I suppose that someone in UNICEF, HQ New York thought that the organisation could use my knowledge of the UNICEF, its administration and ways of programming, since after July 1978 I became more popular than I ever was during my career with the organisation. On several occasions I was approached by New York to undertake special assignments, to which I agreed:

MAPUTO, M0ZAMBIQUE

Reorganisation of the UNICEF Office: October to December 1978.

The representative of the Mozambique Country Office had been the Director of Planning of the Peruvian Government and was new to UNICEF. He had asked for assistance from New York to introduce him to the UNICEF procedures of administration and programming.

Mozambique had achieved independance from Portugal in June 1975, when Samora Machel was nominated president. After the Second World War Portugal had exercised authority over Mozambique as a colonial power. Since 1945 a policy of complete assimilation of the Portugese culture had been pursued in Mozambique, but had failed for many various reasons, one of which was the rather small number of Portuguese residing and continuing to reside in Mozambique to carry out the assimilation policies.

The first signs of revolt against the Portuguese appeared in 1964, when the first members of FRELIMO (Frente de Liberacao de Mocambique) arrived from Tanzania. A civil war developed, which lasted almost 10 years, terminating with the collapse of the Salazar regime and the "Revolution of the Carnations".

A new government was appointed in Portugal, which renounced their prerogative over Mozambique. The Independence was declared in June 1975. FRELIMO, directed by Samora Machel, pronounced a constitution of a maxist state introducing nationalization of all industries and creations of agriculture cooperatives.

My assignment in Mozambique lasted 3 months.

BANGKOK:THAILAND

Emergency related to the Vietnamese Boat People fleeing Vietnam

25 July 1979 into next assignment

PHNOM PENH:CAMBODIA

I stayed in Phnom Penh from the 4 October to 24 October 1979.

I would take over from Jaques Beaumont, my colleague from UNICEF, who - together with Francois Bugnion of the Comit� International de la Croix-Rouge - were the first to arrive in Phnom Penh after the Vietnamese militarily defeated and evicted the forces of the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh, the eastern and some western areas of Kampuchea in January 1979.

A new administration to rule Cambodia was installed by the Vietnamese, who nominated Heng Samrin - an ex- Khmer Rouge officer - to head the new government.

Some months later Kampuchea appeared on the verge of a terrible famine and the new administration invited representatives from humanitarian organizations (ICRC and UN) and some western journalists to visit the country and see for themselves the state of affairs of the country and particularly the population. The obvious object was to request international assistance and help to a destroyed country.

Such requirements for assistance had to be investigated, examined and agreed with the new administration in Phnom Penh. Bugnion and Beaumont were the first to come to evaluate the situation and make the first preliminary reports to their respective organizations.

Due however to an automobile accident on the way from Phnom Penh to Kompong Som, where Bugnion and I were to receive the first UN shipment of rice - 6000 tons - to come to Kampuchea, I had to be evacuated by air from Phnom Penh to Bangkok on the 24 October.

Diagnosis: a punctured right lung, four broken ribs and a concussion. Had to stay in hospital until about mid November, then repatriation to Spain.

BANGKOK: THAILAND

Kampuchea Emergency Operations

Kampuchea has an involved history, and I have therefore chosen to write a short overview, so as to settle the reader inside Kampuchea. The information has been collected from UN reports, books and various dictionaries.

Cambodia or Camboya - in Khmer Kampuchea

The history of medieval and modern Cambodia or Kampuchea is a history of long and almost continued wars with its closest neighbours Siam (or Thailand) and Vietnam.

In a continous war with the Siamese kingdom of Ayuthia from 1350 to1430, Angkor - the religious center and ancient capital for the Khmer kings was conquered and destroyed by the Siamese in 1431, then abandoned to the invasion of the surrounding jungle. Only lately through scientific exploration has the area been reopened. Angkor was officially delegated by Siam to Cambodia in 1907, who in turn transferred the area to Thailand.

During the Second World War Thailand supported by Japan exercised control over Cambodia and its territory and used Cambodia as a base for its attack on British bases in South East Asia. In 1946 the area of Siemreap with Angkor was defacto transferred to Cambodia.

Cambodia�s survival as a nation has been and is vital to the region. Traditionally coveted by its immediate neighbours from both the east and west, and latest - in 1863 - the annexation by France as a colonial protectorate, the fertile Cambodian plain constitute an extremely rich and alluring rice granery.

This circumstance has been the reason why the neighboors have always aspired to annex the plains of the Mekong Delta/Valley and the fertile area around the Tonle Sap lake.

Cambodia achieved its independance from France in 1953,and this independence was confirmed in an international conference of Geneva in 1954. The then king Norodom Suramarit died in 1960 and his son Norodom Sihanuk took over, endeavouring to maintain a "positive neutrality" in his relationships with Russia, China and France.

Sihanuk did not change his father�s policies, but continued to conduct the affairs of Cambodia through the system of family power and support by the clans of land proprietors.

Already since 1954 the Vietminh - the Indochinese communist-dominated independence movement in Vietnam - founded in 1939 by Ho Chi-Minh - operated in Kampuchea and influenced the relationships of Kampuchea with Laos and particularly Vietnam.

