Y 4.189: 102-10 DECADES OF DISASTERS: THE UNITED NATIONS' 46-302 HEARING BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON HUNGER ONE HUNDRED SECOND CONGRESS FIRST SESSION HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 30, 1991 Serial No. 102-10 Printed for the use of the Select Committee on Hunger For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-037113-9 DOCUMENTS CONTENTS Page 1 Hall, Hon. Tony P., a Representative from the State of Ohio. Minear, Larry, Visiting Fellow, Overseas Development Council. Natsios, Andrew S., Director, Office of United States Foreign Disaster Prepared statements, letters, supplemental material, et cetera: Bolton, John R., Assistant Secretary of State, International Organization Cox, Eric, Executive Director, Campaign for U.N. Reform, Supplemental Cuny, Frederick C., Intertecht, Testimony. Emerson, Hon. Bill, a Representative in Congress from the State of Hall, Hon. Tony P., a Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio, a Copy of Bill H.R. 2258, that he Introduced in Congress.. Humanitarian Relief Efforts for Kurdish Refugees Raise Political and Logistical Questions for the United States, Supplemental material from Nanda, Ved P., Director, International Legal Studies Program, Testimo- 66 Humanitarian Intervention, Appendix I Natsios, Andrew S., Director, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, 87 108 114 (III) DECADES OF DISASTERS: THE UNITED NATIONS' RESPONSE TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1991 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SELECT COMMITTEE ON HUNGER, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 9:30 a.m., in Room 2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Tony P. Hall [chairman of the committee] presiding. Members present: Representatives Hall, Dorgan, Wheat, Emerson, Gilman, and Smith. OPENING STATEMENT OF TONY P. HALL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO The CHAIRMAN. Good morning. It is good to have this hearing with you today. Today, an historic weapons treaty will be signed in Moscow, and all decent people welcome this. But during the nine years that the START negotiations were going on, 135 million people died from hunger-related causes. Many of them in Ethiopia, and Sudan, and Somalia, and Angola, and Liberia, and other places. They died, for the most part, from the use of food as a weapon of war. Nuclear weapons killed no one yesterday, and yet hunger killed more than 35,000 people in the world. It's time to ban for all time the use of food as a weapon. It's time for arms control for food. The recent succession of emergencies around the world has made today's hearing more than unusually timely. And while I don't think it was exactly what the U.N. had in mind when it named the 90's the decade of disasters, the past year has brought more attention to the U.N.'s difficulty in responding to disasters. This is exactly what has been needed. Examples from Liberia to Angola point to the urgent need for the U.N. to regain credibility and leadership on the humanitarian front. The one positive side to the Kurdish tragedy is that it highlighted the need for effective response to international humanitarian disasters. The political changes around the world and the strengthening of the U.N. give us a tremendous opportunity to provide effective relief, irrespective of politics. The problem of how to respond effectively to disasters is not new, and it is an issue which experts in the relief community have been troubled about for years. It's an issue addressed in the Freedom From Want Act, which I introduced along with my colleagues, Mr. Emerson and Mr. Wheat, and others on the committee earlier this (1) |