GERMANY TO DONATE ADDITIONAL 1 MILLION EUROS TO

UNCLAS BERLIN 000335 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR PRM/ECA - NORMAN HASTINGS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL EAID PHUM PREF PK GM SUBJECT: GERMANY TO DONATE ADDITIONAL 1 MILLION EUROS TO THE ICRC TO ASSIST PAKISTANI IDPS REF: A. STATE 21407 ¶B. BERLIN 311 ¶1. (SBU) Post followed up with MFA Pakistan Desk Officer Tobias Grothe on March 19 to see if Germany, as requested reftel A, would be able to contribute additional funds to one or more of the UN agencies involved in assisting internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan, or to help meet the Budget Extension Appeal of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for Pakistan. ¶2. (SBU) Grothe indicated that Germany would donate an additional 1 million Euros to the ICRC in response to the recent Budget Extension Appeal. He also pointed out that Germany, beginning in May 2008, began contributing some 440,000 Euros yearly to finance the humanitarian component of the Special Assistance Fund of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),and would continue to do so. ¶3. (SBU) Finally, Grothe reported that the German development implementing agency GTZ would carry out a project in cooperation with UNHCR to foster better relations between Afghan refugees and the local Pakistan communities in which they live. He noted that a GTZ advance team was already in the area to do a needs evaluation for the project. Koenig