The humanitarian assistance dilemma explained: the implications of the refugee crisis in Tanzania in 1994

ABSTRACT

Despite the good intention of humanitarian agencies, humanitarian assistance and relief aid exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Tanzania during 1994. In the case of Tanzania, humanitarian assistance relieved belligerents’ burden of sustaining conflicts, created safe spaces for armed combatants, undermined local economies, bestowed legitimacy upon belligerents, and fed armed combatants. This situation hence posed the typical humanitarian assistance dilemma for humanitarian agencies. While most scholars and aid practitioners suggest that humanitarian agencies should withdraw their assistance in these contexts given aid's apparent negative impact, there is relatively little research that properly identifies different kinds of ethical constraints and moral dilemmas that have long challenged humanitarian agencies. Referencing the case of late twentieth-century Tanzania, this article contextualises the humanitarian assistance dilemma and systematically examines the ethical predicaments that surround it. Its analysis sheds light on moral quandaries that humanitarian agencies need to address in conflict situations.

KEYWORDS:

• Humanitarian assistance
• conflict
• refugees
• aid agencies
• humanitarian dilemma
• relief aid

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Pattison and Dr Stephen de Wijze, my research supervisors, for their patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. I would also like to thank Dr Simon Chin-Yee, for his valuable and constructive suggestions. My grateful thanks are also extended to Ms Elizabeth Ditmanson for her help in proofreading. I would also like to extend my thanks to the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, and National Applied Research Laboratories Policy Division for their help in offering me the resources and time required by the program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Wen-Chin Lung completed her Ph.D. in Politics at the University of Manchester in 2017. Her research analyses the extent to which humanitarian agencies have succeeded in carrying out humanitarian assistance in times of conflicts and wars, through examining humanitarian agencies’ refugee policies with three distinctive theories, which concerns agential responsibilities, basic human rights, and duties of assistance: the duties one has to those whose vital interests she is able to fulfil and influence, where the duty arises in virtue of her specific role and responsibility.

ORCID

Wen-Chin Lung http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2470-9802

Notes

1 Note that the term ‘belligerents’ is used as a broad term to include rebel groups, warring parties, militants, warlords, and insurgents.

2 Joseph Carens, ‘The Problem of Doing Good in a World That Isn't: Reflections on the Ethical Challenges Facing INGOs’, in Ethics in Action, eds. D. Bell and J. Coicaud (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 257–72; Fiona Terry, ‘Reconstituting Whose Social Order? NGOs in Disrupted States’ (paper presented at the conference entitled From Civil Strife to Civil Society: Civil-Military Cooperation in Disrupted States, Canberra, Australia, July 6–7, 1999).

3 James Milner, Refugees, the State and the Politics of Asylum in Africa (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); Edward Mogire, ‘Preventing or Abetting: Refugee Militarization in Tanzania’, in No Refuge: The Crisis of Refugee Militarization in Africa, ed. Robert Muggah (London, UK: Zed Books, 2006), 137–68.

4 Milner, Refugees, the State and the Politics of Asylum in Africa.

5 ibid.

6 Development Initiatives, the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report 2013, the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme of Development Initiatives, 2013.; the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report 2014, the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme of Development Initiatives, 2014.; the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report 2015, the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme of Development Initiatives, 2015.

7 Milner, Refugees, the State and the Politics.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Zarjevski Yéfime, A Future Preserved: International Assistance to Refugees (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1988), 137.

11 Ibid.

12 Milner, Refugees, the State and the Politics.

13 Okwudiba Nnoli, Ethnic politics in Nigeria (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1978), 80.

14 Mogire, ‘Preventing or Abetting’.

15 Note that the term ‘rebel groups’ is used as a broad term to include belligerents, warring parties, armed combatants, militants, warlords, and insurgents.

16 Guy Vassall-Adams and Oxfam, Rwanda: An Agenda for International Action (Oxford: Oxfam Publications, 1994).

17 Ibid.

18 Alison Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, Human Rights Watch, March 1999.

19 Ibid.

20 Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Breaking the Cycle: MSF Calls for Action in the Rwandese Refugee Camps in Tanzania and Zaire: Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland Report, 1994, 4.

21 Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgium, Médecins Sans Frontières-France, Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Médecins Sans Frontières-Luxembourg, and Médecins Sans Frontières-Spain. Minutes of: The International Meeting of Operations Directors (in English) (Paris: Médecins Sans Frontières, 1994); Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Breaking the Cycle; Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Arjo Berkhout, MSF Holland Coordinator in Tanzania from April to July 1994: Our Aid Is Keeping Criminal Power Structures Intact, Ins and Outs, MSF Holland internal publication, September 1994; Médecins Sans Frontières-USA, MSF Withdraws Teams from Rwandan Refugee Camps in Tanzania, MSF-USA Press release, December 1994.

