Human crises 'a global danger'
South China Morning Post. Jan
10, 1997.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Singapore
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sadako Ogata has warned
that humanitarian crises, like the financial turmoil rocking Asia, are
a global threat.
Ms Ogata called for a review of security support to cope with such disasters.
"Let us not forget that globalisation is not limited to the economic sphere," Ms Ogata told Singapore officials.
She said humanitarian crises were almost invariably a result of conflicts.
"As such, exactly like financial crises, they are no longer limited to one country, nor even to a region," she said.
Ms Ogata, who has been UNHCR chief since 1991, suggested security support to humanitarian action in a more diversified manner rather than just short-term deployment of large and expensive military contingents. She called for rebuilding national law-enforcement mechanisms as backup.
Elaborating on her proposal for a more diversified security support for humanitarian action, she said what the UNHCR was looking for was a "ladder of options, which also includes - for example - the utilisation of civilian police, armed or unarmed".
She said that national law-enforcement mechanisms needed to be rebuilt through the provision of training, funds and equipment.
Ms Ogata appealed to governments to do more to help the UNHCR address humanitarian woes, even though mobilising security resources in support of humanitarian action would continue to be difficult.
Published in the South China Morning Post. Jan 10, 1998