Palestine refugees agency: a turbulent 39th anniversary ahead?

Palestine Refugees Agency: A turbulent 39th anniversary ahead?

Unrest and kidnappings

The 39th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will be marked in December 1988. Four decades ago no one could have foreseen that in 1988, that organization, created to help Palestine refugees temporarily, would still be in existence, much less that it would be busier than ever.

The Agency now provides humanitarian services to 2.2 million Palestinian refugees. At the outset of 1988, Agency Commissioner-General Giorgio Giacomelli reported that donor generosity and staff austerity measures had improved the financial position following years of financial difficulties. In late 1987, some $112 million was pledged towards the Agency's 1988 budget of $216.4 million. Some major countries responded to UNRWA's appeal and increased their pledges. The 1988 budget, the Commissioner-General told the pledging conference, "indicates merely that we need to maintain our services at 1987 levels, with a few improvements where possible, together with what is required to meet the needs of an increasing refugee population".

The beginning of 1988 witnessed some disturbing events in three of five major fields of UNRWA operations: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon. In Jordan and Syria, UNRWA work continued normally.

The unrest in the Israeli-occupied territories which began in early December 1987 continued, with widespread demonstrations, shootings and curfews, disrupting the work of the Agency and, at the same time, expanding the needs for its programmes.

At UNRWA headquarters in Vienna, it was announced in January that the Agency had expanded its feeding programmes in the Gaza Strip and begun distribution of food donations to camps in Gaza and the West Bank, in response to extended curfews imposed by the Israeli authorities as a result of the recent unrest.

By 6 February, nearly 200 tons of food donations had been received at the UNRWA field office in Jerusalem for distribution by the Agency in both the West Bank and Gaza.

As a result of confrontations between demonstrators and security forces, the need for UNRWA medical care services increased. On 6 February the Gaza field office listed 150 persons treated at Agency health centres during a one-week period for wounds caused by beatings.

`Innovative response' needed

New kinds of responses are needed to the current unrest in the West Bank and Gaza, Commissioner-General Giacomelli told an informal meeting of Governments in Vienna on 29 February.

What started as spontaneous outbursts had now become a general insurgency that would last for some time, he predicted.

Any political solution in the Middle East, he said, would require the support of an economic and social plan, which should include: immediate relief; projects to improve infrastructure and housing; long-term economic development; and refugee protection through monitoring of basic human and civil rights.

Recovery plan disrupted

The kidnapping of two UNRWA international staff on 5 February caused the curtailment of Agency operations in Lebanon and a cut in international staff. With their release 25 days later, operations were reviewed and UNRWA is gradually increasing the number of international staff; returning responsibility for programmes in north Lebanon and the Beqa'a valley from the Agency's Damascus office to the Beirut office; and resuming activities aimed at providing housing assistance to refugees in and around Shatila and Burj el Barajneh camps in Beirut.

Over the past six years, a number of staff in Lebanon have been kidnapped, many of them local Palestinian staff. In March 1985 Alec Collett, a British journalist working as a consultant with UNRWA, was kidnapped south of Beirut: his whereabouts is still unknown. In May 1985, Aidan Walsh, the UNRWA Deputy Director in Lebanon, was kidnapped, but released the next day. Today six area staff remain held by unknown groups.