22 Laurence Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps in Zaire and Tanzania, 1994–1995 Médecins Sans Frontières Internal Document’, Genève: Médecins Sans Frontières International (2005a); ‘Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi, 1994 Médecins Sans Frontières Internal document’, Genève: Médecins Sans Frontières International (2005b); Vassall-Adams and Oxfam, Rwanda: An Agenda for International Action.

23 Vassall-Adams and Oxfam, Rwanda: An Agenda for International Action, 49.

24 Carens, ‘The Problem of Doing Good’; Fiona Terry, ‘Reconstituting Whose Social Order?’

25 Michael Barnett, The Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011).

26 Caroline Abu-Sada, In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid (Médecins Sans Frontières-USA, 2012); Larissa Fast, Aid in Danger: The Perils and Promise of Humanitarianism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014); Dorothea Hilhorst, The Real World of NGOs: Discourses, Diversity and Development (London: Zed Books, 2003).

27 Milner, Refugees, the State and the Politics; David Rieff, A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis (London: Vintage, 2002).

28 Samantha Bolton, Press and Tanzania/ Rwanda Crisis, International Press Officer for East Africa, May 1994, 2.

29 Sarah Lischer, ‘Dangerous Sanctuaries: Refugee Camps, Civil War, and the Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid’, Cornell Studies in Security Affairs (2005): 204.

30 Milner, Refugees, the State and the Politics.

31 Ibid., 152.

32 John Prendergast, Frontline Diplomacy: Humanitarian Aid and Conflict in Africa (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner 1996), 22.

33 Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Breaking the Cycle, 1. Note that this specific humanitarian assistance dilemma, namely reducing armed combatants’ costs, also happened in Zaire (the former DR Congo).

34 Fiona Terry and Bianca Cordaro, Message from MSF France Coordinator in Ngara (Tanzania) to MSF France Programme Manager, 4 October 1994 (in English).

35 Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’; ‘Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi’; Bolton, ‘Press and Tanzania/ Rwanda Crisis’; Corine Lesnes, ‘Rwandan Killers and Refugees: Among the Hundreds of Thousands of Hutu Who Fled to Tanzania Are Those Who Murdered Tutsi’, Le Monde (France), June 11, 1994, http://speakingout.msf.org/en/node/437; Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, ‘Breaking the Cycle’; Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Our Aid Is Keeping Criminal Power.

36 Binet, ‘Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi’, 51.

37 Ibid.

38 Cited in Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’; ‘Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi’.

39 Médecins Sans Frontières-USA, MSF Withdraws Teams, 1.

40 Mogire, ‘Preventing or Abetting’.

41 Ibid.

42 Bolton, ‘Press and Tanzania/ Rwanda Crisis’.

43 Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgium., Médecins Sans Frontières-France., Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Médecins Sans Frontières-Luxembourg, and Médecins Sans Frontières-Spain, Minutes of the International Meeting.

44 Ibid.

45 Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Breaking the Cycle: MSF Calls for Action in the Rwandese Refugee Camps in Tanzania and Zaire: Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland Report, 1994, 7.

46 Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action (Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press, 2002).

47 Neil Narang, ‘Assisting Uncertainty: How Humanitarian Aid Can Inadvertently Prolong Civil War’, International Studies Quarterly 59, no. 1 (2015): 184–95.

48 Mary Anderson, ‘You Save My Life Today, but for What Tomorrow?’, in Hard Choice: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention, ed. Jonathan Moore (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998); Mary Anderson, Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace—Or War (London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999); Nicholas Stockton, ‘Humanitarian Values: Under Siege from Geopolitics’, Unpublished paper (2003).

49 Anderson, Do No Harm.

50 Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’, 28.

51 Ibid., 28.

52 Ibid.

53 Terry and Cordaro, Message from MSF France coordinator in Ngara (Tanzania), 1.

54 Ibid.

55 Binet, ‘Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi’, 34.

56 Ibid.

57 Anderson, Do No Harm.

58 Ibid., 50.

59 Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’ and ‘Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi’; Médecins Sans Frontières-USA, MSF Withdraws Teams; Terry and Cordaro, Message from MSF France Coordinator in Ngara (Tanzania).

60 Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’, 13.

61 Médecins Sans Frontières-USA, MSF Withdraws Teams, 1.

62 Ibid., 1.

63 Médecins Sans Frontières-USA, MSF Withdraws Teams.

64 Terry and Cordaro, Message from MSF France Coordinator in Ngara (Tanzania), 1.

65 Ibid., 1.

66 Abu-Sada, In the Eyes of Others; European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Report of: ECHO/ ODI Conference on Principled Aid in an Unprincipled World: Relief, War and Humanitarian Principles. London, ECHO and ODI, 1998; Fast, Aid in Danger; Marion Harroff-Tavel, ‘Neutrality and Impartiality—the Importance of These Principles for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the Difficulties Involved in Applying Them’, International Review of the Red Cross 29, no. 273 (1989): 536–52; Peter Hoffman and Thomas Weiss, Sword & Salve: Confronting New Wars and Humanitarian Crises (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006); Larry Minear and Thomas Weiss, Humanitarian Action in Times of War: A Handbook for Practitioners (London: Lynne Rienner, 1993).

