Visitors since July 31, 1999HOME
- BALKANS STABILITY PACT LAUNCHED TODAY
IN SARAJEVO
to promote democracy & regional
security, in meeting among leaders from
40 nations. Donors pledged over
$2.1 billion for of near-term
reconstruction aid in Kosovo as well
as for Albania, Macedonia,
Montenegro, Romania & Bulgaria,
with the EU & the US each pledging $500m
aid for humanitarian & rebuilding
purposes, earlier this week in Belgium
donation summit. Montenegro has
signaled its intent to begin secession
from Yugoslavia, also, unless its autonomy
status is revised.
-5-12,000 UN-EXPLODED CLUSTER BOMBS
DROPPED BY NATO REMAIN IN KOSOVO
& Serb Yugoslavia (estimates M
Dobbs of the Wash Post). Security
remains the primary problem in Kosovo
as several mine & unexploded
ordnance casualties occur each day,
& as retribution killings occur in
the major towns daily. Under
the OSCE's auspices, an intl force of
3,100 police will be deployed, &
some of them will be heavily armed, but
demining has been slow.
- KASHMIR FIGHTING QUELLED AS TROOPS
WITHDRAW & REMAINING INDEP. REBELS
were pushed back across Pakistan border
this week by India. Many
civilians remain displaced however.
Fighting ebbed two weeks ago as
Pakistan's govt recalled its troops;
though this may lead to political
instability in Pakistan whose govt
has lost face.
- SIERRA LEONE PEACE TREATY (JULY 7
IN TOGO) HOLDS. DONORS PLEDGE
to reinforce the peace agreement, the
govt. gave amnesty to imprisoned
rebels, which Human Rights Watch strongly
protested because this
absolves many who committed war crime
atrocities against civilians.
Action contre la Faim (a Paris based
NGO) finds 30+% malnutrition in S
Leone's north region & claims there
is large food aid need. Today an
Intl donor Contact Group on Sierra
Leone meets in London to promote
support to the peace process, including
training of a new army. Nigeria
announced that its W. African ECOMOG
peacekeeping force would stay on in
Sierra Leone as long as needed.
Nigerian troops also extended their
stay in Liberia to ensure disarmament
in support of the peace agreement
there. Last week, Liberian factions
burned & destroyed several tons of
weapons.
- ETHIOPIA INVADES SOMALIA, BEATS BACK
AIDID'S TROOPS & CAPTURE BAIDOA,
the major city of central Somalia,
this past week. Ethiopia was
responding to threats developing in
the larger Eritrea/Ethiopia war.
- CONTROVERSIAL LOAN TO CHINA FOR RESETTLEMENT
INTO GREATER TIBET
of 58,000 Chinese was approved by the
World Bank governing Board before
the end-of-June deadline, but held
up final funding until a more
thorough review of the project, bowing
to extensive criticisms by human
rights, environmental groups and the
US Congress. On June 30 China
graduated out of IDA (low-interest)
loan eligibility from the World
Bank.
- FINAL GUATEMALAN REFUGEES RETURN HOME
FROM MEXICO AFTER SIXTEEN YEAR
exile (living until now in refugee
camps in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula &
Chiapas) under orderly return organized
by UNHCR this week. Similarly,
UNHCR, Thailand & Laos this week
agreed to the final return of 1,300 Lao
refugees still in Thailand.
- THAI POLICY TO FORCE REPATRIATION
OF 250,000 REFUGEES BACK TO BURMA
working with UNHCR over the next 3
years, said Thai National Security
Council chief Kajadpai Burutpai this
month. Also this month
the International Labor Organization
expelled Burma from ILO
participation until it reforms its
practice of forced labor.
- CHILD LABOR PROHIBITED UNDER NEW INTL
LABOR ORGANIZATION TREATY
signed in June by 174 ILO country delegates,
specifically prohibiting
forced recruitment of children in armed
conflict.
- US IMPOSED FINANCIAL SANCTIONS AGAINST
AFGHANISTAN's TALEBAN MILITARY
late June, while Saudi & Persian
businesses contributed $50 million to
terrorist Osama Bin Laden, living in
Afghanistan.
- MACARTHUR FOUNDATION GENIUS AWARDS
GIVEN TO GENOCIDE EXPERTS:
Alison Des Forges, of Human Rights
Watch, who tried to prevent the '94
Rwandan genocide, & UCLA Holocaust
historian Saul Friedlander. Des
Forges book on Rwanda was reviewed
in the May 4 issue of HT.
- FRED CUNY REMAINS PURPORTEDLY OFFERED
FOR RANSOM
by Chechen rebel group that has provided
evidence that it can end the
search for his body (NY Times).
Cuny's family firmly refuses to pay any
ransom. In 1995 Cuny too had
been awarded the MacArthur Genius award
but did not live to collect it.
(See last issue of HT)
- PSYCHOSOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF EMERGENCIES
REPORT FROM SYMPOSIUM
available: download http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/sph/popfam/refugee/
- NEW WEBSITE ON INTERNALLY DISPLACED
PERSONS BY BROOKINGS PROJECT
http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/idp/idp.htm,
is now up and running,
though it was not yet at the time that
the Humanitarian Times first
reported on it 2 months ago. It contains
information in support of the
mandate of the UN Rep on Internally
Displaced Persons.
