The unintended consequence of limiting humanitarian work because of counterterrrorism efforts in hot spots such as Somalia and Gaza is that it brings more suffering to civilians, said Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the humanitarian NGO Norwegian Refugee Council. “There was one case of a group who thought they could not give school feedings to kindergartens anymore because the headmaster was seen as being part of Hamas. Of course, a baby is a baby. A baby is neither left or right, or Islamist or Christian. A baby has needs, and those need to be covered.” Mr. Egeland said that, while donors want to do away with any and all contact with or assistance to terrorist groups, there are no laws prohibiting negotiating access to armed actors, “as we have to do, even [with] those who are terrorists.” “But, they [donors] have very often said, we cannot do humanitarian work that is in any way assisting these groups,” he said.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 09:11:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015