First I join with those Senators who congratulated the Fianna Fáil group on placing this motion on the Order Paper thus giving me an opportunity to make some response and help to clarify some of the points raised. I also thank most sincerely all the Senators for their very valuable and educational contributions. I regard the considerable number of speakers and the serious and constructive statements made in the course of the debate as marking fittingly the importance which this House, representing the Irish people, accords to the task of saving the people of Ethiopia from the effects of another famine.
The Government fully share the concern of Senators and are prepared to support any action or initiative which seems likely to facilitate more efficient and adequate distribution of food aid within Ethiopia. Certainly, a ceasefire would be beneficial in this regard and the Government for their part will continue to support and participate in calls for the peaceful settlement of all disputes in the Horn of Africa. However, I must point out that the Government's powers to intervene effectively on a unilateral basis in any of the conflicts of this region so as to bring about a ceasefire are extremely limited. I shall return to this point later. The plight of the Ethiopian people in recent years has struck a particularly deep chord in the Irish people. The Irish people were stirred by the terrible spectacle on the TV screens in 1984 of people — particularly children — dying from starvation and its consequences. The magnificent contribution which the Irish people made to Band Aid and the many Irish volunteers and workers who have served and are currently serving in Ethiopia often at considerable hazard to themselves are concrete testimony of the extent to which the Irish people were touched by the fate of the people in Ethiopia. The people of few, if any other countries, have reacted with such spontaneous generosity to the horrifying spectacle.
Now, yet again, famine threatens Ethiopia. The motion before the Seanad today appeals to all concerned to do whatever is necessary to ensure that food aid is adequately distributed and calls on the Government to use their good offices to effect a ceasefire between all the forces involved. In responding to this motion, it might be useful to begin by outlining what we know about the current food situation in Ethiopia and what has been happening there in recent months. Secondly, I propose to look at how our Government and the European Community have responded to the famine in Ethiopia. Finally, I will turn to the question of political demarches to the Ethiopian authorities and to the scope for action by Ireland in this regard.
It became apparent to the international community from August 1987 that Ethiopia was once again on the brink of a severe food crisis following the almost complete failure of the harvest due to a recurrence of severe drought throughout the country. The already precarious situation in the northern provinces of Tigre and Eritrea was exacerbated by the ravages of long standing conflicts which hampered sowing in these regions. The stark prognosis facing the country was a food deficit totalling 1.3 million tonnes and a population of up to seven million threatened by starvation. The need for food was only one aspect of the problem. To complicate matters the transportation network was in almost complete collapse. The roads were impassable; railway lines were in disrepair; port facilities were inadequate; the truck fleet lacked tyres, essential spare parts, fuel and maintenance and, worst of all, in the northern regions there was regular sabotage of distribution routes and food convoys.
In contrast to the situation in 1984-85 when the response to famine in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa was so tragically slow, donors on this occasion responded rapidly and decisively. International donors pledged food aid totalling more than the estimated year's requirement of 1.3 million tonnes. Substantial quantities of this food were shipped to the country. Port unloading and storage facilities were significantly improved. Large numbers of trucks were supplied or rehabilitated and railway lines improved. An effective food-distribution operation involving the provision of food aid and its transportation by air and by road to local distribution centres was instituted around the end of the year and successfully provided food for growing numbers of people who, by the end of March, totalled around 1.5 million.
A massive airlift operation was introduced by the northern region. Despite the scale of the problem and the obstacles which had to be overcome, the relief effort appears to have succeeded up to now in averting the mass starvation that had been feared for the northern regions from the beginning of the year. Moreover, by maintaining a regular supply of food the relief effort succeeded in avoiding the formation of camps around the food distribution centres. However, total numbers seeking relief food supplies are estimated to jump from around 1.5 million in late March to a possible seven million in June — 3.5 million of these in the northern provinces.
The anticipated scale of the problem in the northern provinces has led all participating donors to conclude that the airlift operation in respect of the north lacks the capacity to transport all the food necessary to feed these numbers and that the only way to ensure the delivery of sufficient quantities of food to the threatened populations is to secure safe passage by road. During the first months of the current crisis the relief operation mounted in the northern war-affected regions of Eritrea, Tigre and North Wollo, operated under extremely precarious security conditions on the roads, which have resulted in the destruction of almost 100 food trucks and the death and injury of some of their crews. Although the Ethiopian Government deployed forces to guard the main supply routes to and within the north, attacks continued and it soon became evident that those areas of the route protected by the Government forces were subject to heaviest attack.
