Aid Agencies

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Diplomats and journalists are virtually cleared out. International aid agencies are shut down or scaled back. And international monitors are gone.Suddenly, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic might have his country and his people where he wants them -- under his thumb and beyond the eyes of the outside world.Bombed by NATO's overwhelming force, Milosevic controls the ground and remains capable of unleashing hardship and bloodshed in the Balkans.He appears to be following a strategy of rolling over his domestic foes in Serbia and punishing ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo.

Selling food pays for additional aid David Kohn contends that humanitarian aid agencies oppose reforms to U.S. food aid because the system "subsidizes" our bottom line ("It's time to stop a tragic waste," May 11) . Nothing could be further from the truth. Most large aid agencies, including Catholic Relief Services, CARE and Save the Children, have been striving to improve our nation's overseas food assistance program. We have worked toward minimizing or eliminating the practice of selling food aid to raise cash to pay for programs that fight chronic hunger.

KIGALI, Rwanda -- There are two major conflicts going on here: One between Rwanda's government and the Hutu refugees returning from Zaire, but the second is between the government and foreign aid agencies.They confront each other in aid centers where the agencies are working to feed, heal and transport the half million Hutus streaming home from neighboring Zaire.A Red Cross truck pulls up in front of the Nkamira transit center to deliver injured refugees for medical attention and a night's rest, while aid workers make arrangements for getting them to their home villages.

Representatives from the Department of Social Services will be available from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, starting Jan. 3, at the Multiservice Center in North Laurel to help residents in need apply for food stamps, cash assistance and medical assistance. The department joins the Community Action Council, Domestic Violence Center, Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland, FIRN, Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center and the Legal Aid Bureau in offering services at the center in the Whiskey Bottom Shopping Center, 9105 All Saints Road.

SEOUL, South Korea - In a disturbing sign that North Korea is further closing its doors to the outside world, the reclusive regime is trying to reduce the presence of foreign aid agencies in the country, diplomats and aid officials said. Although not rejecting humanitarian aid entirely, the North Korean government has told the United Nations that it wants to discontinue an annual fund-raising appeal that started in 1995 at the height of a famine that killed an estimated 2 million people.

KIGALI, Rwanda -- The crush of refugees returning home to Rwanda from neighboring Zaire practically overwhelmed relief agencies here yesterday.Half a million refugees staggered on foot across Rwanda toward the homes they fled two years earlier, some of them passing by relief camps established to give them food and transportation.The Rwandan government showed signs of resentment over the appearance that the relief agencies and not their own authorities were managing the crisis. At the same time, the resolve of Western countries to send a multinational relief force to Zaire and Rwanda seemed to diminish even more as refugees left Zaire.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration, closing ranks behind United Nations forces in Somalia, disclosed plans yesterday to bolster existing firepower and pledged to keep Americans in the war-ravaged African nation as long as needed.The increased U.S. commitment comes as U.N. forces confront growing discontent in the southern Mogadishu stronghold of warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid and criticism from private aid agencies.Strains between the United Nations and Somalis, in turn, threaten to complicate the world body's efforts to add more troops to the 20,000 from various nations already there.

BAGHDAD - United Nations agencies and relief groups here are stockpiling fuel, food and medical supplies in anticipation of a U.S.-led attack that they say would be a humanitarian catastrophe for Iraqis already vulnerable to famine and disease after years of U.N. sanctions. Aid workers also are preparing to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis expected to flee Baghdad and other major cities if there is an intensive bombing campaign. Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait are expected to try to prevent refugees from crossing into their territory, so Iraq's displaced could be left at the borders without food or shelter.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Four Somali women sat half-buried i a pile of American wheat in a seaside neighborhood, guarded by U.N. soldiers stationed on nearby rooftops. And, for the first time in two weeks, they resumed the job of giving food to the beleaguered citizenry."I was afraid to come today," admitted Kadijo Hassan Mohamud, a 25-year-old mother of four. "But for food, we must trust in God. And if someone kills us, then they kill us."The food relief program, halted in much of this capital after the June 5 massacre of 24 U.N. troops and subsequent U.N. clashes with warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid, resumed this week.

THE CLINTON administration is learning how hard it is to make friends among warriors in Africa. After spending the Christmas season debating whether to support the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the main rebel group in southern Sudan, by arming it with food, the administration must now decide what to do about the SPLA's expulsion of 11 humanitarian agencies from its areas of control. The SPLA has long enjoyed the support of the Clinton administration for a number of reasons, including the old dictum that it is the "the enemy of my enemy" -- namely, the government in Khartoum.

