ICRC NEWS 14
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AFGHANISTAN: MORE DETAINEES RELEASED: On the occasion of the religious festival of Eid al-Dha, which marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca, last Sunday the Taliban authorities released 118 detainees in Kandahar, most of them of Hazara origin.
SIERRA LEONE: ICRC RESUMES WORK UP-COUNTRY: Following an initial delivery of medical supplies to Kenema on 22 March, the ICRC provided the town's government hospital with a second consignment of medicines on 2 April to help treat emergency cases.
SUDAN: ASSISTANCE FOR DISPLACED PERSONS IN THE EAST: Since the end of January, several thousand people have been displaced by artillery attacks on their villages in the Kassala region of eastern Sudan, along the Eritrean border.
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: OPEN DAY FOR THE BRAZZAVILLE MEDIA: About 20 representatives of the local press were delighted to accept the ICRC's invitation to attend an "open day" organized for them in Brazzaville on 27 March.
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/NORTHERN CAUCASUS: VILLAGE DESTROYED BY MUDSLIDE: Torrential rains last week triggered mudslides that destroyed almost 500 homes in a village in north-eastern Chechnya, not far from the border with Daghestan.
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AFGHANISTAN MORE DETAINEES RELEASED
On the occasion of the religious festival of Eid al-Dha, which marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca, last Sunday the Taliban authorities released 118 detainees in Kandahar, most of them of Hazara origin. ICRC delegates talked with every newly released detainee in private and then gave all of them financial assistance so that they could return to their provinces of origin. To make it easier for them to cross check-points, the head of security in Kandahar issued travel permits.
The releases follow those of 30 March, when 65 persons held by the forces of Commander Massoud were freed in Panjshir in the presence of the ICRC, which also supplied fuel for the trucks that took the former detainees as far as the front line north-east of Kabul.
The parties to the Afghan conflict had already freed 600 detainees in January this year to mark the end of Ramadan. In 1997 the ICRC registered over 7,000 detainees in 81 places of detention throughout the country.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
SIERRA LEONE ICRC RESUMES WORK UP-COUNTRY
Following an initial delivery of medical supplies to Kenema on 22 March, the ICRC provided the town's government hospital with a second consignment of medicines on 2 April to help treat emergency cases. The hospital reported that 40 operations had been performed on war- wounded patients since the end of February.
On 31 March, for the first time since delegates suspended their activities up-country owing to the recent fighting, an ICRC team returned to Bo, Sierra Leone's second largest town. Contacts were re-established with local authorities in order to gather information on the situation in terms of nutrition, health and water supplies. ICRC delegates also visited detainees held by ECOMOG forces and gave them blankets and items for personal hygiene.
Thanks to cooperation with the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society (SLRCS), Red Cross messages can now be delivered to areas outside Freetown, such as Bo, Moyamba, Makeni, Port Loko and Lungi, so that family members can stay in touch despite the interruption of normal channels of communication.
As the fighting died down in the northern provinces, rehabilitation work resumed last week on 55 wells in Bombali district and Port Loko town. Wells are the only source of drinking water for the inhabitants of some villages, and ICRC water and sanitation engineers together with Ministry of Health staff are working against the clock to complete the project before the start of the rainy season.
In the first three months after the fighting ended in Freetown, five primary health-care clinics receiving ICRC support gave consultations to 40,000 patients and immunized 850 children in accordance with EPI (WHO's Expanded Programme on Immunization) standards. During the same period the ICRC, working in cooperation with the SLRCS, distributed a total of 483 tonnes of food to 36,877 people in the capital.
Further information: Jean-Luc Metzker, ICRC Freetown, tel. ++232 22 241 438
SUDAN ASSISTANCE FOR DISPLACED PERSONS IN THE EAST
Since the end of January, several thousand people have been displaced by artillery attacks on their villages in the Kassala region of eastern Sudan, along the Eritrean border. At the end of March the number of displaced was estimated at more than 4,750 families, comprising some 24,000 people. The region where they took refuge is particularly arid, offering no possibilities for agricultural activity. It is rendered even more hostile by the presence of landmines hidden in the ground, which are having a devastating effect on the displaced population.
The Sudanese Red Crescent, with support from the ICRC, regularly evacuates people wounded by artillery fire or landmines to the civilian and military hospitals in the towns of Kassala and Khartoum. More than 50 casualties have been treated to date. The hospitals have been given emergency medical assistance and dispensaries have been set up in the sites where the displaced families have settled.
More than 100 Red Crescent volunteers have been mobilized to register the displaced people and to distribute blankets, jerrycans, kitchen sets, mosquito nets and soap. The United Nations World Food Programme is carrying out food distributions, while Oxfam is supplying clean water.
The ICRC has been in Sudan since 1978 and is currently preparing to resume operations in the south of the country, which were suspended in November 1996. Providing support for the Sudanese Red Crescent is one of the ICRC's traditional activities in a country suffering the effects of more than 14 years of conflict.
Further information: Pierre Ryter, ICRC Khartoum, tel. ++249 11 476 464
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO OPEN DAY FOR THE BRAZZAVILLE MEDIA
About 20 representatives of the local press were delighted to accept the ICRC's invitation to attend an "open day" organized for them in Brazzaville on 27 March.
The event, which was the first of its kind to be held since the end of the conflict in the Republic of the Congo, took place at the headquarters of the Congolese Red Cross. It gave the journalists an opportunity not only to become better acquainted with the ICRC's operation in the country but also to exchange views with the head of delegation and the staff in charge of each field of activity.
The ICRC has been working in Congo-Brazzaville on a permanent basis since 1993. At present it is still providing assistance for the victims of the conflict that ravaged the country last year. In the area of protection and assistance for detainees, negotiations are under way between the ICRC and the Congolese government on a memorandum of understanding that would give the organization access to all detainees and all places of detention in the Republic.
The ICRC delegation in Congo-Brazzaville comprises 15 expatriate and 120 locally hired staff.
Further information: France Hurtubise, ICRC Kinshasa, tel. ++ 2431 2 34 191
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/NORTHERN CAUCASUS VILLAGE DESTROYED BY MUDSLIDE
Torrential rains last week triggered mudslides that destroyed almost 500 homes in a village in north-eastern Chechnya, not far from the border with Daghestan. The local Red Cross committee responded immediately to the emergency by distributing 200 food parcels and 400 hygiene kits that the ICRC had supplied as part of its programme of cooperation and support for the local Red Cross committees in the seven republics of the northern Caucasus.
For security reasons the ICRC carries out its assistance activities in Chechnya and the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Daghestan from its subdelegation in Nalchik, in Kabardino-Balkaria, with the help of its local staff and the local committees of the Russian Red Cross.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2307
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update No 98/02 on ICRC activities in Somalia, dated 6.04.98
During the days 10 and 11 April 1998, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Doris Pfister, on (mobile) ++ 41 79 202 3670, and the 12 and 13 April, please call duty press officer Philippe Lazzarini on ++ 41 79 333 20 46 (mobile)