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GUINEA-BISSAU: NEW OUTBREAK OF FIGHTING: ICRC delegates based in Bissau and Bafata have had difficulty in pursuing their humanitarian activities because of renewed hostilities since 9 October.
AFGHANISTAN/IRAN: ICRC REPATRIATES IRANIAN PRISONERS: Twenty-six Iranian prisoners released in Kandahar by the Taliban were repatriated on 17 and 18 October. After ICRC delegates had interviewed them in private in order to ascertain that they wished to return to Iran, they were flown to Tehran aboard two aircraft, one made available by the ICRC and the other by the United Nations.
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GUINEA-BISSAU NEW OUTBREAK OF FIGHTING
ICRC delegates based in Bissau and Bafata have had difficulty in pursuing their humanitarian activities because of renewed hostilities since 9 October. After a lull of several months civilians had been gradually returning to the capital Bissau, but the intensity of the shelling has prompted a fresh exodus.
In Bissau, the ICRC delegates and volunteers of the National Red Cross Society have been setting up teams of first-aiders. The teams are equipped with vehicles, stretchers and blankets so that they can give first aid to casualties and evacuate them to the main hospital, which has already admitted a dozen seriously wounded civilians. When conditions permit, the delegates are continuing to provide medical facilities throughout the country with dressings and surgical supplies.
The ICRC renews its appeal to all parties to the conflict to comply with international humanitarian law. In particular, it urges them to distinguish civilians from combatants and to take the necessary measures to ensure that the population does not suffer the effects of military operations.
Further information: Gilbert Delechat, ICRC Dakar, tel. ++221 8 241 293
AFGHANISTAN/IRAN ICRC REPATRIATES IRANIAN PRISONERS
Twenty-six Iranian prisoners released in Kandahar by the Taliban were repatriated on 17 and 18 October. After ICRC delegates had interviewed them in private in order to ascertain that they wished to return to Iran, they were flown to Tehran aboard two aircraft, one made available by the ICRC and the other by the United Nations. The Iranians' release resulted from direct negotiations between United Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar.
An ICRC plane had taken ten other Iranians, also held in Kandahar, back to Tehran on 12October. Their release had been ordered by Mullah Omar to mark a visit to Afghanistan by a Palestinian delegation.
On 11 October the mortal remains of three Iranian diplomats were flown by ICRC aircraft from Mazar-i-Sharif to Mashad in Iran. The three men had been killed when Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban last August.
These transfers, all of which were carried out at the request of the parties, began on 11September with the repatriation of the bodies of several Iranian diplomats and a journalist from Mazar-i-Sharif to Tehran. The operations bear witness to the confidence placed in the ICRC by the various parties concerned.
Further information: Juan Martinez, ICRC Kabul, tel. ++873 761 242 260 Ruben Ortega, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2454
During the weekend of 24 - 25 October 1998, for all information please call the press officer on duty Michael Kleiner, on (mobile) 41 79 202 4200