African Crisis CANADA'S PERIODICAL ON REFUGEES - REFUGE. Vo1.4 No.3 April 1985

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1 - REFUGE CANADA'S PERODCAL ON REFUGEES Vo1.4 No.3 Aprl 1985 Afrcan Crss Bloated belles. Bony fleshless Our emotons were roused. Our camp. And there was no quck end or lmbs. Swollen harless heads on pockets were empted. And our hearts easy soluton to the tragedy. emacated bodes. Bulgng black eyes. remaned scarred and ached at the But the crss was not sudden. t Our senses were assaulted by the plght fadng memores of those tragc vsons. has been buldng and t wll contnue to of Ethopan refugees n our newspapers And the numbers! Ffty per day dead n grow. We want to provde some underand the daly televson reports. ths camp. One hundred per day n that standng and background for our readers so they can put the crss n a context of contnung Canadan and nternatonal polcy. n July of 1984, the Second nternatonal Conference on Assstance to Refugees n Afrca (CARA 11) was held to focus on the plght of all Afrca. Ths ssue documents Canada's stance on Afrca, the results of the conference and s hghlghted by an exceptonally lucd and nsghtful artcle on the background and sgnfcance of CARA 1 by D. Lance Clark and Professor Barry Sten, one of the world authortes on refugees. We have also ncluded a lst of publcatons n ths ssue, whch readers may wrte for and obtan free or at very nomnal charge. Our hearts must not only bleed. Our pockets must not only empty. Our heads must understand and through that understandng plan and correct the tragc stuaton. PHOTO: UNHCR/12111/Y. Mller H.A.

2 Letter To The Edtor: c/o Refugee Documentaton Prdact. York Unventy 4700 Kwle Street, Downsvew Ontaro M3J 2R6 REFUGE C/O Refugee Documentaton Project, York Unversty, 4700 Keele Street, Downsvew, Ontaro M312R6 Edtor: Howard Adelman Techncal Edtor and Crculaton h/lur~uger: Cathy Mckalakos Edtoral Assstant: Alex Zsman Publshng Advsory Board: Douglas Cohen, Montreal Claudo Duran, Toronto Are Van Eek, Burlngton Danel Ferguson, Toronto Mchael Ptman, Toronto Lnda Wegl, Regna Typesettng and Layout: Publcatons Department, York Unversty The December, 1984 ssue of Refuge provded nformaton concernng the level of Canada's commtment to refugees n an artcle enttled "Canada Refugee Plans " whch appeared on pages 12 and 13. Whle ths nformaton s of nterest to ndvduals and groups nvolved n refugee ssues, regret that an error n the table whch accompaned the artcle has perhaps dmnshed ts value as an ndcator of the federal government's partcpaton n the refugee program for Fnal data for 1984 s not yet avalable, however, prelmnary ndcatons are that approxmately 10,490 government sponsored refugees have entered Canada n Ths n fact exceeds our objectves n ths area. Regonal targets were met n Southeast Asa, East Europe and Latn Amerca and totals for Afrca and Mddle East were the largest recorded snce global refugee ntakes have been planned. When all sources of refugee resettlement are consdered, the 1984 ntake wll be n excess One of the ComPonenetS of the table of Ref- of 20,000 ndvduals asssted through refuugee and Humantaran Programs s a corn- gee and humantaran programs n Canada. parson between the planned and actual 1984 ntake of government sponsored refu-, AS the nformaton n the table could lead gees. ~h~ comparatve fgures of 10,000 to crtcsms of underfllng of the governplanned versus 8,941 actual Government ment's planned commtment, elc come the Sponsored Refugee Admssons leaves the O P P O ~ ~ U to ~ ~ brng ~ Y ths ssue to Your reader belevng that the federal govern- attenton. ment dd not meet ts 1984 refugee resettle- yours sncerely, ment objectve. The data prnted under the headng "Actual 1984" s n fact data for the R,A, Grard, Drector year Refugee Affars Government bponsored * Refugee Admssons Announced Allocaton Refuge s dedcated to encouragng assstance to refugees, by provdng a forum for sharng nformaton and opnon on Canadan and nternatonal ssues pertanng to refugees. t s publshed fve tmes a year, n October, December, February, Aprl and June. t s a non-proft, ndependent perodcal supported by a grant from the Canada Employment and mmgraton Commsson; by prvate donatons: and by subscrptons. t s a forum for dscusson, and the vews expressed do not necessarly reflect those of ts funders, staff or Edtoral Board. All materal n Refuge may be reproduced wthout permsson unless copyrghted or otherwse ndcated. Credt should be gven to the author or source f named. Subscrpton rates for one year a n $10.00 for ndvduals and non-proft organzatons and $20.00 for lbrares and nsttutons. Please enclose payment wth your order. No dscounts can be gven for Amercan funds because of bank charges for foregn cheques. Logo desgn: Dreadnaught Cooperatve nc., Toronto Second Class Mal Regstraton No SSN Eastern Europe ndochna Afrca Mddle East Latn Amerca Others Total *Prelmnary fgures to December 31, 198 Query To the Edtor: ' am n the process of researchng a assessments of the strengths and dethess on the poltcs of the nterna- fcences of U.N.R.R.A. and ts leadtonal Refugee Organzaton (and ts ershp would also be of great asssevoluton from U.N.R.R.A.) after tance. World War 11. Any deas, suggestons ROBERT GREENSPAN for readng (memors, books, papers, 458 Roncesvalles Avenue etc.) would be most welcome. Any Toronto, Ontaro

