ICRC News 45 / 15-Nov-01


** SHORT MENU....

Afghanistan
ICRC staff continue to aid Kabul residents
The ICRC's 500 Afghan staff in Kabul have continued their work in the past
weeks without interruption and without regard to what group is in control
of the city. Since the city changed hands on 13 November, as before, they
have ensured that bodies have been collected and buried, and that
hospitals and other health facilities have received adequate medical
supplies.

Kenya
Vehicles dispatched to support operations in Afghanistan

A convoy of five trucks and 10 four-wheel-drive vehicles left the ICRC's
Nairobi logistics centre on 13 November en route to Pakistan. The
vehicles, worth some US$ 750,000, are due to be shipped out of Mombasa for
Karachi on Friday. ICRC Nairobi is also preparing a shipment of medical
supplies for more than 1,000 hospitalized victims of war wounds in
Afghanistan.

Nigeria
Red Cross aids thousands of displaced people
In cooperation with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, the ICRC began on 12
November to distribute blankets, mats, buckets, soap, and food aid to over
25,000 displaced people. The recipients had fled their homes in October
following violent clashes between militias of two rival communities and
reprisals carried out by the army after 19 soldiers were killed.

Morocco / Western Sahara
ICRC speaks to men reported missing
by the Polisario Front
An ICRC delegate was in Laayoune from 2 to 6 November to meet 24 former
Polisario Front fighters for whom tracing requests had been submitted. One
of these was seen on 7November in a place of detention near Casablanca.

Algeria
Vital assistance for flood victims
The Algerian Red Crescent (ARC) has set up two aid centres in Algiers
(one in Bab el Oued and another in Oued el Koureich) to assist some 1,000
people affected by the dramatic recent floods.

Yugoslavia/Kosovo
Humanitarian agencies sign agreement on unaccompanied children
On 9 November the missions in Kosovo of the ICRC, the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), and Save the Children in Kosovo signed a "Joint statement by the
main humanitarian organizations working in Kosovo with children
unaccompanied or separated from their parents".


** STORIES IN FULL...

Afghanistan
ICRC staff continue to aid Kabul residents

The ICRC's 500 Afghan staff in Kabul have continued their work in the past
weeks without interruption and without regard to what group is in control
of the city. Since the city changed hands on 13 November, as before, they
have ensured that bodies have been collected and buried, and that
hospitals and other health facilities have received adequate medical
supplies.

In the first two weeks of November, the ICRC restored a direct supply of
safe drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people in Kabul. In one
project, the ICRC's Afghan engineers and technical staff replaced about
nine metres of a bomb-damaged water main, which was part of a distribution
system that brought drinking water from bore holes on the outskirts of the
city to some 300,000 residents.

ICRC water and sanitation crews also repaired a system bringing drinking
water to a large apartment complex in the city housing about 7,000
families. In another emergency repair, they reconnected bore-hole pumps to
generators, making clean drinking water available again to approximately
40,000 people living in a major compound. Many of those in the compound
had been living there temporarily after being forced to leave their homes
over the past two years.

Another urgent project involved the replacement of relays and switches in
a transformer station, which enabled electricity and water to be restored
to one of the city's hospitals and the surrounding residential
neighbourhood housing over 15,000 people. The hospital's water and sewage
systems operate on electric power, as do its sterilization equipment,
kitchen ovens, heating, the emergency block and blood-bank equipment.

"The work of our staff in Kabul over the past weeks bears witness to their
courage and determination," said Pascal Jansen, the ICRC's water and
habitation coordinator for Afghanistan. "Keeping vital infrastructure up
and running for all hospital facilities in the city was clearly a priority
for us," he added.

>From mid-September through mid-November, ICRC staff also distributed food
and other vital supplies such as blankets and tarpaulins for temporary
shelter. The ICRC's prosthetic/orthotic centre in Kabul, one of six that
it operates in Afghanistan, has also continued operations uninterrupted.

