3:30 P.M. EST
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Should I just make a few statements, and then I can answer questions?
Now, USAID has been in Sudan for many years, engaged in both development activities many years ago, and more recently, in terms of humanitarian relief in Darfur. We started our activities in Darfur in April of 2003, a year and a half ago. We've spent $302 million and provided about 70 percent of the food that's been distributed in Darfur since the crisis started. We have a DART team of 15 people, A Disaster Assistance Response Team that's in Darfur and in Khartoum coordinating our humanitarian relief efforts there.
And we've made some progress. There were probably a couple hundred expatriates, relief workers there six months ago. There are now 789, which is progress toward building up the infrastructure needed to run the aid effort there. But we are facing more challenges. The drought, the rains were poor this year; they stopped early. And so it appears that much of the crop has been lost to those people who are still on their farms. So we may have, according to the ICRC, a crop that is 10 to 15 percent of what it normally is. That means a crop loss of 80 to 85 percent.
And that means farmers who do harvest some crop will run out of food by perhaps March of next year. These are people not displaced by the fighting, who would not have been attacked by the Jingaweit; many of them are behind rebel lines. And -- but they're now going to need assistance if we're going to avoid a disaster in terms of nutritional conditions later on next year.
We are also facing a serious protection issue. The Government of Sudan now has destroyed a third camp in violation of international standards. They've used violence against civilians. They killed a mother and two boys, two children, in the last camp attack. They used tear gas and nets and ropes to get people out of the camp, and then they bulldozed their homes. This is not the way a resettlement effort is run. We are deeply troubled by it and we condemn the action of the Sudanese Government and urge them to stop what they have been doing.
And so there are still challenges in Darfur. Unless there is a political settlement and people can go back to their villages, however, the country will not -- the province will not return to normal.
The final thing I'd like to say is one of the most important issues that needs to be dealt with is the issue of the looting of huge numbers of animals, perhaps as many as three million, by the Jingaweit militia, again, away from the Africa tribes. Most of these were agropastoralists, which means they were farmers and herders together. And most of them had 40 or 50 animals, goats, sheep and camels.
And a huge number of those animals were looted by the Jingaweit militia, so there was a massive transfer of wealth from one clan and tribe to another, impoverishing the former. And the consequence of that is these people are completely dependent and completely destitute, unable to support themselves unless there's rehabilitation and a resettlement undertaken at some point in the future. So we need to deal with this issue of wealth transfer and the restitution of the Darfurian tribes that had their animal herds destroyed and looted.
Thank you. Are there any questions from anybody?
MODERATOR: We're open on Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Sudan.
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Yes.
QUESTION: On Sudan, the Security Council is on their way to Nairobi, and Ambassador Danforth said that if there is a peace settlement that the international community will be there to help -- this is in the north-south situation -- will be there to help, and hinted that there would be aid and -- international aid. Have you given any thought to that, and what kind of help might be given, or planned?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: If there's an agreement in Darfur and people voluntarily return to their homes, we will certainly play a role in helping to resettle people back to their home villages. We've made that offer; we make it again. People who have suffered this much need help to restore their lives and to put back their families and their villages.
In the south, we have actually already begun some reconstruction work already. We did some in the 1990s on a small scale. We've ratcheted that up dramatically in '03, and we will continue to do that in '04. What other measures will be taken, what other aid will be offered, is something I leave for the State Department to announce. I can just tell you what we -- what we're doing now and what we've announced we would do in the future.
MS. JAMISON: The first time you ask a question, if you'd identify yourself and tell the Administrator what your media is, please.
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Choongo Moonga is the name, from Africa Independent Television.
The African Union is very well entrenched in all of these arrangements. I'd like to know what manner of harmonization there is between you and the AU on Darfur. I hope you're not working at cross purposes.
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: No. In fact, it's quite the opposite. We've done a great deal to make sure that the policies that we're pursuing are consistent with AU policies. Two, we believe this is an African problem that Africans need to resolve. Our job is to help the process, not to dominate it.
I have, personally, great respect for the -- both President Obasanjo of Nigeria, the President of the AU, and the Executive Director, who is the former president of Mali, who was one of the most able heads of state in Africa when he was president of Mali. And they have made this their central work right now at the AU, is the resolution of this crisis in Darfur.
