TAJIKISTAN ICRC DISTRIBUTIONS IN 19 VILLAGESRelief supplies were distributed last week in the mountainous eastern region of Tajikistan, bordering on the Gorno-Badakhshan semi-autonomous province. An ICRC team provided oil and flour to some 4,000 inhabitants of 19 villages in the Childara sub-district, near Tavildara, which has been controlled by Tajik opposition forces since December 1996.
The valley was hard hit by the fighting last year. The distributions are part of a programme to tide the population over for a period of three months until the next harvests, and should enable the region to become self-reliant again. Some 6,300 beneficiaries received such assistance in April. As from next week the ICRC will provide the region's medical facilities, whose stocks have not been replenished for several months, with the necessary medical supplies.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
AFGHANISTAN OVER 400,000 PEOPLE RECEIVING ICRC ASSISTANCE
More than 400,000 people are currently receiving ICRC assistance in Afghanistan, including almost 300,000 in Kabul alone. Over 200,000 of them (destitute war widows, orphans, disabled and elderly people) are considered to be particularly disadvantaged. Both in the capital and in the weat and north of the country there are also a growing number of needy families recently displaced by the fighting.
The largest population movements have occurred in the Herat area and Badghis province. Nearly 300 people fleeing the fighting along the Murghab river are arriving each day in and around Herat. As possible accommodation in the town is limited (the public buildings were soon full to overflowing), ICRC delegates have been registering new arrivals at the Shadai transit camp. In view of the overcrowding in the existing facilities, the ICRC has begun setting up a new camp outside the town to house the 18,000 displaced people in the area; it is already providing them with food and other aid. The camp site is being cleared of mines, wells are being sunk and latrines built, and 4,500 tents are on their way.
Equally large numbers of people are seeking refuge in other parts of the country. The ICRC sub-delegation in Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north, is assisting over 26,000 displaced people gathered in Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Faizabad, Taloqan and Pul-i-Khumri. The ICRC is also working in Bamyan, Ghazni, Jalalabad and Kandahar, and is considering ways of organizing distributions in the Panjshir valley.
In most of the areas affected by the conflict, ICRC distributions are carried out in conjunction with the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Over 13,000 tonnes of essentials have been distributed in the past three months.
Further information: Jean-Luc Paladini, ICRC Kabul, tel. ++873 382 28 01 30 Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2906
ADDIS ABABA JUDGES KAMA AND GOLDSTONE AT OAU/ICRC SEMINAR ON REPRESSION OF WAR CRIMES
The repression of grave breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) and the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court are the focus of a joint OAU/ICRC seminar on April 29 and 30 for ambassadors accredited to the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Judge Laoty Kama, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, and Judge Richard Goldstone, former Chief Prosecutor of the Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as Professor Ahmed Mahiou, President of the UN International Law Commission, and Professor Deni Segui, Rapporteur of the Human Rights Commission on Rwanda, will address key issues and developments.
"The holding of this seminar symbolizes the importance which, for some years now, has been given to the crackdown on serious breaches of international humanitarian law", said Judge Kama in the introduction to his presentation: "The OAU and the repression of war crimes and violations of human rights". International efforts to ban anti-personnel landmines are also being reviewed by the seminar.
The event is expected to serve as an opportunity for an in-depth exchange of views and experience among diplomats, members of the Ethiopian government and representatives of the OAU and the ICRC. Conclusions and recommendations of the two-day seminar will be submitted to the OAU's Committee of Twenty on Refugees and Displaced Persons for presentation to the Heads of State at their summit conference in Harare/Zimbabwe next June. Further information: Peter Iseli, ICRC Addis Ababa, tel. ++ 2511 518 366
ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES MAKING A BAN EFFECTIVE
A meeting of experts met in Bonn on 24 and 25 April to discuss possible compliance measures for inclusion in a future treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines. The meeting, convened by the German government, was attended by representatives of 121 countries, together with delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations, NATO and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
While the meeting did not reach any detailed conclusions, it provided an opportunity to discuss various means of ensuring respect for any future treaty. Certain delegations argued for the inclusion of verification mechanisms similar to those used in disarmament agreements on weapons of mass destruction. However, others maintained that such mechanisms were inappropriate in relation to anti-personnel mines, and that unduly obtrusive and costly mechanisms should be avoided. Support was also expressed for drawing on compliance mechanisms already used in other fields, including a reporting system, the criminalization of violations, and the establishment of a fact-finding or implementation commission.
The ICRC and other delegations stressed the importance of establishing a total ban on anti-personnel mines as rapidly as possible, pointing out that while the effectiveness of any agreement had to be ensured, negotiations on verification should not be allowed to block agreement on a total ban. It was also important that any compliance measures should emphasize the positive aspects of any new regime - by encouraging transparency, building confidence and promoting international cooperation to deal with the existing scourge of landmines.
Further information: Paul Berman, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2077 Johanne Dorais-Slakmon or Keith Howell, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2319
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update 97/6 on ICRC activities in Zaire, dated 25.04.97
During the week-end of 3 - 4 May 1997, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Doris Pfister, on (mobile) 41 79 202 36 70