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Human crises 'a global danger'



Saturday  January 10  1998
South China Morning Post
Singapore 

Human crises 'a global danger' 


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.