ICRC News 08 / 05.03.97
TAJIKISTAN ICRC BACK AT WORK
After a two-week suspension of operations during the hostage crisis, the ICRC started carrying out food distributions again last week for displaced persons in the Vanch Valley of Gorno-Badakhshan and in reception centres around Dushanbe. It has also resumed its nutritional and medical assistance for 5,500 prisoners.
At the same time, a team of delegates travelled to the mountainous region of Tavildara to assess the needs of people cut off from the outside world because of the harsh winter and suffering the effects of the fighting that took place in the autumn of 1996. The ICRC's relief programme in Tajikistan will cover the needs of some 30,000 people this year.
The delegates resumed their visits to hospitals treating the war-wounded in Dushanbe. In the town of Garm, where typhoid had broken out among patients coming from the capital, they quickly issued advice on preventive measures and provided assistance for the local hospital.
The ICRC currently has 39 expatriate delegates in Tajikistan. It also has about 240 locally recruited staff working at its delegation in Dushanbe and in its offices in Garm and Khorog.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/NORTHERN CAUCASUS ICRC IN CHECHNYA
After six of its delegates were murdered in Novye Atagi, the ICRC withdrew its expatriate staff from Chechnya, Daghestan and Ingushetia. Some aid programmes in the northern Caucasus are still under way, however, thanks to the ICRC's locally recruited staff and the local Red Cross.
Rehabilitation work has now been completed in surgical hospitals Nos. 4 and 9 and in the blood bank in Grozny. Steps have been taken to ensure that the main pumping station, which supplies drinking water for many of the city's inhabitants, remains in working order.
The ICRC has handed over all its stocks of medicines and other medical supplies to the Chechen Ministry of Health. As planned, the Ministry will distribute them as needed to health facilities under its responsibility.
The 18 community kitchens (14 in Grozny, three in Gudermes and one in Argun) are still in operation, providing more than 8,000 hot meals a day for the elderly and vulnerable individuals. The local Red Cross has delivered 3,000 food parcels, 1,500 sets of toiletries and 15 tonnes of flour to eight institutions (orphanages, homes for the blind, and so forth). In addition, 45 tonnes of flour, three tonnes of sugar, more than 3,500 tonnes of cooking oil and thousands of sets of winter clothing will be distributed to the inhabitants of villages in southern Chechnya affected by the conflict.
The ICRC is continuing to provide support for the social welfare programmes conducted by the local committees of the Russian Red Cross in Chechnya, Daghestan and Ingushetia, enabling nurses to give home care to elderly people and the disabled. In Daghestan, work to improve hygiene facilities in centres housing displaced persons has almost been completed.
Sessions on international humanitarian law for Russian federal troops based in the south of the Russian Federation are being organized out of Nalchik, in Kabardino-Balkaria.
ICRC representatives recently held talks with authorities at the highest level in both Chechnya and Ingushetia. Nothing new emerged regarding the investigation into the assassination of the six ICRC delegates. In view of the continuing insecurity, the ICRC cannot yet envisage the return of its expatriate staff, whether to conduct regular missions or on a permanent basis.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
ETHIOPIA NEW ICRC OFFICE IN THE SOUTH-EAST
Following several preparatory missions, a team composed of two water/sanitation engineers, a health delegate, an administrator and two field officers has now opened a new ICRC office in the town of Gode, in south-eastern Ethiopia. This part of the "Somali National Regional State" is suffering the effects of a potentially severe drought, and is also the scene of frequent population movements due to continuing tension on both sides of the border between Ethiopia and Somalia.
The team's tasks will include helping to rehabilitate wells in several woreda (districts), developing a programme to monitor the health of essential livestock, and introducing simple technology for tsetse control. After close study of the way in which the area's predominantly nomadic and tribal society functions, the ultimate aim will be to define medium- and long-term measures to support and strengthen traditional survival mechanisms.
The team was accompanied by the delegate in charge of the ICRC subdelegation in Harar, who had talks with representatives of the woreda administration and with the Ethiopian Defence Forces based in the area to secure acceptance of the ICRC's presence and to explain its working procedures.
Further information: Peter Iseli, ICRC Addis Ababa, tel. ++2511 51 83 66 Rolin Wavre, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2876
SOUTHERN AFRICA FOR AN ANTI-PERSONNEL LANDMINE FREE ZONE
Nine Red Cross Societies from the countries of southern Africa met in Maputo in the week of 24 February, at the invitation of the ICRC, to devise a regional strategy in the context of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's global campaign calling for an immediate ban on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines.
In a declaration adopted by the meeting, 12 National Red Cross Societies urged all countries in southern Africa to participate actively in the work of the Ottawa Group of pro-ban States; to support the early conclusion of an international treaty prohibiting the production, stockpiling, transfer and use of anti-personnel mines; to work towards the establishment of a zone totally free of anti-personnel landmines in southern Africa; and to adopt and implement national legal prohibitions on anti-personnel landmines.
The ICRC hopes that this declaration will encourage similar initiatives throughout the continent and worldwide. Recent decisions by South Africa and Mozambique to ban the use of anti-personnel mines are important moves towards a regional mine-free zone, and the ICRC urges other States to take similar action. The creation of such a zone in southern Africa will, however, also require active support from the international community in clearing mines already laid and in destroying remaining stockpiles of anti-personnel mines.
The ICRC and the National Red Cross Societies were in Maputo to participate in the Fourth International NGO Landmine Conference, held from 25 to 28 February. The Conference brought together more than 450 representatives of local and international NGOs, regional and donor governments, and media representatives from over 60 - mostly African - countries. The event focused on both the global landmine issue and the regional problem in southern Africa and was part of the "Agenda for Action" of the Ottawa Group of 50 States, which are committed to working together towards a ban on anti-personnel mines.
Further information: Johanne Dorais-Slakmon, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2319
GENEVA THE ICRC AND THE OSS ALLEGATIONS
Following allegations that appeared in the press last summer, calling into question the actions of some of its delegates during the Second World War, the ICRC resolved to shed full light on that period in its history. The working group set up for the purpose has just completed another stage in its investigation, and its conclusions are summarized in a document released to the press on 3 March. The allegations were based on a number of reports by agents of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of today's CIA, and suggested that ICRC delegates had been involved in activities that were inconsistent with the organization's humanitarian mandate.
Having made a thorough search of its archives and those of the Swiss Confederation, the ICRC can now firmly state that, among the 49 individuals whose names are quoted in the OSS documents, only 18 worked for the organization, and only three of those appear to have committed reprehensible acts. The first was involved in illicit currency dealings, while the other two were found guilty of espionage, apparently motivated by personal gain. In the first case only were the dealings conducted while the person was in the service of the ICRC; the affair ended with his resignation following an internal investigation. In the other two cases, the activities in question took place either before or after the individuals concerned were employed by the ICRC. All the other allegations stemmed from obvious misunderstanding of the ICRC's mandate and working procedures.
In view of the facts that have now come to light, it appears evident that during the Second World War only a small number of individuals fell prey to influences contrary to the humanitarian ideal. The report on the three cases is available from the ICRC on request.
Further information: Kim Gordon-Bates, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2302
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update 97/2 on ICRC activities in the Rwanda, dated 19.2.97 - Update 97/2 on ICRC activities in Zaire, dated 19.2.97
During the week-end of 8 - 9 March 1997, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Suzanne Berger, on (mobile) 41 79 202 42 00