ABSTRACT
Humanitarian action as a response to war, and to violent crises within states, has been tried in the 1990s as never before. It would be easy to dismiss these efforts as failures. In Somalia, an international humanitarian involvement ended in 1995 in humiliating retreat. In Bosnia, the United Nations (UN) emphasis on humanitarian responses was mired in controversy and largely discredited by the fall of Srebrenica in 1995, which led to a significant change of Western policy. In Liberia, humanitarian agencies decided in June 1996 not to renew major operations because extensive looting resulted in their activities contributing to the war economy. The northern Iraq ‘safe haven’ concept was left in tatters by military actions there in September and October 1996. In Rwanda and Zaire, the record of the international community in protecting victims of genocide in 1994, and refugees in camps in 1996, has been pitiful. The litany of setbacks encompasses other conflicts, including those in the former Soviet Union.
