This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Administrator J. Brian Atwood
Introduction of Congressman Tony Hall to the Open Forum
Washington, D.C., May 2, 1997
U.S. Agency for International Development
(As Prepared for Delivery)
It is a great pleasure to introduce to this Open Forum a
distinguished member of the House of Representatives who has
been a singular voice for human rights and humanitarian causes,
both in this country and around the world.
A veteran of 18 years in Congress, he served on the Foreign
Affairs and Small Business Committees before being appointed to
the Rules Committee.
Congressman Tony Hall of Ohio has been a particular friend
of USAID's refugee, Child Survival and food aid programs.
From being a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand to being the
principal U.S. nominator of East Timor Bishop Carlos Belo,
winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Tony Hall has always put his
concerns about human rights and hunger into action.
Congressman Hall has lived out poet William Butler Yeats
line, "In dreams begins responsibility." Tony Hall's dream was
that all people -- and especially all children -- should have enough
to eat.
That dream -- so easy to state, so hard to carry out -- has
led him to take responsibility for stopping hunger wherever he
has found it, in whatever ways he could.
That responsibility has taken many forms. Tony Hall is
chairman of the Democratic Caucus Task Force on Hunger. He
founded, and continues to co-chairman of the non-profit
Congressional Hunger Center. In 1983, he founded the
Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors and continues
to serve as one of two House members on its steering committee.
As chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger
from 1989 until it was abolished, he initiated and oversaw
legislation dealing with hunger both in this country and abroad.
When the new House leadership abolished the Select Committee
in 1993, Tony Hall took on a new kind of responsibility.
To draw worldwide attention to the harsh realities of hunger
in this decade, he fasted.
Tony Hall fasted for three weeks, until the Congress and the
American public paid some attention to what he was trying to tell
them about hunger.
Typically, he did not withdraw from the world to fast, but
as the Bible instructs us, he cleaned himself up every morning
and put on a clean shirt and resolutely carried out his other
responsibilities during his fast. Tony Hall did not want to call
attention to himself, he wanted to call attention to hunger.
And he has continued to call attention to hunger.
His recent trip to North Korea is the latest of many visits to
troubled places to find out for himself about reports of human
rights problems, refugees who were suffering, or people who
were hungry. He has also been to Rwanda, Bosnia, Angola,
Somalia, Sudan, Peru, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and
Haiti. Seeing was always followed up by doing something to
alleviate the problems he witnessed.
I know Congressman Hall is familiar with USAID's
response to appeals for food for North Korea. For those in the
audience who might not be, let me briefly review our activities
since we received the first request for help after torrential rains in
July and August of 1995 caused severe flooding in North Korea.
Starting in September 1995, USAID provided the first
$25,000 to UNICEF for medical supplies, and in October,
$200,000 worth of supplementary feeding for children under age
five.
When the humanitarian crisis brought on by the 1995 floods
was aggravated by additional flooding in July, 1996, more than
2.5 million women and children were in serious risk of
starvation. Last year, USAID provided a total of $8.2 million in
food and grants to pay for food through the United Nations'
World Food Program (WFP).
In February of this year, we pledged $10 million in food
targeted to the most severely affected provinces, including food
for about one-third of the country's children under age five.
In mid-April, we responded to an expanded United Nation's
appeal for food aid to North Korea with an additional $25 million
worth of food. This food will be targeted to the 2.6 million
children under six nationwide, with a small component for
hospital feeding.
The first food ship for this year, The Galveston Bay, will
arrive in North Korea next week, with 8,500 tons of corn and
5,000 tons of a fortified corn-soy mixture especially suited to
young children. Another ship will follow later in the month.
Tomorrow, two experienced USAID observers (Jon Brause
and Eric Picard) will leave here to meet The Galveston Bay and
make sure U.S. assistance reaches its intended recipients. We
have asked that they be allowed to include the most isolated
Northeast provinces in their visits.
Additional food shipments from USAID will arrive this
summer fulfilling our April commitments. When all shipments
are completed, the United States government will have provided a
total of 77,000 tons of food this year -- 40 percent of the tonnage
appealed for by World Food Program.
We understand that the food situation in North Korea is
reaching a critical stage this spring. Children are particularly at
risk. The North Korean government says it has cut rations from
about 450 grams last year to 100 grams a day per person. People
will die in great numbers if they are restricted to 100 grams of
food a day for very long. Malnourished people are extremely
vulnerable to disease. The situation could become even more
serious.
North Korea's refusal to open its society has slowed the
international response to its food problems. The United States
will not hold hungry children hostage. As President Clinton has
said:
"The world will find a way to keep the people of
North Korea from starving...but they need to lift the burden
of a system that is failing them in food and other ways...
(and) resolve their differences with the South."
Today, Congressman Hall will report what he saw over the
Easter break on his visit to North Korea. I am eager to hear his
first-hand report, and I am happy to introduce to you --
-- Congressman Tony Hall.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 18, 2001
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