SINCE OUR LAST STATUS REPORT, we have been occupied with the completion of our case study on the former Yugoslavia. In September, we made our third data-gathering visit to the region. Based in Zagreb , a six-person team conducted interviews there and in Bosnia , Serbia, and elsewhere in Croatia. Taking into account some 300 interviews with more than 250 people over a six month period, we are now completing Humanitarian Action in the Former Yugoslavia: The UN's Role, 1991-93 for publication later this month.

The report reviews the work of the UN's humanitarian organizations within the broader context of ineffective international political responses to the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. The report urges that, faced with pressures to phase down its humanitarian involvement, the UN maintain and strengthen its efforts during the immediate future. For the medium term, it suggests that for situations in which the UN has imposed economic sanctions or military enforcement action, consideration be given to creating a new UN entity for humanitarian work. A number of changes of policies and procedures are also recommended.

Publications
Conferences
Utilization of Project Resources
Future Activities

A number of op-eds have appeared since last Status Report. In the Providence Journal piece entitled "In the Balkans, be Firm or be Gone," Thomas G. Weiss argues that the UN has provided governments with a theater in which they pretend to be doing something without doing anything at all. In "UN"s humanitarian missions may need different set of tools," Minear concludes that the lesson of Somalia for the United States is not, as some have said, that its humanitarian concern was ill-advised but that its emphasis on military force rather than creative diplomacy was misplaced. Copies of each are enclosed.

In an effort to disseminate the findings of our research and to influence debate on these issues, the Project's co-directors have participated in a number of conferences, panel discussions, and training sessions. For Minear these have included a US Department of Defense exercise on the refugee crisis in the Balkans, a seminar for State Department staff on Multilateral Responses to Humanitarian Crises, and a conference on conflict and humanitarian action sponsored by the UNHCR and the International Peace Academy at Princeton University. Weiss participated in a workshop organized by The Joint International Programme on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity and the UN University at the University of Ulster in late October and, in November, conferences by the Aspen Institute on The UN in a Changing World and by the Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on the Former Yugoslavia.

We are pleased that policy makers, academics, and practitioners are becoming more familiar with our work and making increasing use of our studies, recommendations, and personnel. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has drawn on our work in preparing a White Paper for parliament entitled Human Aid Between Conflict and Development. Our comments on the separate sets of guidelines being drafted by the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs and the U.S. Government on the role of the military in humanitarian activities have figured in those discussions.

In mid-November, the Arias Foundation, collaborator in our research on Central America, hosted a meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica to review both our case study, Humanitarian Challenges in Central America and the Handbook for Practitioners in the light of recent experience in the region. Discussants included host and donor government and UN officials, military officers, and NGO staff from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. The exchange, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, was part of a continuing dialogue on humanitarian action in the region.

We encourage those who helped to make the first segment of our work possible to renew their grant support. Early in 1994 we will announce a number of grant extensions and several new organizational co-sponsors who will join us in the second phase of our work. As always, we welcome your comments.