PRESS CONFERENCE BY NEW UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

 

Introducing the new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), António Guterres, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told correspondents today that Mr. Guterres had been in the job for less than two weeks, but he had wasted no time in getting started in the field where the problems were.

The Secretary-General said that Mr. Guterres had gone to meet Sudanese refugees, who had been driven out of Sudan into Uganda, not by the Sudanese Government, he added, but by the Ugandan rebels, illustrating the complex, rather tragic and twisted situation there.  The visit was an “all too good introduction” to the problems to be dealt with by the High Commissioner.  The challenge was formidable, and the Secretary-General was glad Mr. Guterres had agreed to take it on.  He had no doubt that he was the right person to take on that challenge. 

Mr. Guterres, a former Portuguese Prime Minister, had been elected by the General Assembly to a five-year term and was the refugee agency’s tenth High Commissioner.  In that role, he heads one of the world’s principal humanitarian agencies, with more than 6,000 staff in more than 115 countries providing protection and assistance to some 17 million refugees and others.  The agency’s total budget for 2005 exceeds $1 billion. 

Saying he was proud to be part of such a dedicated team, Mr. Guterres made two appeals today, starting with public opinion in the developed world.  In today’s general debate, a populist approach had mixed several concepts, namely security and the need to fight terrorism, migration, refugees and asylum-seekers.  It was becoming more and more important, however, to be able to distinguish them.  Asylum-seekers and refugees were not terrorists, but the former were the victims of terrorists.  Nor were they migrant workers.  Refugees were not leaving one country for another to improve their living conditions.  They were fleeing persecution, civil wars -- their human rights threatened. 

He said that a society that needed to fight terrorism also needed to have a reasonable border policy, a safe society which cherished the institution of asylum.  The legitimate terrorism fight and border management were clearly linked to the need to be open and generous with asylum-seekers and refugees. 

The second appeal was to governments receiving inflows of refugees not to take the easy way out by defining them as illegal immigrants, kicking them out and sending them back to their countries of origin, he urged.  He appealed to governments to respect international law.  What had happened to Rwandese refugees in Burundi must not be repeated.  He appealed to the Kyrgyzstan Government not to refuse the 29 detainees and to all governments to face the situations, abide by international law, and give people a chance for refugee status, according to the rules of which UNHCR was the guardian. 

Secretary-General Annan added that he had spoke to the Kyrgyz President, who had told him he was looking forward to working out a solution with the Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, who was in that country today.  (Mr. Annan then departed the briefing room). 

Turning to a question about the “tragic and twisted” situation in northern Uganda, he said there were two kinds of problems to deal with.  One was the situation of the Sudanese refugees in Uganda, especially in the north-west of the country.  He had been extremely impressed with Ugandan authorities, as the refugees were not living in camps, but in settlements.  They had been given land to farm; the children had been integrated into the school system, and so forth -- a real example of what could be done. 

The second problem was one of the internally displaced persons in north-eastern Uganda, he continued.  The Lord’s Resistance Army there was a particularly cruel group, which had committed numerous atrocities and created instability.  The internally displaced persons there lived in extremely difficult conditions.  The army was starting to strike in Sudan itself, making it difficult for the transit centre to help people return from Uganda to Sudan.  A new inflow of Sudanese refugees was now arriving in Uganda, which meant that the situation in southern Sudan would be difficult to manage.  He predicted a certain delay before a massive return of refugees from Uganda into the Sudan could materialize. 

Asked about North Korean refugees, on which the correspondent noted the agency had been accused of being silent, of doing very little, he agreed that was a relevant issue about which the UNHCR had not been able to deliver much in the past.  He wished to engage the Chinese authorities by first considering the reasons why North Koreans fled to China, thereby creating a potentially dangerous situation for themselves upon their return.  Those people must be granted access and a constructive solution must be found. 

On whether he had a timetable for such discussions, he said he had started just two weeks ago to deal with the problems of the huge numbers of refugees around the world.  The North Korean situation, however, was one in which he wished to be involved in the near future. 

As to whether he had any ideas in terms of priorities, in the spirit of the ongoing reform, he said he had four main priorities.  The agency had been forced to develop many initiatives and strategies in the organizational sphere in the past few years, owing to the changing environment.  Now, it was time to stabilize; not to launch any new initiatives, but to fill the implementation gap and set priorities and ensure that everything engaged in the last few years bore results. 

The second priority was to face the gap between protection and operations, he said.  Protection was the raison d’être of his activities and it must be ensured that all of UNHCR’s operations were embodied with the concept of protection, that protection was streamlined in everything it did and that everything it did was justified, even if it was done in relief operations or in the linkage between relief and development.  The third priority related to the linkage between the headquarters and the field.  Much could be improved at headquarters in terms of better supporting activities in the field. 

