ICRC News 43 / 30.10.96
GREAT LAKES REGION ASSISTANCE IN GOMA
Following the evacuation of its remaining delegates from Bukavu on 28 October, the ICRC is now concentrating its activities in the Goma area. At the new Mugunga II camp, where some 200,000 Rwandan refugees have arrived from the Kibumba camp further north, it has set up a meeting point to restore contact between members of families split up in the confusion. The names of persons being sought are called out over megaphones by local employees walking through the camp. Once again, hundreds of small children have become separated from their parents. The ICRC has also installed a health centre in the new camp.
In Kanyaruchina, a few kilometres north of Goma, material assistance (blankets, soap, kitchen utensils, jerrycans) has been provided to more than 12,000 displaced Zairians forced to flee their homes when fighting broke out near the Kibumba camp.
Further information: Rolin Wavre, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2876 Josui Anselmo, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++ 25 42 716 339
TRIBUTE TO ZAIRIAN RED CROSS VOLUNTEERS
Anarchy, chaos and terror have taken hold of Bukavu, forcing UNHCR and most other humanitarian organizations to start withdrawing their staff on 26 October.
Expatriates working for the ICRC and for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies attempted at first to pursue their humanitarian activities alone, but on 28 October, in the face of insurmountable difficulties, they also left the city. Some 300,000 Rwandan refugees and thousands of displaced Zairians are now abandoned to their own fate. In Bukavu, armed groups are fighting over whatever goods can still be found. In the midst of this horror, volunteers from the Red Cross Society of Zaire are showing admirable courage and determination. Every morning, wearing Red Cross tabards and protective gloves and masks, they bury dozens of men, women and children killed during the night throughout the city, risking their own lives to ward off epidemics.
Further information: Josui Anselmo, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++25 42 716 339
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA OVER 15,000 TRACING REQUESTS
With the number of tracing requests collected by the ICRC having now reached a total of some 15,700, the search for people missing in connection with the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina has taken on new proportions. The ICRC has so far been able to provide information on 985 people, only a small number of whom have been found alive.
This burning humanitarian issue is regularly discussed by the Working Group on Missing Persons which meets once a month in Sarajevo and is chaired by the ICRC. The group's task is to obtain information on those missing from high-level representatives of the former warring parties.
Last June the ICRC launched a regional public information campaign to help trace missing people and provide their families with definite answers regarding their fate. As part of the campaign, it has issued two editions of a publication containing the names of those missing, other personal data and details on the circumstances in which they disappeared. Leaflets, posters and television spots are also being used.
Further information: Corinne Adam, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2608 Nina Winquist, ICRC Sarajevo, tel. ++ 38 772 656 835
SRI LANKA ACTIVE NEUTRALITY
The ICRC sub-delegation in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, acted as a neutral intermediary in the release, on 23 October, of three groups of Sri Lankan fishermen whose boats had been boarded in mid-October by naval units of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The fishermen had been detained and their belongings confiscated.
Having first secured permission in principle from the Sri Lankan authorities and the LTTE, ICRC delegates accompanied the fishermen back to their families. The ICRC took part in a similar operation last July.
On 21 October, LTTE representatives in the same region contacted ICRC delegates and asked them to hand over to government authorities the bodies of two soldiers killed in recent fighting. The ICRC, which has been working in Sri Lanka since 1989, is regularly asked to facilitate such operations in its capacity as a neutral intermediary recognized by all the parties to the conflict.
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2906 Krishanti Weerakoon, ICRC Colombo, tel. ++941 508 404
PHILIPPINES RELIEF IN THE SOUTH
On 24 October, 682 displaced families on the island of Mindanao (southern Philippines) received food and other aid as part of a joint ICRC-Philippine National Red Cross operation. The families, forced from their homes by an upsurge of fighting between government troops and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forces in Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces, have found temporary refuge near Cotabato City. An estimated 863 more displaced families in four other areas are soon to be given similar assistance.
The fighting in central Mindanao appears to have taken a turn for the worse in recent days, reportedly claiming numerous civilian and military casualties. The ICRC has been asked to provide medicines to help meet the needs in this area.
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2906
INDIA WAR IN THE MEDIA
Intended as a pilot project for the ICRC's New Delhi delegation, a two-day seminar (26-27 October) on "Humanitarian Reporting of Armed Conflict" turned out to be a truly unique experience: it marked the first time in the region that journalists, army officers and aid personnel came together to discuss humanitarian issues relating to armed conflicts.
The seminar emphasized the difficulties faced by humanitarian organizations working in today's unstructured conflicts and the increasing pressure placed on them to provide information in the absence of more traditional sources. For the ICRC, the primary aim of good working relations with the media is to facilitate its activities for war victims.
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2906 Savita Naqvi, ICRC New Delhi, tel. ++ 91 11 463 17 23
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update on ICRC activities in Zaire, dated 22.10.96
During the week-end of 2-3 November 1996, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Kim Gordon-Bates, on (mobile) 41 79 357 50 03