Sir, - Once again the international community has been caught short. Harrowing pictures of the plight of Kosovan refugees fill the media, while desperate attempts are made by governments and relief agencies to accommodate their most urgent needs. For many, the most vulnerable, it will be too late.
To state this is not to doubt the sincerity and good will either of governments or relief agencies. Nor is it to question the generosity of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people everywhere, who regularly respond to disaster appeals, or the attempts by the various NGOs to co-ordinate with governments to get relief where it is most needed.
But for too long we have talked of a genuinely international relief effort, without anything really effective being put in place. Every humanitarian disaster, whether natural or man-made, throws up the same basic human needs: for shelter, basic foodstuffs and medicines, transport and so forth. The equipment and the personnel to meet such needs exist in plenty, as does the technical and strategic expertise, as well as the experience, to deploy them. What seems to be lacking is the co-ordination to implement a genuinely rapid response. I do not underestimate the difficulties of access to disaster, difficulties which will be different for each situation: war obviously creates special problems, as do natural disasters in remote areas of the globe. But the human mind is endlessly inventive when the will is there.
As we approach the new millennium, is it not time for a radical rethink of our response to human suffering? Instead of a millennium spire, a millennium dome, or other assorted fantasies, why not an international millennium project, based on the commitment that the sufferings provoked by disaster of any sort are an obscenity not to be tolerated in a civilised world? A rapid response force, resourced by international bodies and individual countries according to capacity, would strain noone's budget and maximise the effort which is already deployed. By being on permanent stand-by, it could be sent where it was needed within the first day or two of a disaster and would be in consequence immeasurably more effective. Is it too much to expect that narrow political considerations could be set aside when the only goal is the alleviation of human suffering?
What better way of starting the new millennium than by an affirmation of our common humanity? - Yours, etc.
Pat Little,
Clarinda Park West,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.