ICRC News 14 / 20-Apr-00

** SHORT MENU....

Democratic Republic of the Congo:
New influx of displaced people near Goma
About 150 people - men, old people, women nursing babies - were huddled
together on a stretch of road near Lake Kivu, on the outskirts of Goma.
They had all walked for three or four days from Masisi or the Walikale
area, west of Goma.

Republic of the Congo: Last IDPs return home
Tuesday 11 April was a special day in Mafouta. Some 200 internally
displaced people (IDPs) who had been living at the ICRC camp on the
outskirts of Brazzaville left the Congolese capital for their home villages
near Mayama and Kindamba, in northern Pool region.

Angola:Poor harvest expected on the Planalto
Since the beginning of the year the ICRC has distributed food aid (maize
flour, beans, oil and salt) to more than 300,000 local residents and
displaced persons living on the outskirts of Huambo.

Bolivia: State of siege
On 8 April the Bolivian government declared a state of siege for 90 days
and mobilized the armed forces in response to the mass protests which have
swept the country since early this month.

Landmines: ICRC helps organize first Arab seminar on mines
A seminar on landmines and their impact on development in the Arab world
was held on 9April at the Cairo headquarters of the League of Arab States.

** STORIES IN FULL...

Democratic Republic of the Congo
New influx of displaced people near Goma

About 150 people - men, old people, women nursing babies - were huddled
together on a stretch of road near Lake Kivu, on the outskirts of Goma.
They had all walked for three or four days from Masisi or the Walikale
area, west of Goma.

"They are arriving at a rate of about 50 a day", said a local official. All
of them had been driven from their homes by terror: villages attacked by
night, looting, houses set on fire. One man had only four of his eight
children with him. He did not know whether the others were dead or had
become lost in the rush to escape. Some of these IDPs had wanted to stop at
Sake, 25 km to the east, "but there were already too many displaced there
so we pushed on until we got here".

On 14 April the ICRC managed to carry out a survey in Sake, where 12,000
newly displaced people have arrived since the beginning of April. Kivu is
no stranger to such events: in recent years this eastern region of the
Congo has seen successive waves of civilians fleeing armed men. There are
an estimated 200,000 IDPs in Kivu alone, and their numbers are growing
every day.

In general the ICRC, which is the main humanitarian organization operating
in eastern Congo, can only reach people who have sought refuge in towns,
because of the poor security situation. Between 10 and 15 April the ICRC,
working in cooperation with the National Red Cross Society, distributed
cooking oil, maize flour, beans and salt to 43,355 especially vulnerable
displaced people in Goma town.

Further information: Juan Martinez, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2281 or
++4179 217 3217


Republic of the Congo
Last IDPs return home

Tuesday 11 April was a special day in Mafouta. Some 200 internally
displaced people (IDPs) who had been living at the ICRC camp on the
outskirts of Brazzaville left the Congolese capital for their home villages
near Mayama and Kindamba, in northern Pool region. Transport was provided
by the ICRC, as were food and other items to help them settle in.

Like thousands of others, the 200 who left on 11 April had fled to
Brazzaville last year after armed conflict drove them from their homes.
They are the last of 7,100 people whom the ICRC has helped to return home -
by road, train and air - from its relief facilities in Brazzaville. After
Tuesday's departure, the organization closed the last of the four sites
that it had set up for IDPs in the city.

The same day, a therapeutic feeding centre (for the severely malnourished)
and a kitchen (to provide meals to those in better condition) were opened
in Kindamba. Within five days, 138 people had been admitted to the feeding
centre and 539 were being aided by the kitchen programme. The beneficiaries
are mostly people from Kindamba.

Residents of the surrounding countryside and areas further afield started
arriving in Kindamba on Friday. Over the weekend, community leaders in
distant villages had gone out to tell people still hiding in the forests -
most of whom are suffering from malnutrition - to go to Kindamba for
assistance. From what its delegates have heard, the ICRC fears that there
may still be many needy people in those areas.