As a result of the dangerous situation on the roads and their inability to prevent attacks, the Ethiopian Government closed many of the most dangerous roads and only opened them to relief convoys on days when they felt confident that they could guarantee the safety of relief personnel. Despite this very dangerous situation, many relief agencies, backed by many donors — including the Red Cross for example — pressed the authorities to allow them to travel on these routes at their own risk in order to ensure that people would continue to receive food supplies.
As a result of serious military setbacks in both Eritrea and Tigre suffered by the Ethiopian Government during the latter half of March, security in these regions deteriorated to a new low. Apart from the general hazards of being caught in a war-zone, relief personnel became victims of kidnappings and specific attacks on relief operations. In early April the Ethiopian Government introduced a ban on foreign relief workers remaining in Eritrea and Tigre on grounds that their safety could not be ensured. Although other motives cannot be discounted, relief workers have confirmed the very real dangers facing them as a result of the security situation and it should be noted that the Ethiopian Government did not insist that foreign development aid workers, such as teachers and water project personnel, or local relief workers, should leave these regions. Thus the relief effort, though seriously hampered, has not been brought to a standstill and food is still being distributed through local channels such as the Catholic Relief Agency.
However, the fact remains that continued and, indeed, over the next few months growing levels of food supplies will be required in these areas. Regardless of the dangers, many relief workers and agencies are prepared to continue to operate the relief effort at their own risk and, if this is the case, it is clear that they should be allowed to do so. To date, the food stocks delivered before the recent crisis and those continuing to arrive through local organisations appear to have succeeded in delaying the onset of mass starvation. As these stocks dwindle and the famine-threatened population swells to the anticipated level of 3.5 million in the north over the coming weeks and months, the appalling tragedy that we witnessed in recent years could be repeated in Northern Ethiopia. Elsewhere in Ethiopia the prospects are better since the relief effort is not being hampered as it is in the north.
Having looked in some detail at the recent events taking place in Ethiopia, I would like to turn to the specific question of how both our Government and the European Community of which we are a member have responded to the emerging food crisis in that country. The Government have monitored carefully the reports of crop failure and imminent famine which were released by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission of the Ethiopian Government and by the various international relief agencies from early September 1987 onwards. The Government allocated grants totalling £370,000 from their Disaster Relief Fund in support of relief in Ethiopia in the latter part of 1987. In addition, the Government shipped 3,386 tonnes of wheat to Ethiopia under the Food Aid Convention. In deciding to make such an early and significant response we were influenced by the experience of 1984-85 when food aid took between five and seven months to reach the people it was intended to benefit.
In determining where to direct our relief assistance we took full account of the particular situation applying in the northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigre and of the appeal from the International Committee of the Red Cross in October 1987, following the destruction of a relief convoy in Eritrea, for international support for an "open roads for survival" campaign directed at all the parties to the conflict and aimed at securing free and unrestricted passage of relief supplies to the affected populations. Accordingly, £45,000 was allocated by the Government from their Disaster Relief Fund in November 1987 to the United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation (UNDRO) — in respect of the emergency airlift operation they mounted to overcome the road transport problems which were hindering the distribution of relief supplies.
This large scale airlift operation, which represents a very expensive means of transporting bulk food supplies, had been decided upon as a last resort when it became clear that the food aid pipeline, by road, from the port of Assab to central Tigre was suspended for security reasons in late 1987. At that time road transport was able to move only 2,000 tonnes of supplies per month, at a time when the monthly food requirement of the 500,000 famine-stricken inhabitants of southern Tigre amounted to 8,500 tonnes. By the end of January 1988 the airlift operation had shown that it was capable of delivering between 13,500 and 15,000 tonnes of food aid per month thus making it possible to build up a small emergency food stock in the area.
A further grant of £45,000 was allocated to the ICRC who were at the time the only major relief organisation permitted to function in the disaster areas of Tigre and Eritrea, where the famine was expected to be at its most severe. In a move which has the gravest implications for the inhabitants of those areas, the Government of Ethiopia in early April suspended the ICRC's relief operations in Eritrea and grounded their trucking fleet, indicating that the ICRC's function should be taken over by the Ethiopian Red Cross Society. I earnestly hope that an appropriate solution can be worked out to ensure that the ICRC food supplies and trucks are rapidly returned to the service of the people of Ethiopia.
