ICRC News 46 / 19.11.97
** SHORT MENU....
SOMALIA/ETHIOPIA: 160 TONNES OF AID AIRLIFTED SO FAR: Thousands of Somalis remain under threat from floods due to the overflowing Juba and Shabelle rivers.
EAST TIMOR: ICRC VISITS PEOPLE INJURED IN DILI DEMONSTRATION: On 15 November the ICRC was finally granted access to people injured the previous day when violent clashes broke out during a demonstration at the University of East Timor in Dili.
RWANDA: CHILDREN SEEK PARENTS THROUGH ICRC PHOTO ALBUM: There are 440 pictures in all, each of an infant holding a board with an identification number in front of him or her.
LEBANON/ISRAEL: HOME AT LAST!: In the summer of 1980, Mohammed, a 24-year-old Israeli national of Palestinian origin, went on a college trip to northern Israel.
** STORIES IN FULL...
SOMALIA/ETHIOPIA 160 TONNES OF AID AIRLIFTED SO FAR
Thousands of Somalis remain under threat from floods due to the overflowing Juba and Shabelle rivers. The rains in Ethiopia and Somalia show no sign of slackening and are still causing deaths, damage to food stocks and contamination of sources of drinking water.=20
To respond to the emergency, the ICRC has organized an airlift between Nairobi and the affected areas, sending in supplies daily aboard a Buffalo plane, a Cessna Caravan and a chartered Boeing=A0707. The difficulties are compounded by the fact that local airstrips are regularly rendered unusable by fluctuating water levels.=20
The 16 round trips made to date into the flooded regions of Somalia have delivered over 160 tonnes of urgently needed relief supplies, including high-protein biscuits, tarpaulins and blankets, for some 50,000 victims. An additional 91 tonnes of tarpaulins and blankets have been purchased in Mogadishu and are presently on their way to the affected areas by road.
In the town of Belet Huen on the Shabelle river, a health delegate seconded to the ICRC by the British Red Cross has set up a health post, together with the Somali Red Crescent Society, to meet the needs of some 25,000 people who took refuge on higher ground outside the town when their homes were flooded. A water and sanitation delegate is studying means of providing these people with drinking water and pit latrines to avoid a further deterioration in health conditions.
The ICRC aircraft have also transported numerous journalists and four specialists of the French S=E9curit=E9 civile corps sent by the French government, which was contacted by the ICRC, to enable them to assess the situation for themselves. The ICRC currently has eight staff working in Somalia.
Further information: Josu=E9 Anselmo, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++250 723 963 Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2281
EAST TIMOR ICRC VISITS PEOPLE INJURED IN DILI DEMONSTRATION=20
On 15 November the ICRC was finally granted access to people injured the previous day when violent clashes broke out during a demonstration at the University of East Timor in Dili. Delegates visited two soldiers and six civilians at Vira Husada military hospital. Among the civilians seen was a wounded student whom police had dragged from a vehicle marked with the red cross in which he was being evacuated. The ICRC delegation protested on 14 November to the Indonesian authorities about this brutal act. It is currently pursuing its efforts to locate all the people arrested during the demonstration.
The ICRC has been working in East Timor since 1974. Its activities focus on seeking to ensure respect for the civilian population, monitoring conditions of detention and restoring contact between separated family members. Together with the Indonesian Red Cross, it is also carrying out a public health programme whose main aim is to provide remote villages with supplies of safe water.
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2906
RWANDA CHILDREN SEEK PARENTS THROUGH=20 ICRC PHOTO ALBUM
There are 440 pictures in all, each of an infant holding a board with an identification number in front of him or her. Some appear bewildered, others stare timidly, a few smile. They are all very young, most of them between one and four years of age.
These are children who became separated from their families during the return of Rwandan refugees from the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). Because they are so young, they are unable to provide any information about their identity, the names of their parents or their places of origin.
The ICRC, with the help of UNICEF, is distributing 2,500 copies of the photo album to churches, municipal offices and NGOs throughout Rwanda, even in the most remote areas of the country. Entitled "Do You Know This Child ?", the album contains a plea to anyone who recognizes any of the children to contact the nearest ICRC office.
"Because we have so little information", explained Roberta Martinelli, the ICRC Tracing Agency coordinator in Rwanda, "there is no other way of carrying out an active search for their relatives. We hope the album will bring the families to us."
Last May, the ICRC distributed the first photo-tracing album with 208 pictures of infants. Over 100 of the children in this first album have now been reunited with their families. "As well as the parents of those children", Ms Martinelli added, "hundreds of other families have contacted us because of the album, providing useful details about their own lost children."
Since the mass return of refugees to Rwanda last November, the ICRC has registered 1,800 cases of children separated from their families and too young to give any information about them. A third photo-tracing album is already being prepared and should be distributed at the beginning of next=A0year.
Further information: Bernard Barrett, ICRC Kigali, tel. ++250 72 783
LEBANON/ISRAEL HOME AT LAST!
In the summer of 1980, Mohammed, a 24-year-old Israeli national of Palestinian origin, went on a college trip to northern Israel. He did not return. His family tried for years to find him, but finally lost hope. Then in June 1995 they received a Red Cross message he had sent from the ICRC delegation in Beirut.=20
Mohammed, upset by an unhappy love affair, had crossed into Lebanon where he had been arrested because he had no papers. He spent years in prison, during which his mental health deteriorated. After his release he approached the ICRC to send a Red Cross message.
His family in Israel, with the help of ICRC delegates in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, started trying to make arrangements for his return. His mother travelled to Jordan, hoping to organize his repatriation from Lebanon via Jordan to Israel. The ICRC in Beirut finally obtained a laissez-passer allowing him to board a plane for Amman. On 4 November 1997 he was welcomed by his mother and other members of his family at the airport in the Jordanian capital, and on 9 November he crossed the River Jordan and reached his home.
Thus Mohammed was reunited with his family after 17 years of separation filled with anguish and uncertainty. "We all thought Mohammed was dead - but he is here now with us", one of his cousins exclaimed to ICRC delegates in Amman.
Although the wars that raged in the Middle East are considered to be over, countless people are still separated from their loved ones. ICRC offices in the region regularly receive requests for help from families hoping to find their relatives and to see them again someday.
Further information: Mu'in Kassis, ICRC Amman, tel. ++962 6 688 645
FAMOUS SCULPTOR DONATES WORK TO ICRC
The ICRC was recently honoured to be presented with a remarkable work of art by celebrated Swiss sculptor Marcel Perincioli.
In what he says is the last project of a most distinguished career, Mr Perincioli has created a group of bronze figures which capture powerfully the dejection and hopelessness of displaced people. Last week the Bernese artist came to ICRC headquarters in person to deliver the work, which he decided to donate in recognition of the ICRC's commitment to easing the plight of civilians displaced by armed conflict.
The sculpture will remain on show in the Grand Salon at ICRC headquarters in Geneva.
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update No 1 on ICRC activities to assist the flood victims in Somalia and Ethiopia, dated 13.11.97
During the weekend of 22 - 23 November=A01997, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Michael Kleiner, on (mobile) 41 79 202 42 00