Aid, more than just dropping food out of airplanes

A hearing on international disaster assistance was held before the Senate Foreing Relations Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection. Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said that humanitarian aid is more complicated than dropping food and water out of an airplane.

According to panelist James B. Warlick, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, the U.S. should turn to the U.N. Secretariat and operational agencies when U.S. bilateral assistance is shunned. Warlick also pointed out that the response of the international community could be rejected or hampered by local forces.

Menendez questioned Warlick as to what the State Department’s view on the ‘responsibility to protect’ concept. Menendez gave the example of Zimbabwe where 20 tons of food assistance for school children was confiscated and distributed only to supporters of President Robert Mugabe at a political rally instead. Warlick said that on the first level, each individual was responsible for helping its people. Following that, the international community should use peaceful means to assist through the U.N. Lastly, the international community should be ready to take action as a last resort if the people of the country requiring aid were denied access to it by the local government.