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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBS #1879/01 1581534
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071534Z JUN 07
FM USEU BRUSSELS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC
INFO RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU
RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA

UNCLAS USEU BRUSSELS 001879 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PREL EAID EUN
SUBJECT: U.S. AND EU FIND COMMON GROUND IN ANNUAL 
HUMANITARIAN DIALOGUE 
 
¶1. (U) The U.S. and the European Union (EU) held their annual 
Strategic Dialogue on humanitarian issues May 3 in Brussels, 
discussing common concerns and programming in Africa and 
Asia, as well as thematic issues including the United Nations 
humanitarian reform process, protection of international 
humanitarian space, and whether to put the U.S. and EU 
"brand" name on items distributed in humanitarian crises 
worldwide.  The U.S. was represented by a team from the 
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), led by 
A/S Ellen Sauerbrey, and a team from USAID's Democracy, 
Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) office, led by 
Assistant Administrator Michael Hess.  Antonio Cavaco, 
Director General of the European Commission Humanitarian 
Office (ECHO), hosted the day-long consultations. 
 
Iraq 
---- 
¶2. (U) Providing assistance to Iraqi refugees, most of whom 
fled to Jordan and Syria, has proven challenging for both PRM 
and ECHO, because refugees live on their own or with host 
families rather than in easily identifiable camps.  A/S 
Sauerbrey said there are 14,000 Iraqi refugee children in 
school out of a total Iraqi refugee school-aged population of 
200,000, as estimated by NGOs.  UNHCR operates in Syria and 
the U.S. has given most of its assistance through UNHCR. 
Jordan, however, has resisted creating parallel services for 
refugees and asks that donors give money through the 
Jordanian ministries of health and education.  ECHO faces 
regulatory constraints that prohibit it from giving money 
directly through government ministries because of the 
difficulty of tracking and monitoring funds that go into a 
common pool that provides services to both refugee and 
non-refugee populations.  ECHO has earmarked 6.2 million 
euros to assist refugees in Jordan and Syria.  A/S Sauerbrey 
said the U.S. this year will give $20 million to NGOs, $12 
million to the International Committee of the Red Cross 
(ICRC), and will fund 30 percent of UNHCR's appeals for 
Jordan and Syria.  She also noted that resettlement to the 
United States will be a small but important solution for the 
most vulnerable refugees and for those to whom the U.S. has a 
moral commitment because of their work with the USG.  She 
said there is no cap on the number of Iraqi refugees who may 
ultimately be resettled in the U.S. 
 
¶3. (U) Similar difficulties face both ECHO and USAID in 
helping Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) within Iraq. 
UNHCR does not operate within Iraq, nor do most NGOs and 
international organizations, and the IDPs live with host 
families rather than in camps.  ECHO plans to give 4 million 
euros this year, all to ICRC.  USAID's funding has increased 
from $7 million last year to $63 million this year, but 
finding additional partners has been challenging.  "We have 
the money," Hess said. "But we need partners and capacity." 
He said the oft-cited figure of 2 million IDPs is much higher 
than the Iraqi Red Crescent's estimate of 600,000-700,000. 
 
Africa: Sudan 
------------- 
¶4. (U) ECHO, PRM, and DCHA shared similar concerns about 
conditions in Darfur, including direct attacks on 
humanitarian workers as well as civilians, bureaucratic 
hurdles imposed by the Government of Sudan, little visible 
sign of implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement, and a 
continued spreading of the crisis to neighboring Chad and 
Central African Republic.  In Southern Sudan, ECHO noted that 
the return process has been challenging and that donor 
coordination could be better.  ECHO opened an office in Juba 
in late April.  Greg Gottlieb, Deputy Director of OFDA, said 
some programs, including health, are moving from humanitarian 
assistance to development assistance.  Cees Wittebrood, ECHO 
Head of Unit for Africa, said ECHO has replaced general food 
distribution with targeted food-for-work and 
food-for-education exchanges. 
 
