INFORMATION SERVICE BRIEFING ON THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN SOUTH ASIA

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section, chaired the briefing which concentrated on the latest developments concerning the tsunami aid efforts. Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights participated in the briefing.

Secretary-General in Indonesia

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Secretary-General Kofi Annan had arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia where he would be attending a special ASEAN leaders' meeting on the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami. The Secretary-General would be launching a consolidated UN Flash Appeal for the immediate relief of the victims in Jakarta on 6 January. The Secretary-General would also be visiting the worst affected areas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other places.

OCHA

Elizabeth Byrs, Spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Margareta Wahlstrom, the Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance to Tsunami Affected Communities, had arrived in the Maldives and would proceed to Indonesia today. Ms. Wahlstrom would be participating in an information meeting in Geneva on 6 January in the afternoon which was being organized by OCHA and would be attended by Member States and UN Member States of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. Participants would be discussing the most immediate needs for the tsunami relief effort and follow-up on the launch of the Secretary-General of the consolidated regional UN Flash Appeal on the same day in Jakarta. This would be at a world summit which had been called for by Indonesia and which the Secretary-General would attend. The Flash Appeal would be launched because the United Nations had received many pledges of aid, but it needed them to be followed up as soon as possible with the cash so that UN agencies could carry out their work.

Ms. Byrs said OCHA was working with the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre which was providing an overview of air operations for this disaster. The latest report of the Centre was available on its website. In response to a request from journalists, there would be a briefing this afternoon on the logistics of the relief operation.

Asked what Jan Egeland, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, would be doing in Geneva on 11 January, Ms. Byrs said that Mr. Egeland would be chairing a ministerial-level information meeting for Member States and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee to discuss and update their support for the tsunami relief effort and future intentions to provide support on a bilateral or multilateral basis.

World Health Organization

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said the Director-General of WHO Lee Jong-wook had arrived in Indonesia yesterday. He was scheduled to visit Aceh on Wednesday, 5 January. Then he would return to Jakarta where he would participate in a meeting called for by ASEAN. The Director-General would leave for Sri Lanka on Thursday, 6 January in the afternoon. He was expected back in Geneva on Sunday, 9 January. Later today, a press release would be issued on the money needed by WHO for the next six months in order to avoid a major health crisis in the tsunami affected areas which could happen if the water and sanitation situation was not improved immediately. The exact figure was still being calculated but it would be around $ 60 million. WHO had sent 1 million water purification tablets to the region and had mobilized 330 emergency health kits - each kit could handle the needs of 10,000 persons for three months. WHO had also sent surgical kits and diarrhoea kits.

Ms. Chaib said there had been media reports of cases of cholera, but said that up to this moment, WHO did not have any information on any cases of cholera, although diarrhoeal cases had increased in camps for displaced persons in Sri Lanka and India.

UNICEF

Wivina Belmonte of the United Nations Children's Fund said UNICEF Executive Carol Bellamy had flown overnight from Sri Lanka to Jakarta. Available was a press release on her comments after her arrival. Ms. Bellamy said the UNICEF part of the regional appeal could go as high as $ 120 million. She had spoken about deeply disturbing and moving scenes in Sri Lanka, like seeing parents still at the edge of the shore hoping to find their children, or even their washed up bodies. She had also emphasized the UNICEF priorities in the affected countries: keeping the children alive; making sure that separated children found their parents or relatives; ensuring that children were protected from exploitation; and having children return to school.

Asked about UNICEF's actions on the ground, Ms. Belmonte said that it was clear that in Sri Lanka, the numbers of orphans were likely to increase. UNICEF was trying to find ways to take care of these children. In terms of aid coming in, five planeloads of UNICEF supplies had arrived in Sri Lanka and three more planeloads were expected to arrive in Indonesia in the next few days. Schools had re-opened in Thailand, and there would be measles vaccinations and vitamin A distributions on Wednesday, 5 January.

In response to a question on exact numbers concerning affected children, Ms. Belmonte said that it was believed that 1.5 million children had been affected by the disaster in some way or another.

Asked if psychological support would be given to children returning to school, Ms. Belmonte said that this issue was of major concern, including what the trauma would mean in the coming years.

World Food Programme

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said that WFP was mounting a huge operation in the region to respond to all the needs. In Sri Lanka WFP operations were advancing and making much better progress. In the Aceh province in Indonesia, which was an historically underdeveloped area, was already difficult in access before, and where the infrastructure had been damaged by the tsunami, it was much more difficult to work. Nevertheless WFP had managed to get to Banda Aceh 380 tons of food - rice and biscuits - and some 40,000 litres of water. Distribution was underway. This was enough to feed 100,000 people for a week. WFP had also been able to deviate a ship with 35,000 tons of Japanese rice originally destined for Bangladesh to Medan. The challenge for the time being was logistics and distributing the food. The situation was the most difficult in the western coast area since it was very difficult to access. The first food distribution there had taken place yesterday. But still only a third of the region had been covered, so WFP needed to increase its operations.

