment working with our logistics people and the logistics people in Eritrea and we estimate that were we to use that port, it would take about two months of various kinds of things to be done on a technical basis before the port could actually be used for incoming goods that would then be shipped further in. The prime minister of Ethiopia and the other Ethiopian officials believe there is enough port capacity in Djibouti and in Berbera in order to accommodate all the needs... We anticipate that for Ethiopia we need 170,000 tons per month, to come in. The port authorities at Djibouti - not the government but the port authority officials - estimate that with the upgrades that they can accommodate 200,000 tons per month. We estimate that Berbera port can accommodate 20-25,000 tons per month. Therefore it may not be necessary to use the Assab port... Q: How much longer is the international humanitarian community going stick to this almost quasi-religious line of "we are humanitarians and we cannot question what politicians do"? With the history of intervention over the last 20 years, don't you think we've moved on from that? A: Ronald Reagan years ago said "a hungry child knows no politics". We have to operate to keep alive every hungry child. This world has a moral obligation to do that. And humanitarians have a moral obligation to assuring that that's the case...If we have to be sure we can reach that child, then we cannot be involved in the deliberations and the potential taking of sides - about who's right and who's wrong - in a conflict. Q: Were you able to visit northern Kenya, and what did you think of food problems there? A: The mission went to Turkana on 18 April and found several things. First of all, they found food distribution and networks of other goods able to be used. They found some people working on drilling bore holes - though many more are needed - and found a lot of concern in terms of health of the livestock. People they visited were in a state similar to those we are concerned about in the rest of the region. They have been coping, living with their own resources, but because of the drought they've lost some of their animals, they have not had good crops, and they do not have over the longer term the capacity to cope if they don't have additional international aid to help support them. Q: Have the UN agencies agreed on whether this is a famine or a severe food crisis? A: This is a serious problem facing the people of the region, and our purpose is, as directed by the Secretary-General, to bring in enough resources to raise enough consciousness, to organise enough systems, so that we can prevent a disaster and prevent a famine. Q: Are you saying you discourage the media from using the word famine? A: This is not a famine.