3 Address by The Hbnourable Monque Vezna, Mnster tor External ~elatons, Canada to the Tenth Genetal Assembly of The Dakar Club f T would lke frst to convey a warm and sncere welcome, on behalf of the Gov+ ernment of Canada, to all the men and women who have come here fro4 abroad, partcularly those who arq vstng our country for the frst tmel We are proud that the Dakar club ha4 chosen to meet n Canada, and we arq partcularly honoured to welcome tq Montreal such emnent persons, man4 of them mnsters, who are contrbutnq ther knowledge, expertse and prestg d to the cause of development. t s a rar prvlege for me, so soon after takng u my poston, to speak to such a dstn gushed group. The theme of your meetngs, the devel 1 opment of agrculture and agrbusnesd on the Afrcan contnent, s partcularly( tmely because n our vew t s at th heart of what we commonly call th "Afrcan economc crss", a crss o whch the Unted Natoas sembly wll be delberatng durng t current sesson. AS! do not have to tell you the causes o/ that crss. Besdes the clmatc catas4 trophes there are the agrcultural prob, lems, ndebtedness, unemploymentj protectonsm, some errors n orentat ton, and nstablty of prces for energy and basc products. You face those chalj lenges every day, wth the rsk of losn n a few years the ground that has take 1 the last several decades to gan. However, the economc aspect of th crss does not affect only the develop ng countres, partcularly the Afrca contnent. The ndustralzed countre have also been hard ht by t, and ts ef fect s stll beng strongly felt today d our economes. Behnd ths recesson4 whose effects wll be felt for a numbeq Montreal, October 1, 1984 of years yet, a profound transformaton n the structure of the world economy s takng place. Old structures are crumblng, and we cannot yet tell what form wll be taken by those structures that are to replace them. However, one thng s certan: besdes the structural changes, there has been a change n our outlook - we have gven up our utopan hope for contnous and unlmted materal development. To echo Paul ValCry, not only have we had to relearn that cvlzatons are mortal; we are realzng once agan that they are fallble, and that the path of progress s a zgzag one, whch does not always follow an upward curve. have become Mnster for External Relatons at a tme when Canada s slowly recoverng from ths crss, the most dffcult one t has experenced n half a century. The challenge facng our government s a formdable one, not only for our domestc polcy, but also for our foregn polcy: besdes resolvng problems nherted from the past, we must seek new solutons to new problems. Thus, as you mght expect, personally attach consderable mportance to the queston of the role of women n development. am certan that the progress made n Canada can also be made n Afrca. The queston facng us s how to acheve that goal whle respectng cultural and relgous contexts that are dfferent from those obtanng n the West, and wthout n the process denyng the tradtonal mportance of the role played by women, for example, n the commercal lfe of most Afrcan countres. For that purpose CDA has set up a specal branch to ensure that each of the agency's programs wll take nto ac- count the role of women n development, and want to make certan that ths concern wll also preval n our nvolvement n Afrca. Canada's presence n Afrca s based on a number of prncples that t s useful to recall here. The frst s to project our natonal dentty abroad. Ths prncple s appled through the tes we have made wth the French-speakng natons and the Commonwealth countres. Furthermore, t has always been very mportant to Canadans that they express nternatonally the concept of socal justce that motvates them wthn ther country through a development assstance program desgned to acheve a more equtable sharng of the world's wealth. The amounts Canadans contrbute voluntarly to organzatons nvolved n development bear eloquent testmonv to ths desre. canadts economc health depends to a large extent on ts exports. Our country's economy has been bult through the vtalty of ts entrepreneurs and of ts people, and Canada knows that a smlar vtaltv exsts n Afrca. We ntend to work to ncrease our economc relatons wth the Afrcan contnent. knowng also that prvate nvestments and tradng exchanges have just as much development potental as cooperaton projects of the classcal type. Fnally, Canada ntends to help mantan peace and securty by contrbutng to the soluton of certan questons ether through drect partcpaton, as n the dscussons to settle the Namban crss, or through the UN, for example by takng part n the peacekeepng forces sent a few years ago to the country that s now Zare.

