PRESS CONFERENCE ON Lebanon humanitarian appeal

 

Announcing that the humanitarian appeal for Lebanon of $149 million for three months had been launched today in Beirut by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, Margareta Wahlström, the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, said today that, from a humanitarian perspective, the situation in Lebanonwas “very rapidly becoming totally overwhelming”.

She described the appeal at a Headquarters press conference as “a short-term effort to alleviate the dire humanitarian consequences of the current crisis”.  As such, it would deal primarily with such emergency needs as health, food, and shelter, protection, water, sanitation, and the logistics required ensuring that those needs were met.  The estimated number of people that would be supported, one way or another, was now approximately 800,000.  There was also a population of people -– a mix of Lebanese and Palestinians, who had gone into Syria -- who were also being supported as part of that appeal.  They were currently being supported by the Syrian Red Crescent international organizations and the Syrian Government of course, mainly through shelter and other material support.

The current appeal represented an assessment by the humanitarian community of what needed to be done, albeit, given the difficulty in doing proper and precise assessments, she explained.  Already, the work under way was suffering from serious limitations on access to the affected population.  People were on the move, and a large number were war-injured, but, the need to stabilize the displaced persons was her primary concern.  Access to southern Lebanon was particularly complicated where no agreement had been reached yet on the modalities for delivering humanitarian relief.  During this week, in particular, there was a rapid build-up of humanitarian capacity in Lebanon.  The country had a large number, perhaps as many as 6,000 non-governmental organizations were already on the ground.  So, there was a very strong capacity in the country.  The Lebanese Red Cross, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement were working together with the Government and its effort to deal with the crisis.

She said that, as soon as possible, more precise planning would be done and, if necessary, the appeal would be revised.  For the time being, her staff was taking a short-term perspective and dealing with the immediate humanitarian consequences.  In launching the appeal today, however, several speakers had talked about the long-term damage, but, that was not yet the subject of the appeal.  The extreme vulnerable situation of the civilian population was evident to all.  It was clear that all parties to the conflict were in violation of international humanitarian law by not taking due care to prevent civilians from being injured and being caught in the middle of the conflict.

In the meeting this morning, which had been held jointly in New York, there had been a very positive response, she said.  Lots of money had been mentioned, but, it was not entirely clear where that money was going yet.  There were amounts earmarked for the United Nations and quite serious amounts for the Red Cross system.  Relief would also be provided through bilateral arrangements.  It was possible to take goods into Lebanon through the corridors from Cyprus, but the modalities for getting those goods out of Beirut to the south where it was needed most had not yet been determined.  That was one of the objectives of Mr. Egeland’s trip to Israel late tonight:  to seek agreement with the Israelis on how to have safe access to the affected population in the south of Lebanon.

Turning to questions concerning the humanitarian problem on the other side of the border, namely Israel, and what Mr. Egeland’s intentions were in that regard, Ms. Wahlström said he would highlight the humanitarian consequences on all affected populations, including the Israelis and the nearby occupied Palestinian territory.  She was sure he would do his best to gain access to all of those areas himself, but his programme for his tomorrow was still fluid.

Another correspondent asked if there was any talk of a flash appeal for the suffering on the Israeli side, including the loss of life, the injuries, and destruction of homes and infrastructure, noting that, for years, the Israelis had been hit by Katusha rockets, and Security Council resolution 1559 (2004) had not been fully implemented.  He also wanted to know if a mechanism would be set up to ensure that the aid did not go to the Hizbollah, but, instead, went directly to the civilians in need.

To the first question, she said that the Government of Lebanon had requested assistance from the United Nations and the international community to deal with the humanitarian consequences.  No such request had been received from the Government of Israel, which might be quite capable of dealing with the impact on its own population, at least, for the time being.

On the second question, as in any humanitarian situation worldwide, the relief operations were carefully monitored by international staff mandated to ensure that the aid was going where it was intended, she said.  Part of establishing modalities for delivering aid was to ensure that all parties to the conflict were aware of which organizations were delivering aid and, the basis on which they were doing so, namely, the impartiality required to deliver aid.

