PRESS CONFERENCE BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNICEF

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNICEF

The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, this afternoon said that what she had seen during her recent visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea supported reports about the critical situation there. Speaking at a Headquarters press briefing, she said the food crisis in that country had been brought on mainly by the floods in 1995 and 1996 and by the current drought. The lack of rain in June and July had further dramatically affected the corn and rice crops.

Ms. Bellamy said UNICEF workers were seeing children up to 15 years of age who were severely malnourished, and thousands of them were dying from malnutrition. Evidence of malnutrition in older children showed how the situation was growing worse every day. If the rains did not come in the next eight to 12 days, the rice crop would be severely damaged, with serious implications for the winter months. Hundreds of thousands of infants and children were at significant risk of malnutrition and death.

Ms. Bellamy said that in her travels north of Pyongyang, to nurseries, schools and hospitals, she saw very sick and severely malnourished children. Some, who would normally have been cared for by their grandparents, were being brought into the nurseries because their extended families could no longer take care of them. In one of the city's hospitals, she saw children being fed high-energy milk. The UNICEF was importing such milk and training 200 local workers in its use. Those workers would spread out across the country to train others.

Last week, UNICEF had revised its appeal for assistance from $4 million to $14 million, Ms. Bellamy said. Slightly more than $3 million had been received. She urged continued support for UNICEF's appeal, as well as for such other United Nations agencies as the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

On Monday, UNICEF, the WFP and the non-governmental organization "Save the Children" would begin a joint programme to assess nutrition throughout the country, she said. The "double whammy" of floods and the drought had brought on a significant crisis, and it was important that immediate humanitarian needs were not held hostage to the political crisis, which must also be addressed.

In reply to a request, Ms. Bellamy said she would check the breakdown of contributors to UNICEF's appeal following her briefing.

Asked if there were any official figures on the numbers of people who had died from starvation, Ms. Bellamy said the Government had not provided them to her. She had met with representatives of other United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations and they did not have that kind of information. However, government figures for the numbers suffering from severe malnutrition were being supported by what the agencies were seeing in the field.

Had she made direct appeals to the main players in the region and the major donors -- such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States and China -- to start sending massive food aid? a correspondent asked. Ms. Bellamy said UNICEF was not reluctant to take the appeal to any donor and had joined with the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and the WFP a few days ago in discussions with the United States and Japan on food aid.

To another question, Ms. Bellamy said discussions with the United States were progressing positively and centred around UNICEF's use of high-energy milk, materials necessary for therapeutic feeding, medicines, and the basic food stuffs the WFP was bringing into the country. Following the briefing, she would check on the specific amount of high-energy milk UNICEF was requesting from the United States.

Asked how negotiations with Japan were progressing, Ms. Bellamy said the Japanese Government had announced a general reduction in multilateral assistance for 1997. That reduction was not directed at any one country or organization, but it was affecting all discussions and presenting a problem. There had been a significant "pulling back" from the initial assistance Japan had provided to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and she was not as optimistic about discussions with Japan as she was about those with other donors.

Had Pyongyang handled the crisis as well as it might? a correspondent asked. Ms. Bellamy said that perhaps no place handled such crises as well as UNICEF would like. However, UNICEF and other agencies had reported that the Government had been more open over the past six to 12 months. Although, there was still a lack of information about and access to some parts of the country, the Government was more willing to work with the humanitarian agencies and to acknowledge some of the problems it faced. However, long-term solutions, and the work needed in such areas as agricultural diversification and the country's economic foundations, were probably not being confronted to the extent needed.

A corespondent drew attention to a report that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was collecting information for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Was UNICEF doing the same? Ms. Bellamy said UNICEF was not currently involved in such work in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea because it was focusing on the immediate food crisis. However, in light of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the agency was obviously interested in abuses against children, particularly violence against child soldiers and gender violence against girls.

In reply to another question about whether UNICEF had been actively providing assistance to the Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Ms. Bellamy said she believed the agency had been providing information to colleagues in the United Nations system. Such action was consistent with UNICEF's mandate and a policy of advocating and reminding governments that they had a moral and legal responsibility to respect the rights of people. The UNICEF was increasingly working within a child's rights advocacy role.

A correspondent asked if representatives of the various humanitarian agencies were seeing enough of the country to get a general sense of what was happening in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Ms. Bellamy said the agencies and non-governmental organizations were present in a lot of the provinces and had a complementary role. However, there had been little access to the north-east of the country.

Since the appeal for international assistance had received such a poor response, would UNICEF consider using its reserves to help the Democratic People's Republic of Korea? a correspondent asked. Ms. Bellamy said the original appeal for $4 million had already elicited $3 million in funding, which she considered "quite good". Last week, that appeal had been increased to $14 million, and she believed UNICEF would raise those resources. If not, the agency would have to review its plans, as it did not have a trove of unused resources.

A correspondent asked if UNICEF had approached the Chinese Government for funding. Ms. Bellamy said she would give the correspondent more specific information when she had checked on donations by that Government.

In reply to another question, Ms. Bellamy said she had not had any unpleasant encounters or run into any difficulties in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea because of the fact that she was an American citizen.

* *** *