4 As the Afrcan countres ganed ther ndependence, Canada extended ts network of embasses and Hgh Commssoner's Offces. We now have these establshments n about twenty countres, where they are workng to buld close relatons wth each of the countres on the contnent n accordance wth the major objectves have just outlned. Snce those states have urgent needs n the area of ther economc and socal development, Canada's acton was naturally concentrated frst n that area, and we allocated to Afrca approxmately 40 percent of our budget for blateral cooperaton, or about $300 mllon per year. Ths sector s mportant; t s probably for each of you the most vsble element n our day-to-day relatons. However, t should not be forgotten that ths blateral cooperaton represents only 43 percent of the budget Canada allocates to development assstance each year. Thus on the average, dependng on the year, more than 40 percent of our food ad and emergency assstance s also sent to Afrca. The vctms of the lanslde n Morocco, the vctms of famne n Uganda and Ethopa, and the refugees n Zare or Somala are examples of people who have receved such assstance from us. Moreover, nearly half of CDA's budget s allocated to multlateral assstance through UN agences, bodes lke the nternatonal Monetary Fund or varous regonal banks, not countng the varous programs for French-speakng and Commonwealth countres. Afrca also receves a large part of the money Canada pays drectly to such nternatonal organzatons as the nternatonal Monetary Fund and varous regonal banks. To those must be added the large number of nongovernmental organzatons that receve a major part of the funds for ther projects drectly from the Canadan government, not to menton those that conduct research on development questons. The nternatonal Development Research Centre works to adapt scence and technology to the needs of the developng countres. Among the thousands of projects t has fnanced snce t was founded n 1971, a large proporton has been connected wth the agrculture and food sectors. Gven ths range of tools and actvtes, and n the lght of Canada's economc stuaton, wll not conceal from you the fact that the present government of Canada plans to revew all ts actvtes to see whether they can be made more effectve. t s wth those facts n mnd that have taken up my mandate as Mnster for External Relatons. assure you that t s my frm ntenton to do everythng possble to further strengthen the tes between Canada and Afrca. and my cabnet colleagues ntend to make certan that the resources we deploy for that purpose wll reflect the desres of our respectve peoples and also be the most approprate means of achevng those objectves. am undertakng my dutes wthout any preconceved notons; am certan that n the comng months wll have the opportunty to revew both the desgn and the choce of the man tools of our foregn polcy respectng Afrca. To that end, there are a number of premses we are already aware of that are unlkely to change n the short or medum terms. By that mean, for example, the fact that the Canadan people as a whole have always been, and contnue to be, favourably nclned towards development assstance programs, whle wantng to be certan that the assstance s truly gong to those who need t and that the projects are cost-benefcal n terms of development, n the socal sense of the term. Secondly, blateral relatons always develop accordng to a certan cultural affnty. Our attracton for Afrca s certanly based n part on the fact that we share a common trat: the same "mother countres". Our membershp n the Commonwealth has certanly taught us to understand Englsh-speakng Afrca better; the French language and culture have brought us closer to francophone Afrca, and have led us to play an mportant role n the ACCT. n addton, we feel that t s n our own nterest to project Canada's bcultural character abroad. Thrdly, along wth blateral relatons, Canadans attach consderable mpor- ance to the multlateral nsttutons. he Secretary of State for External Afars, Mr. Clark, stated that fact agan hen speakng to the UN; he suggested number of ways to make that world ultlateral