In the course of early sixties Sihanuk sought raprochement towards China and gradually supported North-Vietnam. He accepted the Khmer rouge as a coalision partner.

It was because of the steadily stronger communist influence on the entire Indochinese peninsula that the USA decided on an open conflict against the countries on the indochinese peninsular.

The generalization of the war - bombardment by the Americans along the Ho Chi Minh trail in Campuchea - totally destroyed the active neutrality policy of Sihanuk, who was defeated by a CIA prepared and supported the coup d �tat in 1970, when General Lon Nol took full responsability for the coup and assumed poderes plenos in Campuchea. Sihanouk fled to Peking, and from there he established an anti-american alliance with the communist Red Khemers - Khmer Rouge.

This alliance, which had the full support of China, was based on guerillas de origen campesina, fraccions of some left-out aristocracy, and the lower middleclass. The coalision �s name was:United National Front of Kampuchea: FUNK. In 1974 this coalition controlled 90% of the territory of Kampuchea and 80% of its population.

It was only the support of the USA, which permitted general Lon Nol to remain in power, under precarious conditions. Lon Nol�s troops suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the Red Khemer guerillas. Lon Nols administration was corrupt, the students rebelled and the budist priesthood were in opposition.

In April 1975 FUNK - the Khmer Rouges - conquered Phnom Penh and took power. The war had caused 1,000,000 dead. Also in April the US withdraws from Kampuchea and Sihanouk is reinstated in power.

A fanatic communist faction of the Khemer Rouge, directed by Pol Pot, takes power and commences a horror regime in the whole of Kampuchea. Immediately after the conquest of Phnom Penh in April 1975 - with bayonets in hand - they empty towns and villages of people - including hospitals - and chase all human beings out into the rural areas to work the fields. All western medical equipment and all medicin are destroyed. The people must produce their own food and reorganize their lives.

All foreigners were chased out of Cambodia. Money abolished. The country rebaptized to Democratic Kampuchea and its population practically isolated from the exterior.

Cambodian refugees began arriving at Thailand�s frontiers and they reported horrible happenings, brutal murders of the entire intellectual population, about severe malaria epidemics, lack of food and declining health conditions due to lack of medical personnel, hospitals, medicines, transports etc.

It came to skirmishes between the new regime and Thailand, later the Khmer Rouges attacked Vietnamese border areas and at the end of 1978 open warfare break out between the Khmer Rouges and Vietnam.

The Khmers are chased across Kampuchea and forced up against the western borders with Thailand. The Vietnamese conquer Phnom Penh on the 7th of January 1979, and install a new government, selecting an earlier Khmer Rouge officer, Heng Samrin, to head the new administration.

Kampuchea is on the verge of a terrible famine. In April/May the Vietnamese open the country ajar, but only ajar - to the western world, asking (not inviting) humanitarian organisations such as UNICEF, the International Commitee of Red Cross Societies and various American and British Voluntary Organisations to come and see the situation for themselves.

Also selected western journalists are asked to come to Phnom Penh to describe the situation in the country. Even in a situation so overwhelmingly catastrophic as it is in July 1979 the Kampuchean authorities are barely prepared to collaborate with the international aid organizations. Suspicion, little trust and xenofibia describe the official attititude of Phnom Penh.

As a result a massive aid programme was drawn up, particularly shipments of large quantities of rice to feed the starving population

Mid- February1980:

After recuperation of the punctured lung I returned to Bangkok to continue participation in the Kampuchea Emergency operation

MOGADISCIO:SOMALIA

Reorganisation of UNICEF Somalia Country Office: 4 September 1981 to 30 June 1982.

The Mogadiscio Office had suffered a serie of mishaps in its destiny and development. Several colleagues had tried to set its organization right, but for many various reasons it had not been succesful.

Several donor countries had pledged considerable sums of funds for development of health, social services and education programmes, however, a major part of these funds had not been converted into execution and action programmes and it now became my special assignment to endeavour to produce projects, to which the donor countries would agree.

Once again it became one of these assignments on which you doubt the validity and vitality. Government�s attitude was negative, and there was no dedication or particular interest in trying to elaborate or present programmes, which had possibilities of succeeding. The Ministry of Health, the ministry, with which UNICEF dealt in the majority of programmes, demonstrated little interest in cooperating or elaborating programmes, with which UNICEF could agree.

The Ministry was solely concerned about receiving supplies, equipment and medicines for a distribution that the Ministry on its own would decide. And the priorities of the ministry were not always for centers which were open to the general public.

Already shipments of UNICEF supplies and equipment had been received in the past. Some of this equipment was stored in Government warehouses under the distribution responsability of the Ministry of Health. When requests for reviewing this equipment - sent in by UNICEF - the Ministry very reluctantly gave permission after a good number of meetings.

In the course of the reviews several changes in storage, accounting, distribution etc were suggested, which suggestions were firmly rejected. No notes were allowed to be taken about the distribution of the goods.

In order to obtain information on needs for supplies and equipment in the field our office designed a questionaire with inquiries about location, personnel, budget, coverage of population by the center, illnesses, etc. Several of my colleagues of the office went into the field and visited a good number of the centers. The lists had been collected from the archives, partly from the Government Medical Stores, partly from previous records, our own notes and reports.