ICRC News 05 / 08-Feb-01


** SHORT MENU....

Guinea: ICRC aids thousands of displaced
The ICRC has provided food and other assistance to over 53,000 of the
70,000 Guinean displaced persons registered by the organization in recent
weeks.

Afghanistan: ICRC helps Afghans survive harsh winter
Following the extremely cold weather that struck the north-western region
of Herat last week, the ICRC has distributed 240 tonnes of firewood to some
40,000 internally displaced persons facing a daily struggle to survive the
exceptionally harsh winter.

UGANDA-ZIMBABWE: ICRC repatriates Zimbabwean POW from Uganda
A Zimbabwean prisoner of war (POW) was repatriated from Kampala, Uganda, on
8February 2001 under the auspices of the ICRC, acting in its capacity as a
neutral intermediary as defined by the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and
their 1977 Additional Protocols.

Tanzania / Kenya: Helping victims of Zanzibar violence
After four days of political clashes on the Tanzanian islands of Zanzibar
and Pemba, between 25 and 28 January, local health-care authorities
reported more than 30 persons killed and many injured.

Sierra Leone: ICRC visits detainees 
In keeping with its internationally recognized mandate, the ICRC has begun
visiting detainees in Sierra Leone, following an agreement between the
government and the organization signed on the 19 December 2000.

Yugoslavia: Families of Kosovo missing can consult new Book of Belongings
On 6 February 2001 the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) and the ICRC announced a new joint initiative in their efforts to
ascertain the fate of persons reported missing in connection with the
ethnic violence and the conflict in Kosovo.

New weapons and the law 
The ICRC has held a meeting of experts to discuss the means used to wage
war. Gathering in Jongny-sur-Vevey, Switzerland from 29 to 31 January, they
addressed the issue of how governments could best implement their
international obligation to review the legality of arms which they intend
to develop, manufacture, acquire or deploy.


** STORIES IN FULL...

Guinea
ICRC aids thousands of displaced

The ICRC has provided food and other assistance to over 53,000 of the
70,000 Guinean displaced persons registered by the organization in recent
weeks. The people affected come mainly from the areas near the Sierra
Leonean and Liberian borders, where fighting is taking place between the
Guinean army and various armed opposition groups. Most of the displaced are
staying with host families in the country's interior.

Working with the Red Cross Society of Guinea, the ICRC started its
programme of aid distribution at the end of January, assisting over 7,000
people in Dabola (Faranah prefecture) and Beyla (Nzérékoré prefecture). In
addition, food and soap were distributed to 6,800 people in Dinguiraye
(Faranah prefecture). The ICRC is helping almost 20,000 people who have
taken refuge in Kissidougou (Faranah prefecture) and the surrounding
countryside. The organization has also provided food aid to over 12,400
displaced persons in Kouroussa (Kankan prefecture) and nearly 6,300 in
Nzérékoré, in the south-east of the country.

The number of displaced persons is still increasing, with civilians
continuing to evacuate villages in the combat zones. The ICRC is
registering newly displaced people and plans to distribute further aid in
the next few days. A system is being set up to restore ties between family
members separated by the conflict. The staff involved will be concentrating
on conveying Red Cross messages between members of scattered families and
reuniting parents separated from their children.

The ICRC delegation in Guinea has become fully operational this year. The
delegation headquarters is in Conakry, with offices in Kissidougou and
Nzérékoré, and two more scheduled to open shortly in Kankan and Kindia. The
organization currently has 15 expatriates in Guinea. The number will
eventually rise to 25. Aiding displaced people will remain one of the
ICRC's top priorities.

Further information: Juan Martinez, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 41 22 730 22 81


Afghanistan
ICRC helps Afghans survive harsh winter

Following the extremely cold weather that struck the north-western region
of Herat last week, the ICRC has distributed 240 tonnes of firewood to some
40,000 internally displaced persons facing a daily struggle to survive the
exceptionally harsh winter. Early this week, a 25-truck convoy reached
Maslagh camp, 20 km from the Iranian border. With support from Afghan Red
Crescent Society volunteers, ICRC delegates delivered the wood to protect
the camp residents from temperatures that regularly plummet to minus 25
degrees centigrade.