I would like to take the opportunity presented by this debate to express my admiration for and thanks to the various Irish relief and developmental agencies which are either involved directly in humanitarian activities in Ethiopia or are providing essential funding for such activities. I can readily vouch for the fact that they are held in the highest esteem for their professionalism and dedication by their counterparts in the community of International Aid Organisations — an esteem which, I may say, has been reflected in the contributions of Senators in this debate. Their contribution to the international relief effort is greatly in excess of what might be expected of a country of Ireland's size and population and serves to enhance greatly Ireland's reputation among both donor and recipient countries. The NGOs are of course an important source of information on the famine situation in Ethiopia — a fact referred to by many Senators, particularly Senator Bulbulia — and serve to supplement the information which the Government regularly receive from the major international relief organisations. The NGOs also perform a vital educational role with regard to the general public to whom they have imparted a highly-developed awareness of Third World needs and from whose generosity they have in turn benefited.
The Government have endeavoured to support the NGOs in their humanitarian activities in Ethiopia to the extent that their resources permit. That is reflected in the fact that over 40 per cent of the moneys allocated from the Disaster Relief Fund in respect of relief activities in Ethiopia in 1987 went to Irish NGOs, notably Concern, GOAL and Trócaire. In addition, grants totalling £147,000 were allocated to Irish NGOs in 1987 under the NGO Co-Financing Scheme in respect of development projects in Ethiopia. The projects were largely in the primary health care and rural development sectors.
I heartily endorse the comments made by several of the Senators who spoke on this motion last week concerning the courage and selfless dedication of volunteer relief workers who are often operating at great risk to their own lives and safety in bringing vitally needed relief assistance to famine victims within those areas of Ethiopia which are experiencing civil conflict. The vulnerability of relief workers was highlighted by two incidents this year involving the kidnapping of Irish volunteer workers by secessionist groups. The most recent of these incidents occurred on 29 April last and involved the abduction of two Concern volunteer workers from the vicinity of the town of Jarso in south-west Ethiopia. The Government are deeply concerned about the kidnapping of these young volunteers who were engaged in humanitarian work among the Ethiopian people and we have made known our concern to the Ethiopian authorities.
Such actions serve to compound further the problems inherently involved in providing humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia. I call on all parties to the conflict to respect fully the status of relief and development workers and to allow them to proceed unhindered with their humanitarian activities. The latest information available concerning the two volunteer workers is that they are unharmed and that they are expected to be handed over safely to Concern representatives in Khartoum either today or tomorrow. I earnestly hope that this will be the last such incident and that Concern and their fellow relief agencies will be allowed to proceed unhindered with their humanitarian work with the Ethiopian people.
Turning to the role played by the European Community in the crisis in Ethiopia, I would like to comment briefly on a point raised by Senator Lydon at the opening of the debate relating to the question of Community assistance to Ethiopia under the Third Lomé Convention. Senator Lydon expressed the hope that the 213 million ecus committed to Ethiopia under the Convention would be spent on famine relief and not on arms. Although I am pleased to confirm that the Community have indeed mounted a rapid and efffective famine relief campaign, it is useful to clarify that the individual country aid programmes agreed under the Lomé Convention involve the provision of longer-term development assistance and not emergency assistance which is financed from a special common fund under the Convention as well as from the general Food Aid budget. Focusing on the very grave environmental and food security problems which underlie that country's vulnerability to famine, the indicative programme for Ethiopia agreed under Lomé III provided for Community assistance to be concentrated on food security, rural development and countering environmental degradation.
However, recognising that the policies of the Ethiopian authorities in the agricultural sector, especially in relation to the low pricing for agricultural products, can act as a major disincentive to food production, the Community made the allocation of funding dependent on a reform of those policies that were impeding local food production and since the Convention came into force in May 1986 have refused to begin work on the agreed rural programmes in the absence of the required commitment.
I am happy to state that, recognising the importance of Community aid to its development, the Ethiopian Government have now agreed to reform their agricultural policies in line with Community requirements and, following a comprehensive review by the Commission on the reform programme to ensure that it did indeed meet the Community's requirements, the go-ahead has now been given for funds to be allocated to the agreed programmes. As to any suggestion that such funds could be used for arms rather than development purposes, Senator Lydon may rest assured that there are a multitude of safeguards to ensure that Lomé funds are used directly on the agreed programmes and their use is controlled by the Community delegations on the ground.