He said that the fourth priority concerned transparency and accountability, which was extremely important from the point of view of the agency’s own action and how it was seen from the outside.  A second set of extremely important objectives was that of clearer integration within the United Nations system.  For the first time, there was a joint communiqué on a specific issue between him and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  Cooperation in that regard should be strengthened because, in many areas, the two mandates overlapped.

To a series of questions about the fate of the Uzbek refugees, he said it must be ensured that protection was given according to the Convention, with the exception relating to persons who had committed serious crimes before entering the country of asylum.  In human rights law, however, there was a norm that nobody could be refused or sent to a country where he or she faced possible torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.  That was why it was important that the two Commissioners act in tandem with each other.

Asked to comment on the increasing number of humanitarian and peace missions currently in the field, and the closing of the one in Timor-Leste, he said that success in Timor-Leste had demonstrated that when the international community, which was much more than the United Nations system, really wanted to solve problems, it was possible for it to deliver.  Hopefully, in a very complex situation -- Timor-Leste was rather simple -- the international community would similarly engage.  Unfortunately, nearly all of the operations in Africa, if not all, were underfunded, and in some cases, extremely underfunded. 

He added that the World Food Programme (WFP) was doing its best in many camps, but food rations were still significantly below what was needed.  That was dramatic, not only from a humanitarian point of view, but from a protection point of view.  That led to gender-based violence, a drop-off in school attendance, etc.  Many camps around the world had insufficient food because the international community was not taking seriously enough the extremely difficult problems, particularly in Africa.  The international community should understand that that was not acceptable, either politically or morally. 

Replying to a question about the Palestinian refugees and the lack of a solution, some 57 years later, he said, “let’s be clear -- the problem was not a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) problem, it was that the political solution had not yet been achieved”.  The refugee problem was a consequence of the political problem.

Wasn’t it always? the correspondent asked in a follow-up question.

It was, Mr. Guterres replied, but that particular problem had been difficult to solve.  The real question concerned the need for a global solution to the problem between Israel and the Palestinians, and within that global solution, the refugee problem would be addressed.  The problem regarding the millions of people living in those situations would not have a solution before the political problem was solved, he stressed.

Resettlement was not the only solution for refugee problems everywhere in the world, he said.  Normally, returns were combined with local integration and resettlement, and the problem [in the Middle East], was that there was no political agreement on that combination or on the question of return. 

Asked if the Uzbek refugees were safe in Kyrgyzstan, he said he was extremely worried and he hoped to find a resettlement solution in the next few days for the most threatened group, if necessary. 

To a request for an update on the latest situation of refugees in Pakistan, he said the repatriation had been very successful.  Camps were being closed.  The process was ongoing and extremely complex, involving millions and millions of people -- many of whom did not live in camps, but in urban areas with normal economic activities.  He would have to review the Memorandum of Understanding by the end of 2006, and that was a complex process, which depended on stability and development perspectives in Pakistan.  But, much had been accomplished. 

Another correspondent asked if enough had been done politically to improve the situation in Zimbabwe, especially in light of President Mugabe’s plan to “clear out the garbage”. 

Mr. Guterres explained that there were two different situations.  One was refugees, which according to the technical designation, required a border crossing.  And, the other is internal displacement.  His mandate was about refugees.  He was now discussing, together with the Emergency Relief Coordinator and the other agencies, how to have an efficient, collaborative approach to internal displacement, which until now, had seen success in only a few specific areas and some capacity gaps for the international community to act in others. 

He said there was a system of action alert, in which the situation was analyzed on a country-by-country basis, and he had his own emergency and security service, which was very actively preparing emergency actions in areas where the situation could evolve negatively.  Zimbabwe today was a major concern, he said. 

Asked about staff morale and whether there was any lingering procedure, given that his predecessor “left under a cloud”, he said everyone was doing their best to work together -- management and staff -- to create the conditions for developing self-esteem.  That was a basic condition for success.  He wanted to create the proper environment to be able to overcome difficulties.  He was not aware of any lawsuit pending at the moment, but he would check.  He did not think so, however. 

He said, to another question, that the number of refugees who had returned to Afghanistan was “more or less the same” as those who still remained, or 3.5 million.  So, he was in the middle of a huge operation that had been remarkably successful, given the difficulties in Afghanistan and the fact that repatriation was voluntary.  One needed courage to return to a country, which had the problems that Afghanistan still had.  So, that was probably the most successful return operation ever in the history of UNHCR.  Both from Iran and Pakistan, there had been excellent cooperation. 

Asked to describe the refugee situation in Tindouf, he said that, again, the problem was political.  Without a political solution, it was difficult to solve the refugee situation.  The agency had recently engaged in confidence-building and promoting visits to families, but even that programme was now facing difficulties in relaunching because of the outstanding political problem. 

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