PRESS BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME
19970605
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
The Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Catherine Bertini, yesterday afternoon reported to correspondents on the worsening food crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and introduced the report of a joint crop and food supply assessment mission to the country. The mission was carried out by the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Speaking at a press briefing at Headquarters, Ms. Bertini said that five of the 10 government food distribution sites had no food and the other five sites would run out during June.
The country's food distribution programme was being supplemented by assistance from the international community, Ms. Bertini told correspondents. So far, multilateral assistance through the WFP had provided 144,464 tons of food, representing 72 per cent of total food requested by the agency. That amount did not include recent additional commitments from the European Union, Germany, Canada and New Zealand. Bilateral donors and non-governmental organizations had contributed another 187,108 tons of food, for a total of over 300,000 tons provided to the people to date.
The Government had initially believed it could raise some 1 million tons of food out of the estimated shortfall of 2.3 million tons. Those projections appeared to have been optimistic. It now seemed that the Government would only be able to raise 500,000 tons of food, leaving a shortfall of 1.8 million tons, based on the agency's earlier review. Since that review, the shortfall was now approximately 1.1 million tons.
The report indicated that early prospects for the fall harvests were favourable, Ms. Bertini said. However, crops were being prematurely harvested by hungry people. The mission had also visited households and had noticed a deterioration in people's nutritional status. Households were visited where they were told of people who had died from a lack of food. The mission also observed a higher incidence of diseases caused by dietary deficiencies. The degree of malnutrition appeared to differ between the provinces and even among similar populations groups. Originally, it had been assumed that conditions would be worse in the northern parts of the country, but that situation had been made less stark owing the region's access to trade with China.
A correspondent asked if hard figures were available on the numbers of people who had died from starvation. Ms. Bertini said the report did not include hard numbers and the WFP did not yet have a nutritional monitoring system in the country. However, members of the mission had visited households which reported deaths from starvation.
There had been ample warning on the food situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a correspondent said. Why had the international community not been able to come to grips with the problem? Ms. Bertini said the FAO/WFP mission in December had focused on assessing the need. In February, the WFP launched the current appeal, notifying the international community that the needs were far greater than it could manage.
There had been floods in the fall of 1995 and 1996, Ms. Bertini went on to say. In 1995, the WFP had a $8.8 million flood rehabilitation programme, its first in the country. That programme had been successful to a point, but then there had been more massive floods in 1996.
In reply to another question, Ms. Bertini said she was not satisfied with the rate of progress. People were starving, and that should not be happening. Nevertheless, there had been a response to the situation, and that response was growing. The WFP had told the world community there was a need for 1.3 million tons of food and had asked for contributions of 200,000 tons, the amount it could manage. So far, it had received 75 per cent of that figure and might get the total amount by the time it finished its negotiations with governments.
Many countries did not have relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ms. Bertini went on to say. Therefore, the idea of sending bilateral assistance to a country with which it had no relations and without a system to review the distribution was a political challenge with which governments were still dealing. The WFP was looking at ways it could respond to some government requests, as well as how it could work with officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to maximize the amount of food that reached the country -- either through multilateral channels or directly on a bilateral basis.
Some officials in the United States and the Republic of Korea had said the food shortage was not as serious as reported and would improve if army food reserves were released. Asked for her comment, Ms. Bertini said the FAO officials assessed the situation whenever a natural disaster occurred. Donors used their statistics to decide on the level of assistance needed. The United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan had all contributed to various phases of the current programme. Clearly, they agreed there was a problem and were part of the solution.
The research arms of those Governments would agree with those figures, perhaps even considering them to be a conservative assessment of the current need, Ms. Bertini went on to say. The fact that there was a great food shortage in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and that people were malnourished and dying was not fabricated. She had visited the country and seen people in their homes and fields and visited children in the schools. It was very clear that people were at different stages of malnutrition and had very limited food intake.
WFP Briefing - 3 - 5 June 1997
A correspondent said no one was suggesting that the facts were being fabricated. However, some potential donors had asked the WFP why the Government was not reordering its priorities and using more of its resources to deal with the problem. In response, Ms. Bertini said that had been mentioned by some governments, along with many other issues, but no donor country had said that it would therefore not provide assistance.
It was a basic principle in humanitarian efforts that governments and other organizations helped keep people who were at risk of starvation alive, Ms. Bertini said. Donors did not place preconditions based on what they thought of a particular government. In a humanitarian emergency, they did not allow five-year-olds to starve solely because of the country in which they lived. Donors had said they would support people who were at risk of starvation no matter where they lived, no matter what government they lived under and no matter what the circumstances, because to do otherwise was morally unacceptable.
There had been some talk that the WFP might be split up under United Nations reform proposals, a correspondent said. Asked if she had heard anything about that, Ms. Bertini said she had not heard any serious proposals to that effect. Asked whether she had been consulted with respect to the reform proposals, she said that heads of all the agencies had been consulted.
Asked if she was concerned that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would have too much power and that the WFP would be squeezed out, Ms. Bertini said everyone was concerned with how best to manage what the United Nations was supposed to do in tasks such as protecting refugees, protecting children, feeding people. The discussion was on how best to do that, geared towards providing recommendations for the Secretary-General to consider.
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