nsttutons n whch we are dourthly, Canada s facng a number of onstrants that t must take nto acount to be realstc n ts acton. There budget constrants, to begn wth; ese oblge us to concentrate our efrts both n terms of the number of dountres where we can clam to be orkng effectvely and n terms of the elds n whch ths actvty s beng car- 'ed on, whch are those n whch we ave acqured abltes that are acknowdged worldwde. Unlke other counes that are more populous or have aned a great understandng of the hrd World countres over the cenres, Canada does not yet have managers wth the experence to drect projects mplemented geographcal, cultural and economc t. dfferent from our own. That s hy we want to gve ncreasng mpornce to non-governmental organza- 'ons, some of whch have staff memers who have had the experence of pendng large parts of ther lves n rca, Asa or Latn Amerca. ::fthly, n the last few years Canadan msness people have shown a growng st n dong busness on the Afrcan ntnent. Of course the fgures are stll odest, but the trend s sgnfcant. nsder, for example, that over the -year perod from 1978 to 1982 the me of both our exports and our mhas trpled, and that Algera, for stance, s now one of our major trad-.ng partners on a world scale. We are lopng that ths new trend wll grow n he comng years. t nally, regonal peace and stablty are ssental condtons for economc and

5 trade development. When requestec,, Canada wll contnue to assst n solvng the great conflcts that arse on the contnent. Smlarly, the Canadan peop:e attach consderable mportance to tke queston of human rghts, the fate of t-e refugees and the dgnty of the person; Canadan foregn polcy wll necessarly be nspred by those values, whatevyr the locaton or the crcumstances. As sad earler, am assumng my r!- sponsbltes, and n a sense the stu y of relatons between Afrca and Can - da, wth an open mnd. However, n the bass of the facts have just lsted, a certan outlne s already evdent. can assure you that development problems wll always be among our government's top prortes. My colleague Mr. Wlson confrmed at the recent Commonwealth Fnance Mnsters' Conference n Toronto that Canada s mantanng ts objectve to allocate 0.7 percent of ts Gross Natonal Product to development programs untl However, changes may prove necessary n the means our government employs to make the tools avalable to use more effectve. n the comng months, ntend to vst some countres to see at frst hand the effects of ths economc crss that s partcularly affectng the Afrcan countres and to dscuss wth some governments how Canada could play a more effectve role n ths area, and n all areas nvolved n close nternatonal relatons. wll fnd out about the work and conclusons of groups lke ths one, and wll not hestate to dscuss frankly what share and what responsblty each bears n buldng a better world. You may rest assured that n ths endeavour wll devote all my energy to mprovng all our programs n the mutual nterest of Afrca and Canada. Department of External Affars - Specal Fund for Afrca November 16,1984 The establshment of a $50 mllon Specal Fund for Afrca, along wth specfc ntatves to help Ethopa, were announced November 16, 1984 by the Secretary for External Affars, the Rght Honourable Joe Clark. Mr. Clark also announced that the Canadan nternptonal Development Agency (CDA) wll be contrbutng an addtonal $3,525,000 n humantaran relef assstance to Ethopa through such organzatons as the nternatonal Commttee of the Red Cross, Development and Peace and Oxfam Canada. Furthermore, CDA wll be provdng $4 mllon to send 10,000-15,000 more tons of cereal to Ethopa. 1 *Refugee Report 1984, The Brtsh efugee Councl PUBLCATONS To obtan copes of the followng publcatons, please wrte to the organzatons concerned. Gal M. Gerhart, Refugee ssues, Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1984, "Educatonal Assstance to Refugees from South Afrca and Namba", Refugee Studes Programme, Queen Elzabeth House, Oxford Unversty. UNHCR, Refugees No. 7, July 1984, "Afrca's Refugees - CARA ". UNCEF, News, ssue 120, 1984, "Afrca: The Land s growng old. What wll the chldren nhert?"