ICRC News 34 / 06-Sep-00

** SHORT MENU....

Russian Federation / Northern Caucasus: Red Cross steps up medical
programme in Chechnya:
This week, the ICRC and the Chechen branch of the Russian Red Cross are
launching a joint programme aimed at providing the population in the
Chechen Republic with basic medical assistance.

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: ICRC organizes family visits to detainees:
There were emotional scenes in Nis Prison in Serbia last week as wives and
mothers were briefly reunited with their detained relatives as a result of
an initiative taken by the ICRC.

Solomon Islands: Red Cross responds to Guadalcanal crisis:
In response to an upsurge in fighting between the Malaitan Eagle Force
(MEF) and the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM), an ICRC operation to help an
estimated 5,100 internally displaced people is currently under way in the
Solomon Islands.


** STORIES IN FULL...

Russian Federation / Northern Caucasus
Red Cross steps up medical programme in Chechnya

This week, the ICRC and the Chechen branch of the Russian Red Cross are
launching a joint programme aimed at providing the population in the
Chechen Republic with basic medical assistance. A health post in Grozny
will offer consultations and treatment, as will three mobile medical units
travelling within Chechnya as security conditions allow.

Three general practitioners, two paediatricians and four nurses, all local
Red Cross staff, are working on this programme, which will be a valuable
complement to the ICRC's ongoing support to hospitals in this devastated
region. Three cars, medical equipment and medicines were provided by the
ICRC for this project.

Similar programmes were set up at the end of last year in the neighbouring
Republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia, where Russian Red Cross personnel
have given over 25,000 consultations to Chechen displaced persons,
including some 11,000 children, in need of medical treatment.

Further information: Erik Reuman, ICRC Moscow, tel. ++70 95 926 5426



Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
ICRC organizes family visits to detainees

There were emotional scenes in Nis Prison in Serbia last week as wives and
mothers were briefly reunited with their detained relatives as a result of
an initiative taken by the ICRC. The group of 21 women from towns and
villages throughout Kosovo were brought by the ICRC to the prison, where
they had the chance to spend one hour with their loved ones and give each
of them a package containing basic necessities. For most of the women, it
was the first time they had seen their husbands and sons since they were
arrested.

A similar event had taken place two days earlier when two persons from
Serbia proper were taken by the ICRC to visit their relatives held in the
Bondsteel detention facility in Kosovo.

The visits were arranged by the ICRC after obtaining the necessary
authorizations from the competent authorities. Because contact with family
members is vital to the welfare of detainees, the ICRC plans to organize
more such visits in the future.

Meanwhile, on regular visits to 917 detainees held in 20 detention places
in Serbia proper and to some 60 persons detained in Kosovo under KFOR and
UNMIK authority, the ICRC monitors conditions of detention and forwards Red
Cross messages between the detainees and their families.  Around 22,000
such messages have been exchanged since June 1999.

Further information: Caroline Douillez, ICRC Pristina, tel. ++381 38 501
517



Solomon Islands
Red Cross responds to Guadalcanal crisis

In response to an upsurge in fighting between the Malaitan Eagle Force
(MEF) and the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM), an ICRC operation to help an
estimated 5,100 internally displaced people is currently under way in the
Solomon Islands. By 31 August, some 2,400 displaced people made homeless by
the events in several parts of Guadalcanal province had received urgently
needed non-food supplies including blankets, cooking utensils, clothing and
shelter material.

As part of the relief effort, four ICRC delegates working together with
staff and volunteers from the Solomon Islands Red Cross have assisted
displaced populations both east and west of the capital Honiara and are now
bringing aid to displaced persons in remote settlements along Guadalcanal's
"Weather Coast", notorious for its rough seas. Access to these areas became
possible only when the ICRC managed to charter a suitable oceangoing
vessel, the "Princess 2", which has for the past two weeks been
transporting the Red Cross teams and relief supplies.

An ICRC surgeon and a Red Cross nurse are on hand to treat the sick and
wounded in the hospital in Honiara and also in rural clinics, both in MEF-
and IFM-controlled areas. Patients who cannot be treated in the clinics or
who require major surgery are taken to the Honiara hospital. The demands of
the conflict have caused a shortage of qualified medical personnel: apart
from the ICRC surgeon, only two trainee doctors are available for surgery
at the hospital. Moreover, the rural clinics have been cut off from their
usual sources of medical supplies since the beginning of the conflict and
now depend entirely on the ICRC for basic medicines.

Further information: Thomas Gurtner, ICRC Manila, tel. ++632 892 89 01
Corinne Adam, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 22 24


Sri Lanka
Mortal remains returned

On Wednesday 6 September, the ICRC acted as a neutral intermediary in the
transfer of the mortal remains of 36 combatants of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) killed in the latest round of fighting between the LTTE
and Sri Lankan government forces in the Jaffna peninsula. The bodies were
handed over to the ICRC by the Sri Lankan Army at Neerveli in Jaffna, from
where they were transferred to the LTTE in the peninsula. 

As it does in other countries, the ICRC in Sri Lanka uses its neutral
status to return the mortal remains of combatants and civilians whenever
asked to do so by the parties concerned. In Sri Lanka this year it has so
far transferred the remains of 203 Army personnel and 82 members of the
LTTE.

The ICRC has been present since 1989 in Sri Lanka, where it currently has
48 expatriates and 300 Sri Lankan staff based at its delegation in Colombo
and in its 11 offices in the north and east of the country.

Further information: Harasha Gunawardene, ICRC Colombo, tel. ++941 722 35
905
Corinne Adam, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 22 24


For any information you may need on Thursday 7 September (holiday) please
call Fracoise Derron, duty press officer, on:
41 79 217 32 03 (mobile)
and
the weekend of 9-10 September please call Amanda Williamson, duty press
officer, on: 41 79 217 32 16 (mobile)