Speech #1020068756

Reports from the region suggest a manmade tragedy will occur unless we break the diplomatic and logistical roadblocks currently hampering the relief program. For example. unlike Ethiopia in 198485. when the international community was behind the curve and the Issue was coordination to get enough food to arrive. Today ample food stocks are on hand in the ports of Assab and Djibouti. but the problem is to get it out to starving refugees and displaced villagers Just miles away. The food is simply not moving from the ports. hampered by a lack of coordination in the field. There also appears to be no regular. systematized interagency meetings to bring both the U.N. agencies as well as other international and voluntary agencies together to exchange information. coordinate actions. set priorities. and deal with logistical logjams as they occur. Today. hundreds of thousands of Somalian refugees sit in the Ogaden desert In eastern Ethiopia. only miles from the Djibouti port. where food is piled high. Yet hardly any of it is moving to the camps. The World Food Program estimates that 150 trucks are needed immediately. But who is there to coordinate or stimulate an adequate international response to this need? Similarly. in Assab. food is available. but the International Committee of the Red Cross reports it cant break the political/logistical problems blocking onward shipminmts to feeding centers in central and northern Ethiopia. where refugees are In desperate need of food and medical supplies. The situation in Somalia is a shambles. with no functioning government that any other government or agency can deal with. It is a country fractured into three warring clans.