Speech #1020012572

by extending Its activities to the process of encouraging repatriation of the screened out. has been criticized by some for abandoning its concern for refugees and asylum. On the other hand. first asylum countries continue to balk at the special protection given to the screenedout. wanting to assure that they will return. We may see in the CPA. even with its special circumstances. a microcosm of the problems we will face in Europe in the 1990s. The third challenge arising from this concern over migration is that of international responsibility. How should we share the tasks? At a conference I attended recently on the prospects of Soviet migration. the representatives of the newly democratic countries of East Europe said they would gladly fulfill their responsibilities of providing first asylumassuming of course that the West would quickly aid them by letting the refugees pass on through to the western countries. an assumption that did not necessarily sit well with the West Europeans. And what of our responsibilities: how much of European migration should be seen as a European problem. to be addressed at least in the first instance by Europe. or how much an international problem to be shared out equally? How does one find the right balance that does indeed represent equity? In the CPA. while a shared set of responsibilities. we have agreed to resettle at least half the Vietnamese and Lao found to be refugees. Does that entitle us to ask European nations to do more for migrants coming to Europe? Will we be able to exercise sufficient influence in protection issues if we take that stand? I began the discussion of the issues of the 1990s with old conflicts. Let me conclude this discussion of new challenges on the international front with that of new conflicts. ccnflicts which do not have their roots In the Cold War or other previous international rivalries. but which are arising from deep internal rifts: ethnic conflict in Liberia. ethnic and subregional conflict affecting Rwanda. and perhaps the same phenomena in Eastern Europe. Will we be able to mobilize the international attention and assistance to these new sources of refugees? Or will they. less directly related to our international positions. be far from our attention and therefore our input? We have so far addressed the Liberian crisis with minimally acceptable responses. but as we see trouble in Rwanda. and growing problems in southern Senegal. and continuing civil war in Sri Lanka. our humanitarian and political impulses will be tested.