We have financially supported the deployment of African troops, and President Bush offered two C-130 transport planes to move the African troops from their country into Darfur. And we know now that some of the people have already arrived from the enhanced AU force that's supposed to be there. And we coordinate carefully with them, particularly with respect to the peacekeeping force that's there.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
ADMINISTRATOR NASTIOS: Yes, I was in Sudan in September, and I spent a week in Darfur and I met with the Nigerian general, who is the commander of the AU forces, and his staff.
Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Robert McMahon, Radio Free Europe. A general question on Iraq and then a more specific one. To what extent, given what's happening on the ground in Iraq, especially in the Sunni Triangle, are USAID programs sort of thwarted? And on a specific level, the election preparations, I'm looking at the fact sheet which mentions IRI and NDI and those programs. I've talked with IRI fairly recently, where they've said, like everybody else, their movements are limited; however, they are working through Iraqi intermediaries. How is that working, to the extent they are able to go out and do train -- basically, you're training the trainers. How is that working at this stage? And what can you say about how, you know, the work ahead of them, leading up to the end of January, when these elections are supposed to be held?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Well, in all of our reconstruction efforts and nation-building efforts in any country in the world, not just Iraq, there's the initial phase of large numbers of expatriates who go in. And then when you do the training and capacity building and institution building, you can withdraw the expatriates and go through local staff; and that's what we've done primarily. Even before the insurgency started, we started that process.
It is very important that the Iraqis own their own reconstruction, that it not be something imposed from the outside, because then it won't work very well; it won't be sustainable, and we want whatever we do to be sustainable.
So we're working with the Iraqi Government on the election preparations. I mean, that's been going very well. We have made -- they've made a decision, the Federal Election Commission or the National Election Commission of Iraq, that the elections will take place on time and that the existing food distribution network, which is, like, tens of thousands of distribution points, will be the place at which the ballots will be cast. That's important. And they have begun the process of registering people to vote.
QUESTION: Judy Aita, Washington File. And from what you've seen, that process is going forward --
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Yes, from what I can see, it is, yeah.
Any other questions? Thank you very -- oh, yes, sir.
QUESTION: Shawn Kingston from Princeton University.
Now that Fallujah is largely under the control of coalition forces, are you able to anticipate how quickly you may be able to restart reconstruction and assistance programs in Fallujah?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Actually, we're running assistance programs right now for the internally displaced from Fallujah. I think we allocated $2.3 million for it. And we have a major sewer -- I think it's either a sewer or water project in Fallujah that is more than half completed. We now will be able to complete it.
And we have a lot of small infrastructure projects that will be available, not just there in Fallujah, but in other cities as well, that will employ people, because the more people who are employed, the less likelihood they'll take a gun out and cause trouble.
QUESTION: So when is -- how does that work in terms of when you're able to actually step in? You're working with the Pentagon…?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Yes. Yeah, the diplomatic security isn't taken over quite yet, so we rely on our own private security firm and Pentagon security. And once -- we think that once the insurgency slows down, we won't have any limitations on our ability to get around.
But now we have some in the Sunni area, but in the Shia area in the south and in the Kurdish area in the north we're actually able to move around much more easily than we are in Baghdad.
QUESTION: I guess one more question on Afghanistan. Are there things that you've learned through working in Afghanistan that you're able to apply in Iraq, working under tough security situations, for example, and so forth?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: There are a number of parallel -- or parallels between the two countries, but it's clear that Afghanistan is in a different state of development than Iraq. Iraq had the best school system and the best hospital system of any country in the Middle East or North Africa when he started. But then, once he attacked Iran all of the public services began to deteriorate because all the money was diverted into the wars that he had. And I guess that's one of the tragedies of Iraq.
QUESTION: Whereas you were starting from more of a ground zero type situation in Afghanistan?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Afghanistan, exactly.
QUESTION: And are you finding in post-presidential elections now that the security situation is steadily improving, or you're still -- for example, these three UN workers who are still (inaudible)?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Yeah, I would say it's steadily improving, but some days more than others.
MS. JAMISON: Is that it for questions?
ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS: Very good. Thank you very much.