An interview with Bernard Barrett, ICRC press officer in Islamabad, is
available on the organization's Website
http://www.icrc.org/eng/afghanistan

Further information: Bernard Barrett, ICRC Islamabad, tel. ++92 303 786 19
70,
Macarena Aguilar, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 21 01


Kenya
Vehicles dispatched to support operations in Afghanistan

A convoy of five trucks and 10 four-wheel-drive vehicles left the ICRC's
Nairobi logistics centre on 13 November en route to Pakistan. The
vehicles, worth some US$ 750,000, are due to be shipped out of Mombasa for
Karachi on Friday. ICRC Nairobi is also preparing a shipment of medical
supplies for more than 1,000 hospitalized victims of war wounds in
Afghanistan. Medicines and other supplies worth about US$ 82,000 will be
flown to countries bordering Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Support from the Nairobi logistics centre is increasingly important for
the organization's relief operations in Central Asia. The ICRC is
currently in a position to assist 540,000 Afghans with three-month food
rations and 60,000 people with shelter materials. Sufficient supplies are
also available to cover the basic health-care needs of 140,000 people for
more than three months. Throughout the conflict the ICRC has been able to
provide limited support to some 25 hospitals in Afghanistan while its
staff have continued to treat patients in six limb-fitting and
rehabilitation centres.

The Nairobi logistics centre - the largest ICRC structure of its kind in
the world - provided the Afghanistan relief operation with about US$
700,000 worth of relief supplies in October. Included in that shipment
were 40,000 blankets made and purchased in Kenya. The logistics support
for Afghanistan will not affect continuing ICRC work in many parts of
Africa itself.

Further information:
Florian Westphal / Jessica Musila, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++254 2 728 387;
++254 72 512 728


Nigeria
Red Cross aids thousands of displaced people

In cooperation with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, the ICRC began on 12
November to distribute blankets, mats, buckets, soap, and food aid to over
25,000 displaced people. The recipients had fled their homes in October
following violent clashes between militias of two rival communities and
reprisals carried out by the army after 19 soldiers were killed. Some
17,000 displaced people are now in nine camps in the eastern state of
Taraba; 8,000 others are in seven camps in Benue, also in the east of the
country.

According to the National Red Cross Society, the hostilities between
members of the Tiv and Jukun communities and the army operation together
resulted in 200 casualties and 40,000 people being displaced. The Nigerian
Red Cross carried out assessments in the regions affected by violence in
order to identify the needs of the people who fled their villages. Its
next step will be to distribute food to between 25,000 and 35,000 people,
once it has determined more precisely the number of people requiring it.
The food aid will consist of 10 kg of rice, 5 kg of dry beans, 500 g of
salt and one litre of cooking oil per family. The operation will take a
certain amount of time because of bad road conditions, which have made
access difficult to certain camps where displaced people are living.

Further information: Jean-Jacques Gacond, ICRC Lagos,
tel. ++2341 269 18 81


Morocco / Western Sahara
ICRC speaks to men reported missing
by the Polisario Front

An ICRC delegate was in Laayoune from 2 to 6 November to meet 24 former
Polisario Front fighters for whom tracing requests had been submitted. One
of these was seen on 7November in a place of detention near Casablanca.
With the exception of one man who was in Mauritania at the time of the
visit (and was represented by his wife), all were able to speak to the
ICRC delegate in private and be photographed with him as proof for the
families that the cases had been resolved.

The persons concerned agreed to information regarding them being forwarded
to the Polisario Front, which had reinitiated the tracing process when 201
Moroccan prisoners were freed on 14 December 2000. A list of 179 missing
former Polisario combatants was handed to ICRC President Jakob
Kellenberger on that occasion.

After the ICRC delegate's visit, the fate of over 150 former Polisario
Front fighters remains unknown. All were reported missing between 1975 and
1991. In addition, over 800 members of the Moroccan armed forces are still
being sought and 1,479 Moroccans captured between 1975 and 1991 are still
being held in camps near Tindouf, Algeria.

