PRESS CONFERENCE BY Under-Secretary-General

 

for humanitarian affairs on timor-leste

 

Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland had already granted $4.1 million from the new Central Emergency Response Fund to help the more than 130,000 displaced Timorese following the recent violence there, but with those funds due to dry up in a few weeks, Mr. Egeland today appealed for $14.5 million more for the next three months.

The appeal would be distributed in the following way:  $5 million in food, some $7.5 million for emergency shelter, camp management and protection, $2.3 million for health, and $1 million for water and sanitation.  Mr. Egeland would brief donors this afternoon on the appeal, also in Room 226.

Addressing correspondents at a Headquarters press conference, Mr. Egeland said that 70,000 of the displaced were located in some 50 camps in areas in and around the capital of Dili.  New information was emerging of many more internally displaced persons outside the capital than had been previously thought, amounting to 63,000 or more.  The United Nations system was working closely with the Government to assist the increasing numbers of internally displaced.  Following his visit to the camps, the United Nations representative in Dili told Mr. Egeland this morning that food, shelter, water and sanitation was reaching the displaced, but security problems persisted, especially outside the capital.

Mr. Egeland explained that today’s appeal was for three months, during which time he hoped that the political and security situation would be resolved.  If not, the humanitarian crisis would continue.  Once settled, however, the humanitarian crisis would resolve itself, enabling people to return home and restart their lives quickly.  Hopefully, international mediation efforts and those under way between the various parties to the conflict would soon succeed.

Meanwhile, he said that the four countries in the international force, which had come to Timor-Leste, were “doing a great job”, and he was working closely with them to see to it that security was restored countrywide, to the benefit of the Organization’s humanitarian effort there.  Local authorities and ministries were also doing a good job, together with a very active United Nations system and many non-governmental organizations.  The Catholic Church in Timor-Leste was reaching out very effectively and providing much-needed lifesaving support.

He said that Central Emergency Response Fund had already been allocating some $70 million altogether.  The Fund worked; it was precisely the kind of situation unfolding in Timor-Leste for which it had been created.  If more money was not forthcoming from the donors, however, that money would run out in a few weeks, and “we will have nothing to provide for the 130,000 internally displaced”.

Replying to a question about the Fund, Mr. Egeland said there was $260 million in new money, on top of the $50 million in loans from CERF.  That money would be spent this year for start-up immediate costs, such as in the Horn of Africa, the Niger and Timor-Leste.  He had high hopes that the donors that had supplied the $260 million would replenish that amount for next year, so that the Fund could keep going.

He said he could already prove that the Fund had been a “big success” in terms of averting further loss of life.  He was not asking people to reimburse the $4.1 million now, but to extend the rest of the appeal.  It could be said that Fund supplied the resources for the first half month and the next two and a half months required an additional $14.1 million from donors, he added.

Of the $260 million contributed to the Fund, $70 million had already been spent, he explained.  The breakdown was:  $25 million to the Horn of Africa; $20 million to Darfur; $10 million to Chad; $5 million to the Niger; $4 million to Timor-Leste; and $16 million to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Some smaller allocations had already been distributed, such as to Guinea-Bissau, which had had 10,000 people displaced from the fighting.  That had not been reported anywhere, but the $1.4 million needed for them was able to be taken entirely from Fund.

Asked if there had been a failure of an early warning system here and a mechanism to avert what had become a major humanitarian crisis in Timor-Leste, he said the question of whether early warnings were properly heeded had to be studied.  He had earlier flagged Timor-Leste, and a number of other countries were flagged each and every month.  The world was poor in addressing emerging crises and in investing enough in security and conflict resolution efforts.

The case of Timor-Leste, however, had not been that easy to understand; nobody had imagined that the “sacking” of 600 people would have led to such massive explosive violence, but there would be various investigations, he said.  But, yes, too often the wounds that were not healed by political and security efforts had to be “plastered”.

Was the amount in the Fund the optimal number to render effective all the humanitarian operations? another correspondent asked.  Mr. Egeland said that the optimal number was $500 million altogether, of which he had $50 million in loan money from the start.  The new innovation in the Secretary-General’s reform package was the $450 million “grant window”, of which there was $260 million.  So, there was more than half, but altogether he hoped to have half a billion.  That would make it possible to very quickly meet needs, while “not waiting for what comes back in the hat when we pass it around”.

The major donors were the “usual suspects”, he replied to a follow-up question.  The highest donor so far had been the United Kingdom, with $70 million, followed by Sweden, with $40 million.  The third highest donor to the Fund was Norway, with $30 million.  Both Canada and the Netherlands were contributing some $24 million apiece.  He hoped for money from South Korea -- $5 million.  There was already $1 million from China and another $1 million from India.  There were a lot of “Southerners” giving to the Fund, and that was a good omen.

