I was in Juba, South Sudan, at the end of February after three long and intense weeks to examine the reintegration of refugees who are returning home, when an astonishing article from the Colombian paper El Tiempo [1] popped up in my email inbox. It was titled "The giving up of the United Nations." The article was about a press conference held in Bogota, Colombia, by Sir John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, as he was ending his trip to assess the humanitarian situation of millions of internally displaced Colombians.
The El Tiempo article criticizes Sir Holmes’ use of mild and accommodating wording and not explicitly referencing the fact that there is ongoing armed conflict in Colombia that is causing a humanitarian crisis [2]. I realize that quarreling about word usage could seem a sterile exercise. However, the consequences of understating, and even misrepresenting, the reality of such a crisis could have far-reaching consequences.
Let’s start with some data. Colombian government figures are reporting over 2.9 million people registered as internally displaced persons as of February 28, 2009. And recently, a high-level Colombian official admitted to me that around 30 percent of displaced people do not seek registration for fear of reprisals or lack of knowledge of the process. There are also over 500,000 Colombians who have fled the country altogether. This amounts to one in every ten Colombians having been forcibly displaced because of the violence. Let me repeat, that’s 10 percent of the entire population of Colombia. This "seems" to be a situation of alarming humanitarian crisis.
While Mr. Holmes’ diplomatic call for improved humanitarian presence on the ground, as well as increased humanitarian access to insecure areas, are the right words [3], they come at a time when those on the receiving end need to hear a considerably greater sense of urgency. For years the Colombian government has been successfully downplaying the humanitarian crisis. The UN country team leadership in Colombia has only timidly engaged the government on this topic, while pursuing mostly medium and long-term development priorities.
There has to be a more convincing call by UN leadership for the Colombian government and international donors to prioritize support for an immediate and greater humanitarian response. Mr. Holmes’ words only perpetuate a lack of clarity about the seriousness and magnitude of the humanitarian needs of millions of Colombians.