Frustration and Failure: International Response to the Somali Crisis V. 1

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1 Jeffrey Clark, Frustration and Failure: International Response to the Somali Crisis 1 (1992)

handle is hein.immigration/frufai0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Cornell University/Institute for African Development

Conference on Somalia:
Human Disaster and World Politics
October 16, 1992
FRUSTRATION AND FAILURE:
International Response to the Somali Crisis
by
JEFFREY CLARK
Jeffrey Clark, Senior Advisor
United States Committee for Refugees
202/347-3507
It is a pleasure to be here on the campus of Cornell University and to
have my initial visit associated with the commemoration of World Food Day -
an annual celebration with which I have long been involved through my
work for the House Select Committee on Hunger.
I want to first congratulate the organizers of this program on a job well
done and to thank them for including me in the discussions on a subject as
important as the horrible crisis which wracks Somalia and haunts people of
conscience around the world.
It is my belief that one of the contributing factors to the catastrophic
conditions now gripping Somalia is the lack of attention paid not just to
Somalia but Africa in general in this country. The relative absence of
knowledge and understanding of African issues, problems and opportunities
reduces the required political mobilization in time of crisis that determines
the generosity of official U.S. - and often by extension UN - relief assistance
as well as the vigor of diplomatic and political initiatives. Efforts such as this

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