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FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA/KOSOVO: ICRC AID FOR CONFLICT VICTIMS: A dozen ICRC delegates based in Pristina travel every day to villages in the central regions of Kosovo hard hit by the recent clashes.
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/CHECHNYA: INAUGURATION OF GROZNY BLOOD BANK: The Grozny blood bank was inaugurated on 21 July in the presence of the Vice Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic, the Ministers of Health and Education, a parliamentary representative and two ICRC delegates.
SIERRA LEONE: ICRC PHYSIOTHERAPY CENTRE FOR WAR VICTIMS OPENS IN FREETOWN: A former hotel for tourists on the outskirts of Freetown, the Lakka Cotton Club, has been turned into a 120-bed ICRC physiotherapy centre where the war-wounded and maimed civilians can continue to receive post-operative treatment.
BRAZIL: ICRC ACTIVITIES ON THE AIR: The ICRC regional delegation in Brasilia recently reached agreement with the country's Cadena Catalica de Radio (Catholic radio network) on a weekly broadcast of news about ICRC activities around the world. The network has 180 transmitters in 23 of Brazil's 26 states and one in the Federal District, Brasilia.
KENYA: RED CROSS WATER-SUPPLY PROJECTS ALSO REDUCE TENSION: This week the Red Cross set up projects in Kenya to bring clean water to more than 30,000 families while at the same time reducing tension between farming and pastoral communities.
AZERBAIJAN : BETTER CONDITIONS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN: At the beginning of 1998, the ICRC launched a programme in four front-line districts of northern Azerbaijan (Kazakh, Agstafa, Tovuz and Gadabay) to carry out basic repairs on schools damaged by fighting during the active period of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict
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FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA/KOSOVO ICRC AID FOR CONFLICT VICTIMS
A dozen ICRC delegates based in Pristina travel every day to villages in the central regions of Kosovo hard hit by the recent clashes. They have observed that large numbers of civilians are having to abandon their homes to seek a safer haven. Those unable to leave take refuge in cellars or makeshift shelters.
During the past week the ICRC has distributed 15 tonnes of aid (maize flour, food parcels and hygiene items) to over 20,000 displaced people who fled from Orahovac and gathered in the village of Malishevo. Medical supplies have also been distributed to various hospitals. Because of the proximity of the fighting, most of the displaced are now moving on towards Prizren, further south.
Delegates also went several times to Orahovac to assess the situation and keep in touch with the traumatized civilians stranded there.
The ICRC is particularly concerned about the plight of persons arrested, abducted or separated from their relatives by the events, and is doing its utmost to locate them rapidly and visit them. On 22 July delegates took charge of 35 released Serb civilians and transported them to Pristina.
Thousands of other people who have been displaced to Montenegro or taken refuge in Albania are also receiving assistance from the ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, through the volunteers of the National Societies concerned. The ICRC has collected several hundred family messages from these people and forwarded them to members of their families, which have been dispersed by the fighting raging in Kosovo.
Further information: Amanda Williamson, tel. ++4122 730 2628
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/CHECHNYA INAUGURATION OF GROZNY BLOOD BANK
The Grozny blood bank was inaugurated on 21 July in the presence of the Vice Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic, the Ministers of Health and Education, a parliamentary representative and two ICRC delegates.
The blood bank, which had served neighbouring Ingushetia as well as Chechnya, was destroyed during the fighting that devastated the city in 1996. The entire project to rebuild the premises and bring the new facility into operation was funded by the ICRC and supervised on the spot by its locally-recruited staff.
Despite the scaling down of its activities and the withdrawal of its delegates to Nalchik following the murder of six staff members at Novye Atagi in December 1996, the ICRC has maintained its action for victims of the Chechen conflict.
The ICRC currently has 11 delegates and about a hundred local staff in the northern Caucasus region, working out of offices in Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria), Grozny (Chechnya), Khasavyurt (Daghestan), Nazran (Ingushetia), Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia) and, just recently, Stavropol (Stavropol kraj).
Further information: Corinne Adam, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2224
SIERRA LEONE ICRC PHYSIOTHERAPY CENTRE FOR WAR VICTIMS OPENS IN FREETOWN
A former hotel for tourists on the outskirts of Freetown, the Lakka Cotton Club, has been turned into a 120-bed ICRC physiotherapy centre where the war-wounded and maimed civilians can continue to receive post-operative treatment.
On 14 July the first 10 patients were transferred to the centre from the clinic at the Waterloo camp, on the Freetown peninsula, where they had been recovering from surgery. Some 7,000 displaced persons have taken refuge in the camp.
In the following days more patients were transferred to the centre from the ICRC surgical hospital in Freetown. Over half of the 60 beds in this hospital, where reconstructive surgery has been performed since 26June, have already been filled. Most of the hospital's 34 inpatients were evacuated from areas in the north and east of the country, where medical facilities lack the equipment and skills to perform complicated war surgery.
