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UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata has expressed concern over the role of the military in humanitarian operations, saying it could undermine coordination and “deprive civilian humanitarian agencies of effectiveness and clout”.
In a statement to UNHCR’s executive committee earlier this week, she said the international community had been searching for quicker, more effective responses to situations of conflict, but approaches that involved bilateral delivery of emergency relief or direct military intervention in relief operations - as happened in Kosovo - were not without consequences.
Military involvement in humanitarian operations could also, in certain circumstances, “expose refugees to a conflict, or even make them party to it, jeopardising their security”, Ogata warned.
Acknowledging that services provided by the military were most useful in large-scale humanitarian emergencies, she said this should not be a substitute for agencies with humanitarian mandates. Kosovo had also shown that in a high-profile emergency, the operating space of humanitarian agencies could become “unbearably overcrowded”.
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