In Sri Lanka, WFP had managed until now to feed 290,000 people. It aimed until 6 January to have 5,000 tons of essential food dispatched to feed some 750,000 displaced and homeless persons. Many of these families had nothing to cook or eat with and needed instant food like high-energy biscuits. The good news was that despite the broken bridges and roads, WFP was able to reach the coastlines all along Sri Lanka. For the Maldives, there were around 50,000 people in need of food aid. And there were 100 tons of high-energy biscuits in New Delhi waiting to be flown to the Maldives, but it was a difficult area to access with its 200 islands. In Myanmar, the Government had welcomed WFP's offer to help and assess the situation. Staff on the ground reported there were 30,000 people in immediate need of food, water and shelter. Hundreds of fishermen were believed to have perished on the coast.

Mr. Pluess said that WFP had put together a six-month emergency appeal that would be included in the OCHA Flash Appeal. The number of beneficiaries would be 2 million persons at the cost $ 185 million.

Mr. Pluess said people were speaking less about Somalia, but it had been hit by the tsunami, especially the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia. It was estimated that some 30,000 people there needed assistance, most of them fishermen who had lost their boats and homes. Almost all fishery activities along that coast had been suspended. WFP had dispatched some 270 metric tons of food and had already managed to dispatch some 200 tons of food.

Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees

Ron Redmond of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR was mounting a major response both in Sri Lanka, where it had had a sizeable presence for the past 30 years, and in the Aceh province of Indonesia. UNHCR had planned for a six-month operation in those two places, estimated initially at $ 55 million. It was unprecedented for UNHCR to take an active operational role in a natural disaster response since its mandate was to protect and assist refugees. The High Commissioner said that because of the enormity of the crisis, all had to contribute their resources and expertise. The day after the tsunami, UNHCR had opened its warehouses in Sri Lanka and had distributed everything it had there. It had so far distributed non-food items for 100,000 persons. The situation in the north was improving, there were encouraging signs that the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE were jointly coordinating a response to the emergency in the more affected areas. UNHCR and ICRC had long worked in this area and were quite encouraged to see this happening. Before the tsunami, UNHCR cared for 390,000 internally displaced persons and returned refugees. Now it estimated that there were some 800,000 who were displaced. UNHCR was rapidly moving to replenish its stockpiles and to bolster its distribution network there.

In Indonesia, Mr. Redmond said UNHCR had begun a 400-ton airlift from its stockpiles in Copenhagen and Dubai and those flights were now arriving in Jakarta which would then be transferred to Medan. The first thing that needed to be done was to get plastic sheeting and dry blankets and other emergency shelter to the devastated villages along the west coast. Then UNHCR would provide the people with shelter kits to enable them to have some of the tools they needed to rebuild their houses.

International Organization for Migration

Niurka Pineiro of the International Organization for Migration said IOM's Medan-Banda Aceh overland relief operation had now grown to over 100 trucks and crews. The logistical base in Medan was now providing storage, staging and trans-shipment for relief materials arriving by air and sea from around the world. Today IOM Medan loaded 40 tons of food and other materials for delivery to remote areas. IOM medial staff and interpreters had also joined helicopter crews airlifting over 140 injured peopled out of coastal areas to hospitals in Banda Aceh. The IOM appeal, which would be part of the UN Flash Appeal, would be for $ 72 million, including
$ 15 million for Sri Lanka and the rest for Indonesia.

The Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

Brigitte Leoni of the Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said that it was known how even one hour of advance warning for natural disasters could save many lives. With the World Conference on Disaster Reduction starting on 18 January in Kobe, Japan, now was the time to talk about the importance of prevention and early-warning systems.

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

José Luis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in response to a question that the tsunami disaster would inevitably have implications on the human rights situation in a number of countries. That might only become clear once the rubble was cleared. It would make some situations more acute. For example, there was a very big displacement problem in Sri Lanka which had been made worse by the disaster; there was a human rights angle to the situation of the displaced, and indeed the Commission on Human Rights expert on the issue had made a statement shortly following the earthquake and tsunami. The Office would have to look closely at that situation. There was also the question of the protection of children and other vulnerable groups in a number of these countries. There were insurgencies in some of the affected countries. One would also have to look at the equitable distribution of humanitarian assistance. The key question right now was ensuring the survival of the affected people and making sure that they received assistance. But the
Office would be looking at all the different human rights dimensions as time went on.

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