ICRC NEWS 37SWITZERLAND WAS THE ICRC INFILTRATED BY NAZIS?
In early August, documents found in the files of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and dating back to the end of the Second World War began to circulate. Some of the allegations they contained were reported by the press; the impression was given that the ICRC had been infiltrated by agents on the Nazi payroll.
These allegations are extremely serious and the ICRC is investigating them with the utmost care. Its archival staff immediately began to look for any record of the persons or acts mentioned. Their research has enabled a dossier to be compiled, which is available from the ICRC's Press Division.
In brief, the initial findings are as follows. Of the 21 people who were purportedly ICRC representatives, according to the US documents, only 16 actually did work for the ICRC. In several cases, ICRC delegates were labelled as "enemy agents" and accused of espionage simply because the US agent had no idea whatsoever of the ICRC's mandate; he was surprised, for instance, that an ICRC delegate passed on technical details about a ship, the SS Canada. The ICRC had, however, received the information from the French government in exile and been requested by it to notify the German authorities that the vessel was being put into service as a hospital ship; the notification was sent in accordance with the Hague Convention No. X.
Similarly, the US agent accused an ICRC delegate of communicating the names and addresses of two prisoners of war. Yet this was normal ICRC practice: the ICRC communicated information about millions of prisoners of war to their States of origin and their relatives.
As yet the ICRC cannot certify that there were no Nazi (or other!) agents in its ranks during the Second World War. It is nevertheless quite clear that the OSS agent misinterpreted activities carried out entirely openly and with the consent or at the request of the Allies, and qualified them wrongly as espionage. The ICRC will contact the team of US research workers currently sifting through the OSS files and give them its replies to these allegations, which must be clarified.
Further information: Kim Gordon-Bates, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2302
NORTHERN IRAQ VISITS TO DETAINEES
Since 16 August, about 800 people captured during recent clashes in northern Iraq between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have been visited and registered by the ICRC. Teams of delegates based in Dohuk, Arbil and Sulaymaniyah are stepping up their rounds to have access to all detainees and to keep a check on their welfare. When the ICRC receives information that a detainee has been released, the family is contacted to verify it.
ICRC delegates have also made several visits to hospitals in the region and to areas near the Iranian border to assess the needs of displaced persons, in particular for medical care. Ad hoc medical aid has been given to the most vulnerable among them.
An ICRC convoy arrived in Sulaymaniyah from Baghdad at the end of last week to set up contingency stocks sufficient for 6,000 people (blankets, tents, cooking sets, tarpaulins and soap). At a time when several other organizations have had to suspend their operations, the ICRC has increased its delegation in northern Iraq; it now has 16 expatriates working there, together with about a hundred local employees
Further information: Rolin Wavre, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2876.
AFGHANISTAN ICRC CALLS ON ALL PARTIES TO PROTECT CIVILIANS
The military developments in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan in recent days have once again taken a heavy toll among the civilian population. According to media reports, 12 civilians were killed during air raids on the provincial capital Jalalabad and about 50 were wounded, including more than a dozen children. ICRC personnel helped to evacuate the wounded to the Jalalabad Public Hospital, the main surgical facility there.
To avert further such casualties as far as possible, the ICRC in Afghanistan appeals to all warring parties to respect and protect civilians and to refrain from inflicting suffering upon the civilian population through indiscrimate attacks.
Besides the air raids of 14 and 15 September on Jalalabad, shelling of residential areas of the capital Kabul over the past year has also regularly caused a very high number of civilian casualties. On two occasions in June this year alone, a total of 84 civilians were killed and 200 more were injured.
After the latest changes of territorial control in the east of the country, the ICRC immediately approached the competent authorities on all sides and obtained the necessary assurances that it could continue its humanitarian work in the region, i.e. evacuate the wounded, provide medical aid for the surgical hospital in Jalalabad, care for and rehabilitate amputee victims of mines and unexploded munitions, protect people detained by all parties to the conflict and assist internally displaced persons.
In Kabul, the ICRC continues to provide food and other essential items to some 30,000 particularly vulnerable families whose breadwinners have been killed or disabled. To maintain this assistance, as well as support for the surgical facilities, continuously open supply routes to the capital are vital.
Further information: Jean-Luc Paladini, ICRC Kabul, tel. ++ 873 382 280 131 Peter Iseli, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2086
TAJIKISTAN ICRC ASSISTANCE GETS THROUGH
on Friday 13 September, ICRC delegates managed to get emergency relief supplies through to the civilian population of Tavildara. They reported that the town, which has once again come under government control, has been very seriously damaged and that the fighting between government and opposition forces has left the few remaining inhabitants - most of the 6,500 had already fled the clashes of recent months - completely destitute.
The relief convoy was the first to reach Tavildara for the past five months. The delegates immediately distributed food, blankets, mattresses and medicines to the approximately 230 people who had stayed on there, including 26 psychiatric patients.
Fighting continues with ever-increasing intensity in the Garm valley and the number of casualties needing treatment is rising steadily. A tonne of medicines and other emergency medical supplies, delivered by a second team of ICRC delegates on 13 September, has been distributed to hospitals in the towns of Garm and Komsomolabad.
Since 6 September, opposition forces have taken control of the town of Dzhirgatal', in the upper Garm valley, and of Tajikabad, the last town before Garm.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
STOP PRESS....
TRIBUTE TO ICRC'S WORK FOR MINE VICTIMS
The ICRC has been awarded a prize of one million Swiss francs by the Italian-Swiss Balzane Foundation based in Milan (Italy).
This award will enable the humanitarian organization to increase its urgently needed assistance to thousands of people injured every year by the 10 million anti-personnel mines sown in war-torn Afghanistan over the last decade. The ICRC is currently operating four prosthetic/orthotic centres there, in Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad. In 1995, it produced 4,268 artifical limbs and fitted 3,084 new patients, of whom 23.2% were children under the age of sixteen. In cooperation with the Afghan Red Crescent, the ICRC is also conducting large-scale mine-awareness programmes for communities living in mine-infested areas. Further information: Peter Iseli, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2086 Johanne Dorias-Slakmon, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2319
During the week-end of 21-22 September 1996, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Tony Burgener, on (mobile) 41 79 202 36 70