HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE UN ASSISTANT EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR ON THE TSUNAMI AID EFFORTS

Yvette Stevens, the Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Director of the Geneva office of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), speaking at a press conference this afternoon at the Palais des Nations following an information meeting organized by OCHA for the donors, said that earlier today in Jakarta, the Secretary-General of the United Nations had launched the Consolidated Appeal for immediate assistance to the victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami disaster. The Flash Appeal was the largest-ever issued and was requesting $ 977 million to fund the efforts of some 40 UN agencies and non-governmental organizations to provide immediate life-saving assistance to some five million persons and to pave the way for sustainable long-term recovery.

In Indonesia, which was without doubt the country most affected, and where the scope of relief activities was the largest, as many as two million persons were in need, and one million of them required immediate assistance. In the Aceh region which was the hardest hit, the main challenge to aid organizations was reaching the affected population as the transportation and communication networks, which were already very poor, had essentially collapsed. Ms. Stevens said that the United Nations was requesting a total of
$ 371 million for Indonesia. The food component of that was included in the regional programme of the World Food Programme.

Ms. Stevens said that in Sri Lanka, more than 860,000 persons had been displaced by the tsunami. Many were now living in camps and public buildings where health and water supplies were limited and sanitation was poor. In many areas, wells had been infected and distribution systems had been disrupted so that households did not have access to clean water. More than 91,000 houses had been destroyed and thousands others had been damaged. Many children were missing and the number of unaccompanied children was rising. In Sri Lanka, the United Nations and its partners were requesting $ 167 million, excluding food assistance.

In the Maldives, Ms. Stevens said that although the death toll was limited, the entire population had been affected by the disaster. One third of the population, some 100,000 persons, had been acutely affected. Their homes had been destroyed or severely damaged. They had none or very little access to clean water and food and they were at risk of disease. More than one third of all the inhabited islands of the Maldives had been completely or severely destroyed. The United Nations was requesting $ 66 million for the Maldives.

Ms. Stevens said that Somalia had also had a limited death toll, but the tsunami had battered a population that was already highly vulnerable after suffering from four years of consecutive drought and periodic floods in addition to chronic insecurity. Northeastern Somalia had been the worst affected and it was estimated that some 18,000 households needed urgent humanitarian assistance. The full needs were yet to be assessed. The assessment of needs and the provision of relief had been severely constrained by the remoteness of many coastal communities. In Somalia, the United Nations and its partners were requesting $ 10 million, including $ 5 million for a contingency fund.

While the Seychelles had not suffered heavy human casualties either, the massive waves had caused substantial damage to the infrastructure and private houses. Much of the coastal road network, the fishing ports and around 500 houses and five schools had been affected. In the Seychelles, the humanitarian community was asking for $ 8.9 million, excluding food.

Lastly, Ms. Stevens said that in the appeal document a whole chapter had been devoted to regional programmes. In addition to the World Food Programme regional emergency operations which sought to meet the food needs of two million persons at the cost of $185 million, projects also included in the regional programmes included logistics, procurement, coordination, information systems and management.

Ms. Stevens said that as expressed by the Secretary-General earlier on in the crisis, this unprecedented crisis required an unprecedented level of response. The humanitarian community and the world community at large were gearing up to provide this assistance. Already the response from Governments and private citizens had been extraordinary. Hundreds of governmental and non-governmental agencies were currently involved in the relief effort, and this made it all the more important for this relief assistance to be properly coordinated. This was where the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs came in. OCHA planned to meet the challenge of coordination posed by this emergency by having first and foremost a regional office in Bangkok to support the countries affected by the disaster and to promote regional coordination so that humanitarian action was efficient, effective and timely. OCHA would also maintain and strengthen its support for the United Nations country teams in Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Somalia. This included having a presence in Aceh which was the most severely affected region. OCHA plans to establish an area support office in Sumatra and a humanitarian information centre for Aceh. OCHA has also included a comprehensive lessons learned exercise and a review of the collective response to this crisis. Acting now was vital and learning from this crisis would enable the United Nations to further consolidate improvements made over the past years so that together it could provide the best available protection and assistance.