"The families will now have enough to heat and cook for the next three
weeks," said Christoph Luedi, the organization's deputy head of operations
for Central and South Asia. "This cold snap has had harrowing consequences.
We will do what we can to ensure that people get through the difficult
weeks that lie ahead."

Most of the families fled to the camp as a result of the severe drought
that affected central Afghanistan last year. Between July and October 2000,
the ICRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies and the Afghan Red Crescent itself provided people arriving at
the camp with tents, blankets and other shelter material as well as food
rations.

Since then, the ICRC has distributed an additional 1,700 tents for newly
arriving families together with the Afghan Ministry of Martyrs and Refugees
as well as other international and local organizations working in camps in
the region.

In the autumn of 2000, a large-scale food and non-food distribution was
carried out jointly with the World Food Programme for 28,000 families in
the Chaghcharan district of central Afghanistan's Ghor province. Clothes
were also distributed to 7,000 families by the International Federation.

During the coming spring, the ICRC will assist thousands of
drought-affected families by providing them with sorely needed wheat,
chickpea and vegetables seeds. Food will also be distributed to ensure
survival until the first harvest.

Further information: Macarena Aguilar, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 41 22 730 21 01

Mario Musa, ICRC Kabul, tel. ++ 873 761 242 260


UGANDA-ZIMBABWE
ICRC repatriates Zimbabwean POW from Uganda

A Zimbabwean prisoner of war (POW) was repatriated from Kampala, Uganda, on
8February 2001 under the auspices of the ICRC, acting in its capacity as a
neutral intermediary as defined by the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and
their 1977 Additional Protocols.

The POW, accompanied by an ICRC delegate, left Kampala on a commercial
flight and was handed over to his country's authorities at Harare
international airport.

The Zimbabwean had been registered and regularly visited by the ICRC during
his captivity. A major feature of these visits was that they enabled him to
maintain contact with his family by writing messages which were delivered
by the Red Cross network.

The ICRC welcomes this repatriation and will continue to offer its services
to all parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in
order to promote compliance with the provisions of international
humanitarian law.

Further information: Dominique Mathieu, ICRC Harare, tel. ++2634 790 268


Tanzania / Kenya
Helping victims of Zanzibar violence

After four days of political clashes on the Tanzanian islands of Zanzibar
and Pemba, between 25 and 28 January, local health-care authorities
reported more than 30 persons killed and many injured. The Red Cross
Societies of Tanzania and Kenya, together with the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the ICRC have been aiding the
victims in both countries, hundreds having fled to Kenya.

On Pemba, where most of the clashes occurred, the ICRC has provided 1.7
tonnes of medical supplies to the Ministry of Health for use in the three
hospitals. First-aid kits and stretchers have been distributed to the Red
Cross workers to assist injured people who have refused to go to hospital
for fear of being arrested.

As a result of the violence and the flight of refugees to Kenya, many
people have lost track of loved ones. The first Red Cross Messages have now
been collected from refugees and will be distributed in the coming days to
anxious relatives on the islands.

In the Kenyan coastal village of Shimoni, over 500 refugees from Pemba were
provided with tents, tarpaulins and blankets by the Kenyan Red Cross
Society while the ICRC supplied a one-week food ration (1.5 kg of peas, 1.4
kg of maize, and half a litre of vegetable oil per person) and cooking
utensils.

Injured people arriving in Shimoni were taken to the nearest hospital, in
Msambweni 15 km away, which has received a surgical kit and two dressing
kits from the ICRC.

