Examination of witnesses (Questions 300
- 319)
THURSDAY 23 MARCH 2000
ROSS MOUNTAIN,
KATARINATOLL-VELASQUEZ
and GILBERT GREENALL
300. In Save but Limpopo was still going strong?
(Gilbert Greenall) And the South Africans were saying
by the end of the week starting the 28th the people they were
going to pick up were waving them away, they did not want them.
301. Zimbabwe did not contribute any helicopters,
did they?
(Gilbert Greenall) That is correct.
(Ross Mountain) Not to my knowledge.
302. How many people in total were rescued?
(Ross Mountain) By helicopter I have seen a figure
of about 15,000. The Government has talked about a total number
in excess of 40,000 people who were rescued so that must be by
other means.
303. 15,000 by helicopter and up to 40,000 in
total. It is only a helicopter with a winch that can do this work
off the tops of trees, is it not? How many rescues can a winch
equipped helicopter do in a day roughly?
(Gilbert Greenall) The helicopters can fly for six
hours.
(Ross Mountain) It depends where they pick them up
and how far they have to go to drop them down.
(Gilbert Greenall) They were picking people up by
landing the skids on the roofs of houses and letting people get
into the helicopters. It was only the trees where they could not
get near.
304. That is an important understanding we had
not got.
(Gilbert Greenall) When I left 16,679 had been rescued
by helicopter.
305. That is a pretty good result, is it not?
(Gilbert Greenall) It was an extraordinary performance
and very courageous by the South Africans and remarkable flying
skills.
Ann Clwyd
306. Could more people have been saved had you
had more helicopters at that particular time?
(Ross Mountain) Interestingly, I guess I would need
to check what date we are talking about, but I was up in Chibuto
and I met with the commander of the helicopters during that first
week and asked if more helicopters would be helpful. He said,
"Frankly, we are saturated. If we had more it would be dangerous."
So at that stage—
Chairman
307. That is an important point.
(Ross Mountain) That is the point he was making. It
was all in this one stretch of the Limpopo at that stage.
308. They can bump into each other?
(Ross Mountain) Yes.
309. How many camps were established and for
whom were they established? For those internally displaced? You
said something about 100 camps.
(Ross Mountain) We are at the moment servicing over
100. They are not just internally displaced, they are also isolated
populations that have been cut off who may not be internally displaced
in themselves. Initially we were talking about 250,000 in about
74 centres but this number has been revised and, as I say, we
are now looking for those two sets of populations, displaced and
those isolated, of over 100.
310. Displaced and isolated?
(Ross Mountain) Yes.
311. When the helicopters brought these people
to dry land, were the places that they landed them properly provided
with temporary shelters, food and medical assistance?
(Ross Mountain) Immediately no. The objective was
to save lives and get people out of the water. As soon after that
as possible they were then supplied with food and health services
and shelter. Shelter took longer to arrive. It was in fact the
lowest priority of those basic needs.
Chairman: Can I ask Mr Robathan who has
joined us to ask about the memorandum.
Mr Robathan
312. May I first apologise for not being here
at the beginning. I had another important commitment. I apologise
also because I might ask things that have been touched on before
but I am sure my colleagues will tell me if I am. Can I clear
up one thing. Did you go back, Dr Greenall? You were leaving on
the 26th. Did you return?
(Gilbert Greenall) I had time to put my bag in the
hall, pick it up and go straight back out again.
313. When did you finally leave then?
(Gilbert Greenall) I got back because of flying overnight
on the Tuesday morning.
314. Finally?
(Gilbert Greenall) I finally returned on the 13th.
315. Thank you. I would like to ask you about
contributions because we have here your memorandum which includes
the OCHA Geneva contributions report of the 13th March[4]
which has a generous total of over $US 111. Were those pledges
speedily transformed into provision of supplies and funds, the
money in the bag, and cheques whatever?
(Ross Mountain) I think the answer would be in many
cases yes. In other cases it does not move as quickly as that.
In many cases these are pledged, as you will have noticed, either
to the Government or to individual NGOs or individual UN agencies,
but that has not been a major impediment I think it would be important
to say. Our estimation at the present time is that there are adequate
stocks in the country for the current month for the basic needs.
But I emphasise we are talking about a month's supply here. We
are launching the appeal, you may have been out of the room when
we were talking about this, to cover the six-month period and
of course additional support is required for that.
Mr Robathan: I see ECHO has got down
here 25 million euro. Has that been forthcoming?
Chairman
316. Has it arrived?
(Ross Mountain) My understanding was that four million
of that was essentially for relief operations. I have not seen
the list that is on. I understand the rest of it was for longer
term development type work. ECHO normally supports non-governmental
organisations and I believe it is also supporting UNICEF on the
ground. I would imagine that the arrangements have been made.
In many cases some of these organisations have mechanisms when
they make a pledge to be able to draw on their own resources to
move ahead pending the finalisation of the payment, but I am not
privy to what the actual arrangements were in the particular cases
you mention.
Mr Robathan
317. We discussed helicopters earlier. Did you
receive any further assistance from other countries in the region?
(Ross Mountain) Indeed. You mean beyond helicopters?
318. Yes.
(Ross Mountain) Absolutely. The Government has received
support from practically all countries in the region including
Botswana, Swaziland, Zambia, Mauritius. I believe that Zimbabwe
also provided support although I do not know whether we have that
on the list. We have a list from the other end as well. And also
wider afield—Tunisia, Saudi Arabia.
319. What sort of assistance, food aid?
(Ross Mountain) People, boats, often it was food supplies,
it was cash in one case, fuel from Botswana, a variety of things.
Maybe one thing while we are talking about contributions, if I
may, unless Mr Chairman we are going to hit on that at some other
stage of proceedings, the solidarity has been enormous, not only
amongst governments but in the general public and in the United
Kingdom I understand that the public subscription is likely to
amount to 20 million which is extraordinary and a great commentary
on the sympathy that the population has for the plight of the
people of Mozambique. This is replicated throughout Europe and
in the sub-region. There are public appeals which have gone on
in South Africa, Mauritius and a number of countries and of course
Mozambique. How this money is going to be spent is extremely important
because it needs—and the non-governmental organisations
who will be managing most of this I am sure are aware of that—to
be channelled to programmes that are going to be beneficial in
the areas that are affected. There may be a temptation by some
to be concerned about dispensing this money because they have
now raised it and it needs to be spent in a hurry. We are working
with the Government to try and help them provide guidance as to
what would be the most appropriate destination of such funds.
We have also been talking to national and international NGOs in
Maputo. There is an institution called Link which is made up of
180 non-governmental organisations more than half of which are
international. I flag this both as a measure of the generosity
and in terms of the importance of making sure this fits in the
total picture in order that the assistance does what the givers
and managers of it wish it to do rather than to complicate the
situation.
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