Helping hand? Relief agencies fear close ties to military

Published: 2003-12-05

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- It was the kind of offer that's hard for an aid agency to refuse. Dutch military forces in Liberia recently volunteered to support relief operations by the Catholic organization Cordaid, as it assists refugees and former child-soldiers in the West African country. But the answer wasn't an automatic yes. "Something like this presents a very tough decision. It offers real help to Cordaid, but it establishes a relationship with the military force in a sensitive region, and that could create problems for the future," aid expert Tim Aldred said Dec. 4. Aldred, an official with Britain's Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, known as CAFOD, related the story at a meeting of Caritas Internationalis in Rome to illustrate the growing overlap between humanitarian and military operations in global conflict zones. The problem has been highlighted in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it's also happening in dozens of other countries where peacekeeping forces and relief organizations must work side by side amid populations in conflict.

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