ICRC News 13 / 09.04.97ALBANIA AID DELIVERIES CONTINUE DESPITE PREVAILING INSECURITY
ICRC assistance is continuing to focus on social welfare institutions such as hospitals, orphanages and homes for the elderly and disabled. Recent surveys carried out in central-eastern and south-eastern Albania yielded the same results as earlier assessments throughout the country: it is these institutions that are facing the most acute shortages, but the still highly volatile security situation makes it unsafe to stock large quantities of food.
The ICRC has therefore decided to carry out regular distributions of smaller amounts of food and medicines to allow them to function for one or two weeks without putting them at risk.
So far, the ICRC has delivered 15 tonnes of food and 14.5 tonnes of medical supplies to Albania. A further distribution of 20 tonnes of food to northern parts of the country is to take place before the end of the week. The ICRC has 15 expatriates working in Albania, including a delegate from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies who is attached to the ICRC delegation.
Further information: Amanda Williamson, ICRC Tirana, tel. ++ 355 42 33 151 Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2281
AFGHANISTAN FLOUR SHORTAGE AND NEW WAVE OF DISPLACED PERSONS
In Afghanistan the price of flour went up by 50% at the beginning of this month, creating further hardship for the country's war-weary population. The authorities in Pakistan, where flour is in short supply, have stopped exports to neighbouring Afghanistan. Afghan civilians, just emerging from the region's harsh winter and already suffering the effects of spiralling inflation and shortages of all sorts, are now facing a lack of bread, their staple diet. Last week the price of bread almost doubled, placing it out of reach of a large part of the population, especially the countless displaced people in the country.
The most vulnerable groups are the hardest hit. Among the 300,000 civilians receiving assistance from the ICRC and the Afghan Red Crescent in Kabul, 210,000 people (war widows, orphans and the disabled) fall within this category and are increasingly if not entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. Their numbers are swelled daily by new arrivals: 3,000 people driven from their homes in the Shamali area, 50 km north-east of Kabul, by the recent fighting have taken shelter in public buildings in the capital. Many of them are women with no family support whose only means of survival is what their children receive from begging. The ICRC is planning to help them by organizing the distribution of basic foodstuffs (rice, flour, beans), blankets and coal.
In the north-west of the country the influx of displaced people is reaching alarming proportions. In Herat, UNHCR estimates their number at 34,000. Among these, more than 18,000 civilians in the city and the surrounding area are now dependent on aid provided by the ICRC, which is thinking of transferring them gradually to a camp made up of tents. Continuing fighting in Badghis province has displaced 7,000 more people whom the ICRC is also assisting, mainly in the town of Qala-i-Now.
Further information: Jean-Luc Palandini, ICRC Kabul tel. ++873 382 28 0130
Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2906
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA REPAIRS COMPLETED AT SOKOLAC PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
Last week the Norwegian Red Cross (NORCROSS), operating under the auspices of the ICRC, completed six months of rehabilitation work on the 300-bed Sokolac Psychiatric Hospital, 35 km east of Pale in the Republika Srpska. The hospital, which is filled to capacity, is run by 150 staff and comprises 15 buildings covering an area of 20,000 square metres.
During the war no maintenance work at all was carried out. The hospital's windows were broken, the heating system was often out of order, and hygiene conditions were deplorable. In the winter of 1992-1993, 142 of the patients either died of starvation or froze to death. This prompted the ICRC to take action. Deeply concerned by the plight of people housed in psychiatric hospitals and institutions for the mentally and physically disabled, it began supplying them with food, hygiene products and medicines on an ad hoc basis, and was often the only agency to do so. It still maintains contact with these institutions today.
NORCROSS concentrated its efforts on the closed wards, where living conditions were most critical. Some of the patients there are permanent residents, having been in the hospital for more than 20 years. They have often been forgotten by their relatives or have no-one left to care for them. The building housing the central kitchen, the laundry service and the administrative offices was also repaired.
The Sokolac project reflects the ongoing commitment of the ICRC and donor Red Cross Societies to supporting social welfare institutions throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Further information: Nina Winquist-Galbe, ICRC Sarajevo, tel. ++387 71 652 407 Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2281
TAJIKISTAN ICRC ASSISTANCE IN TAVILDARA AREA
An ICRC team, now back in this region which passed into the hands of the Tajik opposition last December, is going to distribute food aid (flour and cooking oil) at the end of this week. The supplies are destined for about 20 villages in the Tavildara sub-district, comprising 2,300 people out of a population estimated at 4,000 before the hostilities.
Since the cease-fire agreed between the parties at the end of last year, displaced people have been gradually returning to their home villages, hoping to arrive in time for the planting season. The ICRC's objective is to cover the needs of the valley's population for the next three months, up to the summer harvest. The ICRC team is planning to extend its assistance operation from next week to villages in the Childara sub-district.
Five months have gone by since the ICRC last carried out aid distributions in the Tavildara area, which was hard hit by the fighting in 1996. Last autumn more than 40 tonnes of food, blankets and plastic sheeting were supplied.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
CROATIA FAMILY VISITS TO DETAINEES FROM EASTERN SLAVONIA
Last Saturday, as a result of an initiative taken by the ICRC, families living in the region of Eastern Slavonia, Srem and Baranja were able to pay a first visit to relatives detained in a prison in Pozega (Western Slavonia).
The ICRC began talks on the matter with the Croatian Ministries of Justice and the Interior some weeks ago. After all the necessary authorizations had been obtained, and thanks also to the support of UNTAES, four prisoners were eventually allowed to see their relatives after years of separation.
The families, from the towns of Beli Manastir and Vukovar, were taken in ICRC vehicles to the prison, where they were allowed to spend an hour and a half with their loved ones in the visitors' room. Emotion ran high, and eyes filled with tears as people embraced for the first time in up to five years.
This family visit was the first organized by the ICRC for detainees whose relatives live in the Eastern Slavonia region. The programme is to be extended to cover other detainees held in prisons throughout Croatia.
Further information: Nina Zeckovic, ICRC Zagreb, tel. ++ 385 1 611 24 44 Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2281
SOUTHERN AFRICA EXPERTS TO CONSIDER FUTURE OF LANDMINES
The ICRC is hosting a seminar of experts from countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Harare from 20 to 23 April 1997 to discuss the future of anti-personnel landmines in the region. The seminar, which is being held in cooperation with the Organization of African Unity and the government of Zimbabwe, will bring together senior officials from Ministries of Defence and of Foreign Affairs. In his invitation to the governments of SADC countries, ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga stated: "It is our hope that the Harare seminar will mark a turning point in efforts to free southern Africa from the terrible human suffering and severe socio-economic burdens which landmines have inflicted". The ICRC was specifically requested to convene the seminar by the Ottawa Group of 50 pro-ban States as part of the plan of action adopted at the Ottawa Conference on Landmines in October 1996.
Further information: Stuart Maslen, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2533 Johanne Dorais-Slakmon, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2319
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update 97/3 on ICRC activities in the Rwanda, dated 7.4.97
During the week-end of 12 - 13 April 1997, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Suzanne Berger, on (mobile) 41 79 202 36 70