Further information:Juan Martinez, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 22 81;
Adriano Kuepfer, ICRC Brazzaville, tel. ++242 81 12 08


Angola
Poor harvest expected on the Planalto

Since the beginning of the year the ICRC has distributed food aid (maize
flour, beans, oil and salt) to more than 300,000 local residents and
displaced persons living on the outskirts of Huambo. During this period
sporadic clashes on the Planalto have led to a significant increase in the
number of beneficiaries.

The coming harvest is expected to be poor, owing mainly to a lack of
fertilizer and to the fact that the area under cultivation has been reduced
for security reasons and land cannot be left fallow.

>From early April to late May the ICRC will only assist particular groups
such as hospital patients, the disabled, people living in centres for the
displaced and in high-risk areas, and those taking part in rehabilitation
work (reforestation, seed multiplication, well-cleaning and composting
programmes).

Every day, in the Kuito area,  the ICRC distributes 85,000 litres of
drinking water to 30,000 displaced persons living in three camps. These
people are among the 114,000 villagers who have fled the combat zones and
are now living in 23 camps around the city.

With each distribution of food or water, the ICRC holds information
sessions meant to give the beneficiaries some basic notions of hygiene and
thus reduce the danger of disease and epidemics.

The video footage broadcast by Eurovision on 18 and 19 April is available
at the ICRC film library.

Further information: Juan Martinez, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 22 81


Bolivia
State of siege

On 8 April the Bolivian government declared a state of siege for 90 days
and mobilized the armed forces in response to the mass protests which have
swept the country since early this month. The protests, which were sparked
by the planned privatization of water networks, have resulted in numerous
arrests.

The ICRC regional delegate in Buenos Aires immediately went to Bolivia to
assess the situation together with the Bolivian Red Cross. The National
Society had already taken measures to assist those in need, in particular
people blocked in bus stations.

Following discussions with the Ministries of Defence and of the Interior,
the ICRC received the necessary guarantees to visit persons detained for
reasons of internal security. The visits will be conducted on the basis of
the general agreement concluded in 1997 between the ICRC and the Bolivian
government. 

On 13 April the regional delegate and an ICRC doctor were able to charter a
plane for San Joaquin, a remote village in the Bolivian Amazon region,
where they visited 19 people detained by a military unit. Meanwhile,
negotiations between the government and the opposition have made it
possible to settle many of the conflicts currently affecting the country.

Further information: Maria Ines Peytrignet, ICRC Buenos Aires, tel. ++ 54
11 43 28 77 71


Landmines
ICRC helps organize first Arab seminar on mines

A seminar on landmines and their impact on development in the Arab world
was held on 9April at the Cairo headquarters of the League of Arab States.
The seminar, which brought together some 150 officials from a number of
Arab countries, as well as international experts and representatives of
leading local and international NGOs, was held under the League's auspices
and organized by the ICRC's Cairo delegation in conjunction with local and
regional groups, chief among them Egypt's National Centre for Middle East
Studies.

For three days the participants reviewed the political, legal and
historical aspects of the widespread presence of landmines in the Arab
world; their effect on economic, social and urban development; their
military and strategic dimensions; and the problems they pose from a
humanitarian and medical standpoint.

Two ICRC representatives spoke about the organization's position on and
activities in connection with landmines. They presented current
international humanitarian law on the issue and explained what "mine
awareness" work amounts to in practice.

The former commander of Canadian land forces spoke on military strategy and
the alternatives to anti-personnel landmines, focusing on the outcome of
the "Friend or Foe?" study commissioned by the ICRC in 1996.

The seminar ended with an appeal to Arab countries to take detailed action
to cope with the problem of landmines. The participants urged the
international community to provide assistance in this regard. The seminar
also called for community-based awareness campaigns and greater help for
landmine victims.

Further information: Nabil Shawkat, ICRC Cairo, tel. ++ 202 337 9282


During the days 21, 22, 23 and 24 April2000, for all information please
call the press officer on duty, Chris Bowers, on (mobile)
++ 41 79 217 3231