Replying to a question about how many corridors had opened up, in light of Mr. Egeland’s remarks to the Security Council that five such corridors would open up for the delivery of aid, she confirmed that that had not yet happened.  The efforts concerning the corridors would be made, and Mr. Egeland was optimistic today that, before the end of the week, there would be progress made on that issue.  The corridor south from Beirut was not yet open, but, that was precisely the subject under discussion.

There were supplies arriving from Cyprus on a bilateral basis, she said to another question, adding that, according to her colleagues in Beirut, there was not dramatic shortage of supplies in the capital, as of yet.  What would most rapidly impact on the population were a short supply of fuel amid rising prices, and the consequent burden on transportation, medications for emergencies, and food supplies, also owing in part to enormous price increases.

She said that the main challenge was to get supplies from Beirut mainly to the affected people in the south and people who were on the move.  The United Nations had not shipped any supplies yet, but, like many other bilateral donors and United Nations agencies, it had supplies waiting in Damascus, Syria.  However, those could not come into Beirut airport, or use the land route, because of the bombing campaigns that happened there yesterday and the three attacks on the road.

As for whether Mr. Egeland planned to visit Gaza, particularly the bombed power plant there, she said it was his plan to visit Gaza, with the intention of also visiting the power plant.  So far, he had run into no opposition to that plan, she replied to a follow-up question.

Asked if that was part of the 24 hours Mr. Egeland was allocating to his visit to Israel, she said that, yes, it was a short visit.  He had spent two days in Lebanon.  He was arriving tonight in Israel, and spending the whole day tomorrow, and leaving for New York either tomorrow night or the next morning.  His best laid plans continue to change -– she receives a new programme every few hours -– given the situation concerning the logistics.

His intention was for Mr. Egeland to visit the southern part of Lebanon, but, that visit had not occurred because the appropriate mechanisms to do that properly had not been deployed, she replied to a further question.

Replying to how she saw the UNIFIL involvement in the delivery of aid, she said that was a humanitarian operation, which had to be ensured by the parties to the conflict.  The UNIFIL did not have that kind of function.

In terms of the extent of the supplies that were in Damascus, and how she would ensure their safe transport, she said that the current discussion with the Israelis right now was concentrated on the kind of mechanisms that could be set up to move the relief goods, without defying the Israelis.  A conclusion on that was sought in the next day or so.  For the time being, there was no more information about that.

She reiterated that, presently, there was no issue of a dramatic shortage of supplies in Lebanon.  The supplies that would run out fastest were fuel, drugs and food.  She was dependent on the Israeli side, namely, their agreement on modalities, in order to be able to deliver supplies in the next few days.

Again, she thought there were substantial amounts of cash coming.  The United Nations this morning had already put $5 million into the Central Revolving Emergency Fund to start the logistics supply chain for water, sanitation and health.  Millions of dollars had already been pledged by some of the classic donors -– Denmark, the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago.  The United Nations Children’s Fund had also been given aid for their programmes.  So, there was already a cash flow into the system, but, she would give that a few more days.

Asked why UNIFIL would not be used, she said she would welcome their assistance if that was possible, bu,t the present situation was such that the aid community needed to depend on the parties to the conflict to allow relief to be delivered.  If the Secretary-General found there was a role for the United Nations Mission, obviously, their contribution could be productive, but that situation did not exist today, as the Secretary-General had pointed out.

On a normal day, say, 12 July, there were not too many staff in Lebanon, but now, to safeguard the correct use of the aid, she said she expected that there would be a much larger number of United Nations staff on the ground, including from the major delivery agencies.  She was also working with national and international non-governmental organizations, which had worked in the country for many years.  Her obligation was to ensure that relief was provided to those for whom it was intended, namely, children, women, the wounded, and so forth.  There would be no blanket distributions of food or other items right now, as that was not yet the nature of the crisis.  For now, there was a targeted group of recipients.  Also important, was the fact that the population was on the move now.  That raised several questions, including how they would be sheltered.  All of those issues would be tested now because neither the security of affected people, nor was the security of relief workers had been assured.  In a day or two, better plans should emerge.

One of the main routes of access was the main highway from Damascus to Beirut, she replied to another question.

When the correspondent expressed surprise that she was asking for that corridor to be opened, what she was asking, she said, was for that route or any other practical route capable of doing the job, be opened for relief to go through.  It did not matter which route was opened, only that it was safe.

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For information media • not an official record