In addition to concentrating the available Lomé resources to combat the fundamental causes of famine in Ethiopia, the Community have also played a vital role in the international relief effort through its Food Aid and Emergency Assistance programmes. From the time that the first reports of the failing harvest began to emerge in the autumn of last year, the Commission formulated plans for a rapid and effective response. I raised the question of a comprehensive Community response to the emerging crisis with my ministerial colleagues in the Development Council in November last and was satisfied to find that the Commission had already been formulating plans to supply both emergency food aid and emergency financial assistance. At my suggestion, all the Ministers and the Commission agreed to co-ordinate their various relief efforts to ensure that the community response was as rapid, comprehensive and effective as possible.
The Emergency Assistance Unit of the Commission, in co-operation with the Commission delegation in Addis Ababa, undertook the role of Community coordinator, acting as a channel of communication within the Community and between the Community and the other participants in the international relief campaign and holding regular meetings to discuss developments and needs. Apart from the various substantial amounts of assistance provided by the member states bilaterally, the Community to date have provided a total of 268,000 tonnes of food aid in the form of cereals, milk powder, oil and beans. In addition, emergency cash assistance for the airlift and for storage and distribution operations of 31.55 million ecu's have been provided. This brings the overall total in aid to date to over £90 million.
The rate of supply of this assistance was carefully timed to meet the priority needs of the situation and to avoid as far as possible the creation of bottlenecks at the ports. Fortunately, because it had been decided to channel the Community's relief assistance through the official channel of the Ethiopian RRC as well as through local church agencies, primarily the Catholic Relief and Development Agency, the Community's distribution efforts have not been affected by the recent actions by the Ethiopian authorities as seriously as many others and some Community aid is, therefore, continuing to get through to the North. Thus, despite my early concerns, I am pleased to be able to express my satisfaction with all aspects of the Community's relief effort and to welcome the opportunity to pay tribute to the central role played by the Commission in this endeavour.
I turn now to the call in this motion for the Government to use their good offices to effect a ceasefire between all the forces involved in the conflict in Ethiopia. I agree fully with Senator O'Shea that the task is not an easy one. Our first priority in all our actions, is, and has been, to ensure that all is done to see that necessary aid gets through to those who need it. I have spoken of the rapid programme of relief instituted by the international community as a whole with a view to ensuring that there should be no repetition of the 1984-85 catastrophe. However, as noted, there have been several setbacks in recent months to the flow of aid to certain Northern areas in particular as a consequence of the continued conflicts within Ethiopia, particularly in the provinces of Tigre and Eritrea. I do not have to remind the House of the enduring nature of these conflicts in Eritrea and Tigre. Many Senators referred to the length of time the fighting has been going on.
In Eritrea fighting has gone on for almost a quarter of a century between rebels who want independence and the Ethopian Army and in Tigre the fighting has continued for more than a decade over the issue of autonomy for Tigre. Many lives have been lost over the years both in the fighting and from its effects, such as the damage to infrastructure and the obstacles which the fighting has put in the way of famine relief and humanitarian aid reaching those most in need. Ethiopia has also been involved in conflict with her neighbours, Sudan and Somalia, though thankfully signs are now appearing of a genuine rapprochement between Ethiopia and Somalia, with a recently concluded agreement between the two Governments.
There have been a number of attempts to mediate in all of these conflicts with little success in the cases of Eritrea and Tigre. Some talks were held in 1982 regarding the future of Eritrea, but these came to nothing. The recent agreement concluded between Ethiopia and Somalia came about only after several attempts to mediate, stretching back over a number of years and involving the OAU, Cuba, Italy and Djibouti. Against this background it would be sanguine to believe that Ireland's good offices could achieve a ceasefire in the conflicts still raging within Ethiopia. We do not have diplomatic relations with Ethiopia, as was mentioned by Senator Robb, and we do not have long standing ties with that country.
There is some goodwill within Ethiopia on all sides towards Ireland and Irish aid workers. One reason for this is that our relief effort has been seen, rightly, as humanitarian and not compromised by any political involvement. To seek to intervene on the political level, however well intentioned, courts the risk of destroying that goodwill should one or other of the protagonists come to the conclusion, however erroneously, that Ireland favours one or other side of the conflict. The net result of this could be actually to inflict harm on the aid effort, the success of which remains the top priority for a country such as Ireland.