Further information: Michael Kleiner, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++254 2 728 387
cell: ++254 72 512 728


Sierra Leone 
ICRC visits detainees 

In keeping with its internationally recognized mandate, the ICRC has begun
visiting detainees in Sierra Leone, following an agreement between the
government and the organization signed on the 19 December 2000.

At the end of January, five delegates, including a medical doctor, carried
out an initial three-day visit to Pademba Road Prison in Freetown. It was
conducted in accordance with the ICRC's standard working procedures.

The ICRC's visits to places of detention are purely humanitarian in nature;
they focus on the conditions of detention. The organization observes strict
confidentiality regarding its findings, which it communicates exclusively
to the authorities responsible.
 
Further information: Florian Westphal, ICRC Freetown, tel. ++232 22 230 954


Yugoslavia
Families of Kosovo missing can consult new Book of Belongings

On 6 February 2001 the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) and the ICRC announced a new joint initiative in their efforts to
ascertain the fate of persons reported missing in connection with the
ethnic violence and the conflict in Kosovo. The OSCE has published a "Book
of Belongings" for Kosovo, containing 750 photos of clothing and personal
effects that were found on some 200 bodies recovered during the year 2000.
The ICRC is in charge of making the book available to the families of
missing, in Kosovo and also in Serbia and Montenegro. According to ICRC
data, 3,587 persons from Kosovo of all ethnic origins remained unaccounted
for in January 2001.

The ICRC published the first "Book of Belongings" in Bosnia-Herzegovina
last year. Families have recognized items belonging to over 80 missing
persons so far, allowing formal identification to begin. These books
supplement other efforts to trace the missing and identify mortal remains.
The ICRC tracing service collects requests from families of missing
persons, submits the lists to the relevant authorities and matches them
with details received from other sources of information. In Kosovo, this
process has made it possible to put 1,206 individuals in contact with their
families, including 941 prisoners visited by the ICRC.

The main potential source of information remains the local authorities or
armed groups, who are ultimately responsible for elucidating the fate of
the missing. Unfortunately, as time goes by it becomes less and less likely
that any further survivors will be found. Identifying exhumed bodies is
also a daunting challenge, given the means available: in Kosovo alone,
there are still around 600 exhumed bodies waiting to be identified. "The
issue of missing persons is perhaps the most painful legacy of past
conflicts for the population of the Balkans", said Andreas Wigger, head of
ICRC operations in the Balkans at the ICRC's Geneva headquarters. "For the
ICRC this is an absolute priority and we believe there can be no return to
peace and stability as long as families do not know what happened to their
loved ones". 

Further information: Vincent Lusser, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2458


New weapons and the law 

The ICRC has held a meeting of experts to discuss the means used to wage
war. Gathering in Jongny-sur-Vevey, Switzerland from 29 to 31 January, they
addressed the issue of how governments could best implement their
international obligation to review the legality of arms which they intend
to develop, manufacture, acquire or deploy.

"Only a limited number of States worldwide have procedures for ensuring
that the weapons they develop or acquire comply with international
humanitarian law," said Peter Herby, coordinator of the ICRC Mines-Arms
Unit. The States party to the Geneva Conventions and to their Additional
Protocols have an obligation to adopt internal procedures to determine
whether a weapon or other means or method of warfare which they wish to
acquire would be prohibited by the law, he said. "It is important that
governments take into account a number of factors, including the effects on
human health of the weapons being considered."

The 50 governmental experts were joined by representatives of the Red Cross
Societies of Australia, Denmark and Norway as well as the ICRC itself. They
stressed the importance of promoting and implementing procedures to review
the legality of weapons and of adopting a rigorous and multidisciplinary
approach to such reviews. It was agreed that particularly stringent
measures are needed regarding weapons that cause injuries about which
little is known and for which treatment may be difficult or even
impossible.

Further information: Lena Eskeland, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 41 22 730 24 88


During the weekend of 10 -11 February 2001, for all information please call
the press officer on duty Amanda Williamson, on (mobile) 41 79 217 32 16