ICRC News / 12.02.97
TAJIKISTAN CONCERN OVER HOSTAGES
With the hostage crisis in its ninth day, the ICRC is deeply concerned about the 14 people still held in captivity following the release of two ICRC staff last Friday.
ICRC operations in Tajikistan are currently suspended. However, a small team has remained in the country and delegates in Dushanbe stand ready to deliver food and medicine to the hostages, and evacuate the sick if necessary. The ICRC welcomed the release yesterday of a sick hostage.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
CROATIA SURVIVING THE PEACE
Last week, in several Croatian villages near the former front lines, the ICRC launched the third phase of its first-ever campaign to raise awareness of mines among affected populations. Since the beginning of the campaign in the country, the aim has been to reduce the danger presented by an estimated 3 million live mines and some 150,000 additional explosive devices that remain in the ground. Other hidden weapons and ammunition depots left behind following various offensives also constitute a serious problem.
This type of danger is especially acute in post-war periods, when people begin to cross former front lines and enter unmarked minefields, and when children at play discover abandoned weapons and ammunition. Over the past three years in Croatia, some 300 children have been killed by mines and more than 900 amputations have been performed on mine victims. In a country where unexploded devices from the Second World War are still being found, specialists believe that the problem will continue to exist for at least 20 more years.
The mine-awareness campaign in Croatia is being conducted with the help of volunteers from the Croatian Red Cross, 83 of whom were trained by an ICRC mine expert during the second phase of the project. During the current phase, these trained volunteers will run seminars in their communities. Moreover, in order to reach as many people as possible, a new series of TV and radio spots and press advertisements is being launched, and posters are being printed and put up in schools and other public places.
Further information: Nela Sefic or Bruce Biber, ICRC Zagreb, tel. ++385 1611 2444 Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2281
AFGHANISTAN PROVIDING RELIEF FAR AND WIDE
Displaced, dispersed and cut off, the victims of the Afghan conflict seem more destitute than ever as winter advances. Recent fighting in Charikar and Jabal-Saraj to the north of Kabul has forced thousands of civilians to take to the snow-covered roads. Very often, they have little access to food or medical care. On 3 and 4 February, for the second time in six months, the ICRC had to fly emergency supplies to the few medical facilities that exist in the Panjshir valley. At the same time, it arranged for a convoy of donkeys to carry food, clothing and blankets to a group of 1,500 people trapped by snow on the north-western slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains. Like many other displaced civilians, the group had fled the front line at Salang, 80 kilometres north of Kabul, and was heading for the town of Pul-i-Khumri in Baghlan province.
>From Pul-i-Khumri, the ICRC is currently distributing food to some 6,000 people forced from their homes by the latest clashes between Taliban government forces and units of the opposition coalition. But as delegates conduct surveys in Baghlan province, other needs come to light. North of Salang, a group of 2,400 displaced civilians, half of whom are amputees, has been provided with food and firewood; in Dare Kayan, another group of 1,500 people, many of them children, is also receiving temporary assistance.
The ICRC undertakes individual operations such as these in addition to its regular distributions of food to the needy in Kabul (210,000 people) and to displaced civilians around the towns of Bamyan (4,600) and Ghazni (1,800) to the west and south-west of the capital, respectively. Moreover, the ICRC recently distributed one tonne of dates during Ramadan to 2,000 detainees to whom it has access throughout Afghanistan.
Further information: Jean-Luc Paladini, ICRC Kabul, tel. ++873 382 280 130 Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2906
During the week-end of 15 - 16 February 1997, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Rolin Wavre, on (mobile) 41 79 357 15 24