67 Ulrike Von Pilar, ‘Humanitarian Space under Siege Some Remarks from an Aid Agency's Perspective’, Background paper prepared for “the Symposium Europe and Humanitarian Aid – What Future? Learning from Crisis” (Neuenahr, Germany, 1999).

68 Ibid., 3.

69 Ibid., 3.

70 Cited in Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’ and ‘Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi’.

71 Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’, 13.

72 Lesnes, ‘Rwandan Killers and Refugees’.

73 Ibid., 14.

74 Ibid., 14.

75 Ibid., 14.

76 Ibid.

77 Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Breaking the Cycle; Our Aid Is Keeping Criminal.

78 Hanna Nolan, Memo from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, MSF Holland to all MSF Holland Staff Working or Having Worked in Benaco Camp’ Presence of Alleged Perpetrators of Genocide in the Camp: Explanation of MSF Holland Position, MSF SPEAKING OUT, July 1994, 1.

79 Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’, 24.

80 Nolan, Memo from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs.

81 Binet, ‘Rwandan Refugee Camps’, 67.

82 Ibid., 67.

83 Stockton, ‘Humanitarian Values’, 6.

84 Ben Barber, ‘Feeding Refugees, or War? The Dilemma of Humanitarian Aid’, Foreign Affairs (1997): 8–14; Jonathan Glennie, ‘More Aid Is Not the Answer’, The Journal of Contemporary World Affairs (2010): 205; Lischer, ‘Dangerous Sanctuaries’; Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, ‘Aiding Conflict: The Impact of U.S. Food Aid on Civil War’, the National Bureau of Economic Research (2012); Thomas Pogge, ‘Moral Priorities for International Human Rights NGOs’, in Ethics in Action, eds. D. Bell and J. Coicaud (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007a), 218–56; ‘Assisting the Global Poor’, in The Ethics of Assistance, ed. D. K. Chatterjee (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007b), 260–89; Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action (Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press, 2002).

85 Séverine Autesserre, Peaceland Conflict: Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 241–2.

86 Barber, ‘Feeding Refugees, or War?’; Barnett, The Empire of Humanity; Charles Boyd, ‘Making Peace with the Guilty’, Foreign Affairs (1995): 22–38; Cindy Collins and Thomas Weiss, Humanitarian Challenges and Intervention (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996); Alex de Waal, Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa (Oxford: James Currey, 1997); Hoffman and Weiss, Sword & salve; Lischer ‘Dangerous Sanctuaries’; Pogge ‘Moral Priorities for International Human Rights NGOs’; Terry, Condemned to Repeat?; Thomas Weiss, ‘Principles, Politics, and Humanitarian Action’, Ethics and International Affairs (1999): 1–22.

87 Michael L. Gross, Bioethics and Armed Conflict: Moral Dilemmas of Medicine and War (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006).

88 Ibid.

89 James DuBois, Ethics in Mental Health Research: Principles, Guidance, Cases (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

90 Ibid.

91 Barnett, The Empire of Humanity; Minear and Weiss, Humanitarian Action; Hoffman and Weiss, Sword & Salve; Rieff, A bed for the Night.

92 World Vision, World Vision Australia's Position on Humanitarian Principles, Humanitarian Principles World Vision Australia's Public Policy Position, July 2017.

93 Mark Duffield, ‘The Symphony of the Damned: Racial Discourse, Complex Political Emergencies and Humanitarian Aid’, Disasters (1996); Weiss, ‘Principles, Politics, and Humanitarian Action’; Laura Hammond and Hannah Vaughan-Lee, ‘Humanitarian Space in Somalia: A Scarce Commodity’, HPG Working Paper (2012).

94 Hammond and Vaughan-Lee, ‘Humanitarian Space in Somalia’.

95 Francis Kofi Abiew, ‘Humanitarian Action under Fire: Reflections on the Role of NGOs in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations’, International Peacekeeping (2012): 203–16; Hammond and Vaughan-Lee, ‘Humanitarian Space in Somalia’; Søren Jessen-Petersen, Humanitarianism in Crisis (Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace, 2011).

96 Barnett, The Empire of Humanity; Michael Barnett and Thomas Weiss, Humanitarian in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008); Hammond and Vaughan-Lee, ‘Humanitarian Space in Somalia’.

97 Urvashi Aneja, ‘International NGOs and the Implementation of the Norm for Need-Based Humanitarian Assistance in Sri Lanka’, in Implementation and World Politics: How International Norms Change Practice, eds. A. Betts and O. Phil (UK: Oxford University Press, 2014), 85–101; Barnett, The Empire of Humanity; Stephen Hopgood, ‘Saying No to Wal-Mart? Money and Morality in Professional Humanitarianism’, in Humanitarian in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics, eds. M. Barnett and T. Weiss (London: Cornell University Press, 2008), 73–97.