Further information: Vincent Lusser, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 41 22 730 24 56


Algeria
Vital assistance for flood victims

The Algerian Red Crescent (ARC) has set up two aid centres in Algiers (one
in Bab el Oued and another in Oued el Koureich) to assist some 1,000
people affected by the dramatic recent floods. The ARC is also working in
areas where no other assistance is currently available, particularly in
Tipaza, west of the capital, where it is helping 1,000 families - some
6,000 people.

The Algerian Red Crescent centres are serving hot meals and distributing
cooking utensils, blankets, tents and warm clothing. The organization has
also set up a network to distribute aid from Algerian and foreign donors.

In addition to providing material assistance, the ARC has set up
counselling facilities in its aid centres, offering psychological support
to people traumatized by the disaster.

The ICRC had earlier ordered 2,000 blankets and 240 first-aid kits for the
ARC as part of a programme to support first-aid work. These supplies
reached Algiers on 6 November and are being made available to the flood
victims.

The ICRC has sent two satellite phones to Algiers following the collapse
of the telephone system and is otherwise helping the National Society to
put people separated from their loved ones back in touch. As a result,
people on both sides of the Mediterranean have been able to contact their
relatives.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies sent
a team to Algiers on 13 November to support the ARC's efforts to help the
flood victims. In particular, the Federation will provide tents, blankets,
cots, hygiene kits and electric generators. ARC volunteers will be hard at
work over the coming days and weeks helping thousands of people in the
worst-affected regions.

Further information: Mamadou Sy, ICRC Tunis, tel. ++ 216 1 960 179 or ++
216 9 36 10 06


Yugoslavia/Kosovo
Humanitarian agencies sign agreement on unaccompanied children

On 9 November the missions in Kosovo of the ICRC, the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), and Save the Children in Kosovo signed a "Joint
statement by the main humanitarian organizations working in Kosovo with
children unaccompanied or separated from their parents".

This is the culmination of a process of coordination and consultation
between these organizations on the care and protection of unaccompanied or
separated children. The document reflects a common understanding that such
children are among the most vulnerable when there is displacement of the
civilian population, and that particular attention must be given to their
plight.

To this end, the ICRC, UNICEF, UNHCR and Save the Children in Kosovo have
agreed upon a set of guiding principles and practical working procedures.
Agreement was also reached on the coordination of efforts to identify,
register and trace such children and their parents or other close
relatives. The document states that the best interests of the child must
be the basic consideration guiding decisions and activities relating to
unaccompanied or separated children, and that reunification with their
parents, other close relatives or legal or customary care-givers is the
ultimate goal.

The relevant authorities of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
were invited to cooperate in the identification of unaccompanied or
separated children.

Further information: Nada Doumani, ICRC Pristina, tel. ++381 38 228 400 /
++381 38 501 519


The ICRC is pleased to announce that the global report and all the country
reports from its 1998-1999 People on War project can now be consulted on
the following website:
Http://www.icrc.org/eng/onwar_reports

The People on War project, a global opinion survey, was launched to mark
the 50th anniversary of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The ICRC commissioned
Greenberg Research Inc. to find out how thousands of war victims,
combatants and humanitarian workers throughout the world viewed war and
what limits they thought could be imposed on armed conflict today. The
survey was conducted on hills held by guerillas, in lonely deserts, prison
cells and neglected shantytowns, under pouring rain, in deep snow and in
air-conditioned offices. Hundreds of National Society volunteers helped
collect the data through interviews, discussions and focus groups.

Available on the new website are reports on Afghanistan,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, El Salvador, Georgia-Abkhazia,
Israel and the occupied/autonomous territories, Lebanon, Nigeria, the
Philippines, the Russian Federation, Somalia and South Africa and also a
comparative report on France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

For more information about the People on War project,
please contact Ms Bea Vanhove (tel. ++ 41 22 730 2061).


During the weekend of 17 - 18 November 2001, for all information please
call the press officer on duty Juan Martinez, on (mobile) 41 79 217 32 17