The United States had given $10 million, he replied to another question.   Japan had also given money, as had Germany.  Those three countries had said that they had systems in place that would make it difficult for them to contribute to the Fund, but the fact that they had done so was a very good sign, indicating the understanding that the Fund would save lives.

Suggesting that that was a “very expensive plaster” being contemplated for Timor-Leste, another correspondent asked if Mr. Egeland had heard any criticism about that, given that the situation had not stemmed from a natural disaster, but from a situation that could have been prevented.

Mr. Egeland said that $18.9 million was a lot, but the big cost was the loss of human life, the wounded and all the human suffering.  Really, that amount was equivalent to two hours of ice cream consumption in Europe, or five minutes of military spending.  The problem was that “we are not good enough in averting these crises”, and certainly, the East Timorese had to learn huge lessons from that, and the international community should examine whether the displacement of 130,000 people could have been avoided.

Was the emergency appeal being coordinated with the political side? the correspondent asked in a follow-up question.  He said the appeal was entirely coordinated within the United Nations and with non-governmental organizations in Dili.  It was also coordinated in the sense that his political colleagues were working very hard.  Everyone understood that if they did not succeed in providing that assistance, the tension would increase greatly.  A successful humanitarian programme would provide a bit of respite, during which the political and security problems could be solved.  Both were interrelated, and all three areas required simultaneous investment.

Concerning northern Uganda, he said that those people who had been indicted were allegedly responsible for mass murder of the worst possible kind.  So, those indictees should face justice in The Hague.  Those who had not been indicted were free to pursue an amnesty programme.

He added that he was working very hard with his colleagues to put together a plan to reach out to each and every member of the Lord’s Resistance Army scattered in the bush in south Sudan, in eastern Congo, and northern Uganda to urge them to come forward and pursue an alternative to the fighting and hiding out.  Five had to go and meet their justice; the rest could return to school, from which most of them had been kidnapped and recruited as child soldiers.

If things went well in the eastern Congo, which he hoped to visit at the end of August, the “worst humanitarian crisis of our generation by far” would have been fixed, he said.  The death toll since the early 1990s in the eastern Congo was the equivalent of six Rwandan genocides, or more than 3 million people killed in 10 years.  Beyond 10 years, that figure was even higher.  There were still massive access problems daily in many areas of the eastern Congo, but it was slowly going in the right direction there, and a lot was at stake.

Asked whether the crisis in Timor-Leste could have been averted if the United Nations had retained a more robust presence there over a longer period, he said that, no, he did not think there was necessarily a close link between the United Nations’ presence and the present big conflict in the security forces of the country, where there was tension between the east end and the west end.

In general, he added, peacekeepers had to stay longer than many of those who had funded those operations wanted.  The Congo was a good example.  As to whether the United Nations would leave Congo or draw down its Mission after elections this year, he said the United Nations should stay on.  Drawing down in a place where there was unfinished work was not a good idea.  Timor-Leste was more complicated in that regard than some of the African conflicts, but, generally, it was very clear that the United Nations should stay on and finish the job.

Australia had already pledged a couple of million for Timor-Leste, and there were good indications from Japan and other Asian countries that they would also pledge, he replied to another question.

In response to a further question, he said his main message at a recent Conference of the Gulf countries was that the generosity of the people in those countries, in the Muslim world, should be recognized.  The amount given by most Muslims each week through the Mosque was more than many gave around the world.  However, more money from that region should be donated through transparent, proven, and accountable multilateral mechanisms.  He had so far not succeeded in “getting them inside”, as most of their charities, or non-governmental organizations, still remained outside his appeals.  All the money given to northern Pakistan, for example, was mostly “outside”, in large bilateral grants to the Government.  He was not sure what those countries gave to Indonesia, but those grants were also outside the appeals.

Replying to a follow-up question, he said he was trying to put “hundreds” of creative ideas in place to motivate a multilateral response.  Some Gulf region non-governmental organizations were among the “appealing organizations” in the consolidated whole.  They funded their activities from their constituencies.  The added value then was that they took a slice of his work, say, in the realm of sanitation, to meet the needs in a certain country.  In that way, they saw that they were not funding a lot of Westerners working out of Geneva or New York, but were funding their own people doing good work, in a coherent, transparent and accountable multilateral system.

As for what efforts were being made to provide additional emergency medical facilities in Dili, he said that the population there was 180,000 people altogether, and he had confirmed 20 dead.  Other figures were higher, but certainly, many hundreds had been wounded.  There were emergency health provisions in the flash appeal, and the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) were working with the health minister to provide emergency health facilities.  Some 130,000 people needed primary health-care facilities, such as sanitation.  Wherever he had access, assistance was being given; he needed to have today’s appeal met in order for that effort to continue.

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For information media • not an official record