NATO has asked the committee to coordinate the air drops with the alliance, he said. The committee's announcement came hours after Lopez da Silva, who just returned from Kosovo, reported that food shortages were so grave and widespread that swift action was needed to help desperate people trapped by the conflict. Lopez da Silva, logistics chief for the Rome-based World Food Program, said many thousands of ethnic Albanians have no access to food, cooking fuel or medical supplies. The scarcity of food is so great that even a quick political settlement to the conflict will not bring an end to problem of supplying inhabitants of the province, he said. We think that there are risks, but we also think there are gains if the planes can be flown in and tens of thousands of meals ready to eat or humanitarian daily rations can be brought to the people of Kosovo,'' he said.
Airdrops are complex and delicate operations.
They are an imperfect humanitarian tool. But they are worth trying. We can't let the best be the enemy of the good,'' he said. The committee, founded in 1933 at the suggestion of Albert Einstein and now one of the largest refugee aid agencies in the United States, said it will initially make two air drops daily over Kosovo. Eventually, the committee hopes to operate four air drop flights daily, Levy said.