This does not mean that the Government advocate doing nothing; far from it. The Government, together with our partners in the Twelve, who include very large aid donors and also countries which traditionally, have had close links with Ethiopia, will continue to press for the peaceful solution of all conflicts in the Horn of Africa and for the maximum efficacy of the aid effort to relieve those starving or in need in Ethiopia. Together with our partners in the Twelve we have kept the situation in Ethiopia under close review and we make known our views as appropriate to the parties concerned. A landmark statement of Twelve policy on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa was made by Ministers of the Twelve on 21 July 1986. In it the Twelve urged the Governments of the region to take steps to achieve the peaceful settlement of internal conflicts and to ensure respect for human rights in their countries. The Twelve also singled out, as of particular importance, measures to help combat further famine and to promote food security.
Since then the Twelve have issued a number of statements and made demarches with regard to the situation in Ethiopia. Thus declarations were made in November and December last deploring and condemning the attacks on food convoys, calling on all sides to ensure that no obstacle is put in the way of the transportation of food aid and appealing for all those concerned to secure free passage for international relief in the drought-affected areas of Ethiopia. Ireland has, of course, been fully associated with these Twelve calls and has participated fully in discussions with partners about Ethiopia.
The Twelve have reacted swiftly to the decision by the Ethiopian Government in April to request expatriate relief workers to leave the provinces of Eritrea and Tigre temporarily. The Twelve made an immediate demarche to the Ethiopian authorities in the matter and also issued a statement calling on all parties involved to find ways and means to allow such workers to return to the region if they wished to do so in circumstances of as much safety as possible in order to continue their humanitarian work. At the same time, and on a happier note, the Twelve made demarches in both Addis Ababa and Mogadishu expressing satisfaction with the recently concluded agreement between Ethiopia and Somalia.
The European Commission made a separate demarche to the Ethiopian authorities regarding the position of expatriate relief workers. The United Nations have made approaches also to the Ethiopians and the UN Secretary General is scheduled to visit Ethiopia this week and will visit UN relief operations in the northern provinces. It is to be anticipated that the international community will continue to press for adequate access for relief to those in need. The Government will support all such efforts and any other efforts which seem to us likely to achieve results in terms of ensuring that aid reaches all those in need. This seems to the Government the most appropriate way to proceed having regard to our capacity for influencing events in Ethiopia.
Before concluding I should like to refer briefly to one or two specific points made by Senators during the course of the debate. In reply to Senator Bulbulia, I certainly will do all I can to ensure that our aid contribution is as it was last year but, as she knows, that is a budgetary matter and something over which I have very little control. Senator Robb made a number of suggestions. Some of the suggestions he made are already in operation. We generally seek that our relief workers and those who are employed on the bilateral aid scheme have the language of the country they are going to, except where English is widely spoken. We try in the main to support only schemes which have a real relevance to the economy of the small local areas because we feel this is where the best efforts can be made and where the best results can come from.
I hope I have made clear the commitment of the Government to working to assist and support the relief effort to the best of our abilities. I hope I have outlined sufficiently the scope of the Twelve's assistance to Ethiopia and their on-going attentiveness on the political front and of the efforts made to get their message across to all those concerned. The situation in Ethiopia is potentially tragic and there is still a long way to go before it is put right, but it is possible to see certain slight grounds for optimism in some recent developments.
The moves I referred to above to alter agricultural policy so as to increase prices paid to farmers and a liberalisation of the internal grain market which were announced in February could help Ethiopia's food situation in the mid-term and have been welcomed by outside donor agencies such as the Community. There have been announcements regarding the resumption of the resettlement programme which have stressed that its operation will be strictly on a voluntary basis.
As was mentioned by Senator Lydon in his speech, an announcement was made during the past four days that a number of members of the Ethiopian royal family who had been imprisoned for many years have been released under an amnesty. These are signs that the Government of Ethiopia must listen to and absorb constructive comment from outside. I appeal to the United States and the USSR to use their considerable influence in this area to see that the work which is being carried on to get food aid to those who want it is successful. It is my earnest hope that all sides to the conflict in Ethiopia will heed those voices from outside, including that of Ireland, and work to ensure that relief gets through and that the threatened catastrophe does not take place. I thank all the Senators who have contributed to this debate.