WASHINGTON - The Senate Finance Committee agreed yesterday to give major airlines 14 years to fully fund their retirement plans as it approved legislation to shore up the nation's private pension system. Among provisions affecting a broad range of employers, the bill would toughen funding requirements for pension plans and bolster the pension insurance system by increasing company premiums. Two carriers with underfunded plans, Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp., had lobbied for the right to spread their pension payments over 25 years, up from roughly four years at present, to conserve cash and help avoid bankruptcy.

Amazon.com revolutionized the retail shopping business. Philanthropy might be next. Known primarily for selling books, music, housewares and electronics, the Web giant has emerged as a major conduit for donations to help victims of the South Asia earthquake and tsunamis. Its homepage - as well as the pages of other Web sites that traffic more commonly in commerce than charity - prominently features links to relief agencies and other groups offering assistance. By yesterday evening, $6.2 million poured in through Amazon.

THE DEVASTATION caused by South Asia's enormous earthquake and resulting monster waves comes at a particularly unfortunate time in the U.S. budget cycle. There have been so many such emergencies of late that officials are already draining relief resources away from less urgent, long-term humanitarian assistance programs. Practical as well as moral concerns suggest that the overall relief category should be increased. But thanks to huge financial burdens imposed by the Iraq War, as well as the revenue lost to tax cuts for the wealthy, the federal budget is so deeply in deficit that the Bush administration is trying to hold the line on what it views as lower priorities.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A large group of suspected Taliban fighters stormed the offices of an aid agency in southwestern Afghanistan yesterday, killing three Afghan workers and wounding three security guards, in the heaviest attack since last month's elections. A seventh man, also believed wounded, is missing and may have been kidnapped. About 5 a.m., 20 to 30 gunmen raided the office of the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan in Dilaram, which lies on the main road across southwestern Afghanistan, police said.

SEOUL, South Korea - In a disturbing sign that North Korea is further closing its doors to the outside world, the reclusive regime is trying to reduce the presence of foreign aid agencies in the country, diplomats and aid officials said. Although not rejecting humanitarian aid entirely, the North Korean government has told the United Nations that it wants to discontinue an annual fund-raising appeal that started in 1995 at the height of a famine that killed an estimated 2 million people.

One of Baltimore's most comprehensive AIDS organizations faces a widening crisis as board members resign, key staffers are laid off and a federal investigation continues. Six employees of the Health Education Resource Organization, including the agency's fund-raising coordinator and its housing services director, were laid off this week. This added to an exodus that began in mid-March when the organization fired its deputy director three days after she alleged that Dr. Leonardo R. Ortega, the executive director, had misused agency money - a claim he has denied.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A spate of violence, including the murder of a Red Cross worker, is causing international aid agencies to suspend operations in parts of Afghanistan and prompting renewed concerns about this war-scarred nation's chances of returning to health. The government of President Hamid Karzai acknowledges the crime wave, one that includes armed robberies, carjackings, assaults and extortion, often targeting international donor agencies. But his administration seems powerless to curb the violence and acknowledges that there is no short-term solution.

KONDUZ, Afghanistan - The U.S. military is getting grudging praise for its humanitarian aid and nation-building efforts, even from critics who once considered such assistance a dangerous digression from its traditional fighting role. Military units, called Provincial Reconstruction Teams, are responsible for delivering the help. They resemble the Army's civil assistance teams that have always gone into war zones after the shooting has stopped; but the PRTs have more troops and more money and get projects such as schools, wells, bridges and roads rolling faster.

Health Care for the Homeless soon will remove the doctors and nurse it supplies to an embattled Baltimore AIDS organization's medical clinic - a move that could force 100 patients with HIV and AIDS to seek treatment elsewhere if other providers aren't found. Jeff Singer, president and CEO of Health Care for the Homeless, said yesterday that he notified Health Education Resource Organization (HERO) Executive Director Leonardo R. Ortega on Thursday that the nonprofit will not renew a contract for medical services that is to expire next week.

The board of the local AIDS education organization HERO is investigating allegations that its executive director awarded himself several thousand dollars in bonuses during a fiscal crisis, paid for a personal trainer with charity funds and billed the nonprofit agency for questionable travel expenses. The organization's deputy director, Indira Kotval, was fired Thursday, three days after she outlined the allegations against her boss, Dr. Leonardo Ortega, to HERO's 20-member board of directors.