Horn of Africa - Somalia and Kenya 
---------------------------------- 
¶5. (U) Both the DCHA and ECHO noted the difficulty of serving 
an estimated 300,000-400,000 IDPs in Somalia given the 
 
challenges of security and humanitarian access.  ECHO 
questioned the political wisdom of the EU and the U.S. 
backing the TFG, given its inability to protect the 
humanitarian space as well as other weaknesses.  ECHO said 
that it has not supported UN programs in Somalia extensively 
because of a perceived lack of productivity, but Hess 
encouraged ECHO to look again, praising the current UN 
leadership and its plan for Somalia.  On Kenya, A/S Sauerbrey 
noted that some 3,000 Somalis have gotten across an 
officially closed border into the Dadaab refugee camp. 
Wittebrood said ECHO was ready to close its Kenya operations 
a year ago, but the flows of Somali refugees coupled with 
flooding in Dadaab have caused ECHO to keep its programs in 
place. 
 
Zimbabwe 
-------- 
¶6. (U) The former breadbasket of southern Africa is expected 
to fall about 50 percent short of its food needs this year, 
participants said.  The EU and U.S. had similar estimates of 
the need, with ECHO estimating 700,000 tons of food, and DCHA 
estimating 600,000 tons.  Hess attributed the pending 
shortfall to rising prices, lack of production (exacerbated 
by labor lost to HIV/AIDS), and crops being diverted to 
ethanol production.  Wittebrood said the EU recently voted to 
extend humanitarian assistance to the Zimbabwean people and 
tighten sanctions on government officials. 
 
Great Lakes 
----------- 
¶7. (U) A/S Sauerbrey said PRM is pleased with the pace of 
repatriation from Burundi, but had hoped to see more refugees 
return from Uganda and Rwanda to the DRC by now.  PRM, she 
said, is particularly concerned about the Tanzanian 
government's expulsion of Burundian and Rwandan migrants, and 
will continue to work with the Tanzanian government to end 
that practice.  ECHO DRC Desk Officer Philippe Maughan said 
ECHO is transitioning many of its programs to the development 
portfolio and has already handed over three-fourths of its 
health programs to the European Commission's Directorate 
General for Development. 
 
Getting the EU and U.S. brand name out 
-------------------------------------- 
¶8. (SBU) ECHO raised the difficulty it is having with ICRC 
refusing to allow ECHO to put its name and logo on 
ECHO-funded items it delivers.  Simon Horner, ECHO's head of 
public relations, said European taxpayers should see what 
their tax money is buying.  A/S Sauerbrey noted that PRM does 
not brand its items, but Hess said USAID puts its name and 
logo on almost everything.  Exceptions have been made in 
Iraq, Lebanon, and other places where it was deemed 
counterproductive to have the U.S. name on goods, he said. 
USAID does not use ICRC to distribute goods, except in very 
difficult situations, so branding has not been an issue, Hess 
said.  Gottlieb said that ICRC should be seen differently 
from many other humanitarian partners because of its unique 
role in accessing detainees and enforcing the Geneva 
convention. 
 
Joint missions 
-------------- 
¶9. (U) Based on the success of this year's trip to the DRC, 
as well as previous joint ventures, both PRM and ECHO 
enthusiastically agreed to continue conducting joint 
assessment field missions in humanitarian areas of common 
interest.  Several potential locales were discussed for the 
next mission, and the three with the most widespread support 
were Burma/Thailand, Nepal/Bhutan, and Eastern Chad. 
 
UN Humanitarian Reform 
---------------------- 
¶10. (U) PRM, DCHA, and ECHO expressed support for the Cluster 
approach, saying it improves coordination.  All sides noted 
the effectiveness of each cluster is highly dependent on the 
personality of its leader, and that the concept has had some 
growing pains since it was implemented in many countries 
simultaneously instead of only in pilot countries as 
 
 
originally envisioned. 
 
Humanitarian Space: Civil Protection concerns 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶11. (U) Johannes Luchner, ECHO's Head of Unit for policy 
affairs, raised ECHO's serious concern about the image put 
forth by the numerous civil protection workers (fire, police, 
rescue, etc.) from EU member states who often assist in 
humanitarian disasters.  He fears they are politicizing 
humanitarian assistance because they often have military 
backgrounds, wear uniforms, and are seen as agents of the 
state.  Gottlieb said the U.S. does not face the same issue 
since it does not have a national civil protection force. 
The U.S. local civil protection workers who assist in 
international emergencies do not wear uniforms and operate 
under civilian humanitarian leadership, he said. 
 