Ms. Stevens said that the meeting she had just come from had been an information meeting where the United Nations and the agencies of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee had presented the appeal. Each agency which wanted to had presented its portion of the appeal and its requirements. The meeting had not been meant to be a pledging conference. There had been speakers from two of the affected countries - Indonesia and Sri Lanka - and Japan and China had also taken the floor.

A journalist asked how far OCHA had come in overcoming problems relating to the humanitarian assistance efforts. In response, Ms. Stevens said that there had been serious logistics problems as stated before, mainly because these areas which were originally in bad shape had been affected so much by the disaster. Roads had been cut off and bridges had been destroyed. In terms of logistics, the United Nations was trying very hard to make sure that the assistance reached the affected populations. There had been assistance from some of the donor countries, including provision of military aircrafts and helicopters. As she spoke, the United Nations was making great improvements in reaching the affected populations. So basically the major problem had been logistics. She stressed that the United Nations was getting maximum cooperation from the countries which had the means to do so.

Asked to elaborate on the cooperation between the United Nations and OCHA on the one hand and the United States after that country had announced it was dissolving the core group, Ms. Stevens said that when the core group had been created, the United Nations had been assured that it would be in support of the UN. In Indonesia this morning, it had been announced that the core group was being dismantled and the countries would continue to support the United Nations.

In response to a follow-up question on whether the United States or the United Nations were now calling the shots, Ms. Stevens said that as was said today in Jakarta, the United States and all the other members of the core group would support the United Nations. The UN was counting on that. The United States among other countries was providing the United Nations with military assets and aeroplanes so that it could reach hard to reach areas. The United Nations would just continue to work with all the countries, both those who had been within the core group and beyond.

A journalist said that a few days ago, Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, had spoken of the possibility of tens of thousands of more deaths along the west coast of Sumatra. He asked if more information was available on this issue. He also asked if there had been a deterioration of the health situation of the affected people in Indonesia and Sri Lanka as WHO had tripled the number of persons which it thought could die. In response to the second question, Ms. Stevens said that what was being expressed was a real concern about the health situation of the affected populations. WHO had made it clear that unless the health sector could get the support and urgent action required, people would die given the situation in those areas. There had been an increase in diarrhae, but nothing serious had been detected so far. What was being sounded by the United Nations was a note of caution that unless the assistance required was received urgently to address the health needs of the population, it could end up with a major disaster. In response to the first question, Ms. Stevens said that the results of the assessment mission to the western coast of Sumatra had not been received yet.

Asked if the United States would be taking instruction on coordination matters from the United Nations, or if there would be parallel coordination, Ms. Stevens said the United Nations had been given the responsibility to coordinate international response in a number of countries. But in terms of coordinating with Member States dealing bilaterally with Governments, it was trying to set up structures and it hoped that these structures were followed. But she could not tell the journalist that the United States would from tomorrow be reporting to the United Nations. What the UN was trying to make sure of was that whatever the source of the assistance, it was coordinated. It was doing this by trying to document the gaps that were there and trying to point this to the attention of donor countries that were willing to assist. The United Nations was not setting up a command structure that would tell Member States what to do, but it was taking steps to make sure that aid was coordinated and responded to the identified needs.

Asked how many countries had attended the information meeting, Ms. Stevens said around 100 countries. In response to another question, she said that today's conference had been to present the appeal which was launched by the Secretary-General. It was not intended to be a pledging conference. The meeting next week would be more of a pledging conference in that the United Nations expected that donor countries would have had a chance to study the appeal and would say concretely how they intended to spend the money they had announced in connection with the UN Flash Appeal.

In conclusion, Ms. Stevens drew attention to the needs of other humanitarian emergencies elsewhere in the world for which the United Nations had launched an appeal in November 2004. The United Nations would take steps to ensure that these emergencies also received the positive attention of the donors. A kick-off event intended to seek feedback and funding indications would also take place next Tuesday, 11 January.