Even experienced medical personnel were shocked when they saw the mutilation suffered by civilians arriving in Freetown. "Once these people have undergone surgery, we have to do our utmost to facilitate their reintegration into their communities", said Margret Staff, head nurse at the ICRC surgical hospital. "Post-operative rehabilitation is an essential step."
War surgery is an area in which the ICRC has gained valuable experience during the many years it has been working in conflict situations. On 16 June it held a seminar for 11 doctors from Freetown, who were given advice on the management of war wounds and information on Red Cross activities. Further seminars are being planned for the medical staff of up-country hospitals receiving ICRC support.
Further information: Jean-Luc Metzker, ICRC Freetown, tel. ++232 22 24 1438
BRAZIL ICRC ACTIVITIES ON THE AIR
The ICRC regional delegation in Brasilia recently reached agreement with the country's Cadena Catolica de Radio (Catholic radio network) on a weekly broadcast of news about ICRC activities around the world. The network has 180 transmitters in 23 of Brazil's 26 states and one in the Federal District, Brasilia.
The information furnished by delegation staff is sent to the network's headquarters in the Goias state capital, Goiania, and broadcast on Thursdays during the 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. news. Twenty-two other Brazilian radio stations also broadcast short ICRC news items and programmes on current events in the humanitarian sphere.
Edmilson Santos, news chief of the Cadena Catolica de Radio, commented: "Thanks to the input we receive from the ICRC delegation we can offer our listeners a broader picture of the international scene, since we cover conflicts of which the Brazilian public has little or no knowledge". He added that for Brazil's 160 million inhabitants radio is the main source of information between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., "after which the population's attention is focused on the TV". Further information: Ivan Godoy, ICRC Brasilia, tel. ++5561 248 0250 Ruben Ortega, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2454
KENYA RED CROSS WATER-SUPPLY PROJECTS ALSO REDUCE TENSION
This week the Red Cross set up projects in Kenya to bring clean water to more than 30,000 families while at the same time reducing tension between farming and pastoral communities.
When trouble erupted in the Rift Valley in January this year the ICRC, together with the Kenya Red Cross Society, launched an emergency operation to aid over 15,000 displaced victims of violence. The work was carried out in close cooperation with the National Council of Churches of Kenya and the Catholic Diocese of the region.
It soon became evident that competition for limited water resources was straining relations between farming and pastoral communities. One of many places in which water shortages had become a serious and recurring problem was the Samaki Dam area in El Moran, where Kikuyu farmers were ousted by Samburu herdsmen and lives were lost in the process.
One day in July, a band of red-clad Samburu were walking along the path bordering the dam, watching over their cattle which were quenching their thirst in the emerald green water. They agreed on one thing with the farmers in El Moran town, a small, dusty outpost of wooden shacks in this arid area where water means life: "There have to be two water sources: one for the animals and one for the people. We hope the Red Cross can help".
Pascal Jansen, ICRC water and sanitation coordinator in Kenya, said: "It is simply not enough to give emergency aid such as food and blankets to displaced people when we know that separate water sources can significantly reduce tension between the two communities and prevent displacement at the outset".
The ICRC, in cooperation with the Kenya Red Cross, decided to combine borehole construction and dam rehabilitation programmes in Nakuru and Laikipia districts in Rift Valley province. The boreholes will provide clean water for 8,000 farming families, while the dams will serve 22,750 pastoral families and their 30,000 animals. Further information: Nina Galbe, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++2542 716 339
AZERBAIJAN BETTER CONDITIONS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN
At the beginning of 1998, the ICRC launched a programme in four front-line districts of northern Azerbaijan (Kazakh, Agstafa, Tovuz and Gadabay) to carry out basic repairs on schools damaged by fighting during the active period of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. Owing to the decline in the economy, the country lacks the resources needed for investment in projects to renovate battle-scarred infrastructure.
During the first phase six schools were covered by the ICRC programme, which is aimed at restoring acceptable conditions for educational activities, even during the cold winter months. Once repairs to roofs, floors, doors and windows were completed, the ICRC provided furniture, blackboards and stoves.
The second phase of the programme started in May and included eight more schools in the region. Construction work goes faster during the summer months and holidays and everything should be ready in time for the children to go back to school in September.
Villagers and local authorities have been closely associated with each project. The work has been carried out by local craftsmen in accordance with their usual standards so as not to create differences with other schools not covered by the programme.
Last year 12 schools were rehabilitated under a similar project in Fizuli district south of Nagorny Karabakh.
Further information: Corinne Adam, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2224
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org: - Update 98/09 on ICRC activities in Afghanistan, dated 28.07.98
During the weekend of 1 - 2 August 1998, for all information please call the press officer on duty Amanda Williamson, on (mobile) 41 79 357 15 24