Humanitarian Space: Afghanistan 
------------------------------- 
¶12. (U) Esko Kentrschynskyj, ECHO's Head of Unit for Asia, 
described the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan as grim, 
with 3.4 million Afghans without sufficient food security and 
a third of the population suffering from chronic 
malnutrition.  One quarter of the population of Kabul, which 
has grown from 1 million to 4 million people since the start 
of the war, lives on less than $1 a day, he said.  A/S 
Sauerbrey expressed concern over the fate of 225,000 refugees 
who will be affected by planned camp closures, and expressed 
optimism that a scheduled conference on land distribution in 
the fall could help address some of the key issues facing 
returning refugees.  ECHO officials said they are very 
concerned about the lack of coordination between the 
international civilian workers and military forces on the 
PRTs.  Kentrschynskyj said the PRTs often give political 
strategies priority over development assistance.  Because of 
the integrated nature of the mission, humanitarian 
coordination is not working well and is often subsumed by 
military policy, he said.  Hess encouraged ECHO to look at 
the military not as a hindrance, but as a fact of life that 
is larger and more well-funded and equipped than the 
humanitarian community.  "We have to work with the military 
in combat situations because they are in control.  We can 
ignore them or engage them, but we ignore them at our peril," 
he said. 
 
Humanitarian Space: Sri Lanka 
----------------------------- 
¶13. (U) Kentrschynskyj said the Government of Sri Lanka seems 
immune to pleas from the international community to halt 
violations of human rights and humanitarian law.  Hess noted 
that the international actors on the ground try to coordinate 
their messages but wonder if anyone is really listening. 
Dawn Adie-Baird, ECHO Desk Officer for Sri Lanka, had a 
somewhat more hopeful view, saying she believed the 
Government of Sri Lanka was more susceptible to pressure from 
the international community than it was willing to 
acknowledge.  The issue will be discussed further at an 
international meeting in November on civil-military issues 
under the Oslo Accords. 
 
Asia: Bhutan 
------------ 
¶14. (U) A/S Sauerbrey said the USG expects to begin 
processing Bhutanese refugees in Nepal within two months for 
permanent resettlement to the United States.  The announced 
figure of 60,000 is not a cap, she said.  The USG would like 
to see some of the refugees return to Bhutan, but the 
Government of Bhutan has steadfastly refused, and the U.S. 
has no leverage to encourage a change in policy, she said. 
Sauerbrey asked for ECHO's assistance in providing additional 
food aid and in reconstructing a damaged causeway. 
Kentrschynskyj said ECHO would not be able to assist with the 
causeway, but is considering additional food assistance and 
has been pleased with the performance of the WFP. 
 
Asia: Burma 
----------- 
¶15. (U) Kentrschynskyj said the situation of Burmese refugees 
 
in Thailand is more complex than that of the Bhutanese 
refugees in Nepal.  Each time a refugee camp in Thailand 
clears out because of resettlement to the U.S., it quickly 
fills up again, though the newcomers are more likely illegal 
migrants than new refugees, he said.  He noted that ECHO 
would like to diversify its partners beyond the TBBC, which 
is currently ECHO's largest NGO partner in the world.  A/S 
Sauerbrey noted concerns about conditions for refugees, in 
particular one detention center that was so crowded that 
occupants couldn't lie down.  Both PRM and ECHO expressed 
concern about Hmong refugees from Laos that Thailand 
continually threatens to expel. 
 
Conclusion 
---------- 
¶16. (U) The annual strategic dialogues are useful for the 
parties to meet face-to-face to discuss approaches and 
understand nuances in policy where they exist.  PRM, USAID 
and DG ECHO are well aligned in our respective approaches to 
humanitarian assistance, and see additional opportunities for 
future cooperation. 
 
¶17. (U) A/S Sauerbrey and A/A Hess have cleared on this 
report. 
 
MCKINLEY 
.