** SHORT MENU....
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: RENEWED FIGHTING IN BRAZZAVILLE: The ICRC team in Brazzaville, which comprises 63 Congolese and seven expatriate staff, is closely monitoring the humanitarian situation following the renewed outbreak of fighting in the Pool region and parts of the capital. Scores of inhabitants have left their homes and are once again seeking safety and shelter.
NEPAL: ICRC STARTS VISITING DETAINEES: The ICRC has begun visiting security detainees arrested in connection with the internal disturbances in certain parts of the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal.
YUGOSLAVIA/KOSOVO: SUPPORT FOR TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN: "We have emerged from the most acute emergency phase and now are trying to help communities in Kosovo to cope with some of the direct effects of the tragic events that occurred last summer", explained ICRC delegate John Roche, who is in charge of coordinating relief activities in the area.
KENYA:FIRST IHL COURSE OF ITS KIND IN EAST AFRICA: In early December 21 university professors, lecturers, scholars and scientists from Kenya, Tanzania and southern Sudan took part in a "training for trainers" workshop on international humanitarian law (IHL), organized in the Kenyan town of Nakuru by the local Egerton University and the ICRC.
** STORIES IN FULL...
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO RENEWED FIGHTING IN BRAZZAVILLE
The ICRC team in Brazzaville, which comprises 63 Congolese and seven expatriate staff, is closely monitoring the humanitarian situation following the renewed outbreak of fighting in the Pool region and parts of the capital. Scores of inhabitants have left their homes and are once again seeking safety and shelter. Some have fled the city to join relatives, while others have gathered in centres opened to accommodate the displaced. The ICRC is providing the health posts in these centres with medicines and water.
On 21 December, the ICRC flew in two loads of urgently needed medical supplies. These include hospital kits and sets of sutures and other dressing materials to treat the wounded who have been arriving in Brazzaville's hospitals. Volunteers of the Congolese Red Cross, working with the support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which has 12 Congolese staff and two expatriates on the spot, are providing first aid and transporting the wounded to hospital.
The ICRC has managed to ensure that all stocks, including those of other humanitarian organizations that have temporarily left the capital, are available for distribution by Red Cross personnel as needed.
Further information: Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2281
NEPAL ICRC STARTS VISITING DETAINEES
The ICRC has begun visiting security detainees arrested in connection with the internal disturbances in certain parts of the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal.
Visits were conducted between 1 and 16 December in three jails in the Himalayan foothills, in one of the poorest midwestern regions of Nepal. The ICRC registered a total of 99 detainees in Rolpa District Jail in Liwange, Rukum District Jail in Musikot and Dang District Jail in Gorahi, where road conditions are difficult and telecommunications almost nonexistent. Over the coming year, it expects to visit an additional 20 to 30 places of detention.
Following acceptance of an offer of services made by the ICRC to the Nepalese Government on 10 August, the visits were carried out in full compliance with the organization's standard working procedures (which include unimpeded access for ICRC delegates to all places of detention, direct one-on-one meetings with detainees and the possibility of repeating visits according to a timetable drawn up by the ICRC), and with the full cooperation of the Home Ministry in Kathmandu as well as the local administration, the police and jail authorities in the districts involved.
These visits will be followed up by comprehensive reporting to the relevant authorities on the detainees' conditions of detention and treatment.
In the region, the ICRC has also been visiting security detainees in Bhutan since 1992 and in India's Jammu and Kashmir since 1994.
Further information: Roland Sidler, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4179 202 36 70
YUGOSLAVIA/KOSOVO SUPPORT FOR TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN
"We have emerged from the most acute emergency phase and now are trying to help communities in Kosovo to cope with some of the direct effects of the tragic events that occurred last summer", explained ICRC delegate John Roche, who is in charge of coordinating relief activities in the area. "At present, several of our programmes now provide support for existing medical and paramedical facilities so that services can continue functioning as smoothly as possible."
In the town of Pristina, the reception centre for people seriously traumatized by the violence is caring for some 30 children aged between five and twelve. The two Kosovar psychologists working there are treating their young patients through role-playing and dialogue and above all are listening to what they have to say. The ICRC has supplied the centre with food, clothes, toys, crayons and drawing paper. It subsequently plans to install additional showers and washing machines, and will deliver wood for heating. The centre must be able to operate under the best possible conditions if the youngsters are to recover their equilibrium.
Further information: Roland Sidler, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4179 202 36 70
KENYA FIRST IHL COURSE OF ITS KIND IN EAST AFRICA
In early December 21 university professors, lecturers, scholars and scientists from Kenya, Tanzania and southern Sudan took part in a "training for trainers" workshop on international humanitarian law (IHL), organized in the Kenyan town of Nakuru by the local Egerton University and the ICRC.
The principal aims of the workshop were to promote the transfer of knowledge of IHL and to undertake a critical examination of methods for teaching the course Society and International Humanitarian Law. This compulsory core course will be offered by the Egerton University Faculty of Arts and Sciences during the second semester of the 1999/2000 academic year.
The 45-hour syllabus was developed by the university's Sociology Department together with the ICRC. It was approved by the university authorities early this month and will initially target some 1,380 first-year undergraduates.
The course has also been incorporated in a new military studies programme recently designed by the Kenyan Department of Defence and Egerton University for Kenyan armed forces personnel. Teaching is to begin on 4 January 1999.
The Egerton University course is the result of a key resolution adopted last June at a previous seminar on IHL instruction in Kenyan universities organized at the initiative of the ICRC regional delegation in Nairobi.
Further information: Johanne Dorais-Slakmon, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++2542 723 963
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - ICRC Update 98/10 on the activities of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in response to the crisis in Kosovo, dated 22.12.98
- Update No 98/01 on ICRC activities in Angola, dated 23.12.98
During the weekend of 24 - 27 December1998, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Roland Sidler, on (mobile) ++ 41 79 202 36 70,
or
from the 31 December to the 3 January, please call duty press officer Michael Kleiner on ++ 41 79 202 42 00 (mobile phone) inf