ZAIRE AIRLIFT FOR DISPLACED ZAIRIANSThe ICRC has started airlifting some 15,000 displaced Zairians now in Kisangani back to the Goma and Bukavu region. On Tuesday 15 April, a Hercules C-130 made a first flight to Bukavu with 105 people on board. A B-727 is due in Kivu today. The two aircraft are expected to make two or three shuttle flights daily.
In Kisangani, the ICRC transports the displaced people to the airport, taking particular care to keep families intact. Each family is given food and material assistance to help with its resettlement.
Since 7 April, a cargo plane has been flying food, medicines and other relief supplies from Nairobi to Kisangani. This relief is subsequently distributed by volunteers of the Red Cross Society of the Republic of Zaire to the displaced people in Kisangani and to the crowds of Rwandan refugees along the Kisangani-Ubundu railway.
Further information on the spot: Tony Burgener, tel. ++ 871 692 281 030
ALBANIA COUNTRYWIDE RELIEF DISTRIBUTIONS
ICRC distributions of food and medicines are currently taking place throughout Albania to some 50 social welfare institutions (hospitals, orphanages, homes for the elderly or disabled). The people housed there are the most destitute in the country. The ICRC has launched this urgent but limited operation on their behalf to bridge the gap in supplies via official channels without undermining Albania's attempted economic recovery.
Since the beginning of March, about 40 tonnes of food and 15 tonnes of medical supplies have been distributed by the ICRC and the Albanian Red Cross. Institutions that received ICRC assistance for the second time have not announced any security incidents (such as looting after the first distribution).
The ICRC now has about 20 expatriate staff deployed in Albania, including a delegate from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Offices have been opened in the capital Tirana and in Gjirokaster in the south.
Further information: Nina Galbe, ICRC Tirana, tel. ++355 42 33 151 Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2281
INDIA HUMANITARIAN ISSUES ADDRESSED AT THE NAM CONFERENCE
For the first time in the history of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a separate section on humanitarian action was adopted in the final document issued at the conclusion of NAM's XIIth Ministerial Conference held in New Delhi from 7 to 8 April 1997. The conference was attended by two ICRC representatives as guest participants.
In their statement, the NAM Ministers underlined the importance of promoting respect for the universally recognized humanitarian principles and for international humanitarian law, particularly the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their 1977 Additional Protocols. They also invited those States which have not yet done so to ratify or accede to the two Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions. Moreover, NAM's objectives now include mention of the need to respect international humanitarian law.
This statement was acknowledged by the ICRC as a significant step by the 113-member movement of developing countries, a movement which represents two thirds of the world's population and covers a number of countries where ICRC operational activities are under way.
Further information: Savita Varde-Naqvi, ICRC New Delhi, tel. ++ 91 11 43 94 Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2906
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update 97/6 on ICRC activities in Albania, dated 11.4.97 - Update 97/1 on ICRC activities in Afghanistan, dated 10.4.97
During the week-end of 19 - 20 April 1997, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Rubin Ortega, on (mobile) 41 79 202 36 70