_______________________________________________________________________
RECENT BOOKS
- ACTION CONTRE LA FAIM BOOK, "THE GEOPOLITICS
OF HUNGER"
"Using Hunger As a Weapon" (1999,
Paris, http://www.puf-lib.com; or
email [email protected]), reviews 11
country cases where hunger & death
result from long-term armed conflict,
trade sanctions & political
standoffs. The international
NGO, Action Against Hunger draws together
staff analyses on the social, political
& historical dynamics of food
crises in program areas including Sierra
Leone, Iraq, Rwanda, Burundi,
Sudan, Somalia, N. Korea, Afghanistan
& Burma. ACF pinpoints the
varying roadblocks to humanitarian
aid. For example, in Burundi, the
govt authorities limit expatriate movement,
civilian access to food &
the maintenance of 24-hour nutrition
rehabilitation centers. In Sudan,
ACF was forced to leave by the rebel
faction (SPLA) for researching the
protracted malnutrition among the population
who were taxed & forcibly
recruited by the rebels; ACF also notes
the disorganization of food aid
in Sudan: "aid is misused for
political purposes. "a significant
proportion of aid & medicine goes
straight to the soldiers." In N
Korea, as well, food resources are
channeled to the govt and the
military. In what ACF calls "extortion
diplomacy" food aid donors bail
out the financially bankrupt N Korean
government. "As long as
charitable organizations do not adopt
a common line of conduct by
refusing to play the regime's game,
the regime will play off rivalries,
rivalries between NGOs and donors alike,
so as to continue to receive
aid, despite the often obscure use
of food & medicine from the
international community."
- GLOBAL FOOD INSECURITY & "THE
DOUBLY GREEN REVOLUTION"
"Food for All for the 20th Century"
by Gordon Conway (1998, Ithaca NY:
Cornell Univ Press ) offers the one
of the best, comprehensive &
balanced explanations of food security
trends worldwide, with a focus
on food access by the poor. An
excellent text for graduate courses in
agriculture, rural development, &
intl nutrition. Based on crop
genetic research supported by Rockefeller
Foundation (of which Conway
is now President) & the Ford Foundation,
rice, wheat & maize crop
yields have trended upwards in much
of Asia and L America. "The impact
of the Green Revolution on hunger has
been uneven. Among the urban
poor the incidence & severity of
under-nutrition have declined,
particularly in China, and also among
the rural poor who live in Green
Revolution lands of East & South
Asia, West Asia, North Africa & Latin
America. In Sub-Saharan Africa
both the proportion & numbers of
undernourished has risen." Blending
text & graphs, Conway shows the
growth of irrigated agriculture, threats
to land quality (e.g.
salting), the control of pests, the
flow of nutrients in the farm
system, & compares production &trade
trends of different food groups.
In a later chapter he explains the
how humanitarian thinking about
the dynamics of famine has evolved
in recent decades: "the emphasis on
access to food, rather than food production
produced a sea change in
thinking about food security.
Research in famine situations has
revealed the complex ways in which
people respond to adversity."
Conway argues that lack of local credit
constrains most farmers &
advocates local, self-managed credit
groups. Conway concludes in
calling for support for the Intl Agricultural
Research Centers, & in
the Consultative Group on Intl Agricultural
Research (CGIAR).
- PRACTICAL STEPS TO SAVE LIVES OF THE
MALNOURISHED
are summarized, culling decades of
field research, in the World Health
Organization manual "Management of
Severe Malnutrition: a Manual for
Physicians & Other Sr Health Workers"
(1999 Geneva: WHO), largely based
on the work of Dr. Michael Golden of
Aberdeen Scotland. The manual
provides critical information that
many clinicians trained in previous
decades do not understand, including
the fluid & electrolyte needs in
severe malnutrition specifies modified
oral rehydration solution to
give to severely malnourished children,
who are deficient in potassium
and have abnormally high levels of
sodium. It emphasizes the
importance of frequent feeding &
warmth throughout the night to
mitigate against hypoglycemia &
hypothermia. It explains the
transition from initial feeding with
frequent (every 2 hours) 75
kilocalorie per kilogram (child weight)
per day mix to less frequent
(4 hourly) 100 kcal/kg mix. In
early treatment, children respond to
higher than previously-thought intake
of minerals & electrolytes,
whereas high protein intake is harmful.
Guidance is also given on use
of vitamin A, antibiotics, naso-gastric
feeding & on management in
refugee settings. The full text is
available (in adobe format, for
download) from: http://www.who.int/nut/Manageme.pdf.
- Of similar interest, also see the
World Health Organization's
"Field-Guide for Rapid Nutritional
Assessment in Emergencies"
published by WHO's Eastern Mediterranean
office.
- "FEEDING THE TEN BILLION: PLANTS
& POPULATION GROWTH"
(LT Evans 1998 Cambridge
Univ Press) takes a most unique looks at
the population/food race, by charting
it over the millennia, for
example when the human population was
only a few million persons
8,000 years ago, and into the recent
past, as the human population
surpassed first three billion, then
four, then five, & how the
world's overall food production has
kept pace. The author asks
essential questions that have to do
with whether or not the world
will be able to continue to expand
food production. Noting that
over 90% of increases in food output
during the last thirty years
are accounted for by constant increase
in yield (output per land
under cultivation), the author suggests
that there is still room
for greater yield improvements in developing
countries. Also, "as
the key to higher yields & greater
cropping intensity in developing
countries, the further extension of
irrigation is essential, but
likely to be limited."
_____________________________________________________________________
The Humanitarian Times
The Humanitarian
Times is produced on a non-profit basis, with
input from various
non-governmental organizations. Its purpose
is to help NGOs
share news & insights across continents & across
sectors. It
is provided free of charge to aid workers &
concerned individuals
in over seventy countries. There is no
advertising or political
position in The Humanitarian Times.
The Humanitarian
Times encourages submission of views, news &
leads from the field
by any NGO.
* To submit ideas,
to subscribe, or to un-subscribe
email
to: [email protected].