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LEBANON: ICRC ACTIVE IN BORDER VILLAGE: The recent forced integration of Arnoun into the Israeli-occupied zone in southern Lebanon did not prevent the ICRC from conducting daily visits to the small front-line village.
SENEGAL: NOT JUST FOR THE MILITARY: The ICRC joined forces with the Senegalese national police on 25 February to raise awareness about international humanitarian law among 120 members of police units in Casamance, in the south of the country.
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LEBANON ICRC ACTIVE IN BORDER VILLAGE
The recent forced integration of Arnoun into the Israeli-occupied zone in southern Lebanon did not prevent the ICRC from conducting daily visits to the small front-line village. Responding to the needs of the population, which over the years has dropped to some 60mostly elderly inhabitants, delegates distributed food parcels, bread, fruit and vegetables as well as fodder for livestock that could not be taken to nearby fields. The mobile clinic run by the ICRC in the area was dispatched to the village, where it treated 29 patients.
In addition, delegates arranged for the transfer of several villagers who needed either to go to or leave Arnoun for urgent reasons. Delegates also transported dairy products on behalf of local producers to be sold in Nabatieh, the closest market town, as a means of limiting their losses.
Last Friday, Arnoun was returned to non-occupied Lebanon following demonstrations by Lebanese students. It is therefore no longer necessary for the ICRC to monitor the situation on a daily basis.
The ICRC has been working in Lebanon for over 30 years. Present activities focus on visits to detainees held in the Israeli-occupied zone and on medical and material assistance to civilians living in highly volatile areas.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 41 22 730 23 07
SENEGAL NOT JUST FOR THE MILITARY
The ICRC joined forces with the Senegalese national police on 25 February to raise awareness about international humanitarian law among 120 members of police units in Casamance, in the south of the country.
The national police commander in the Ziguinchor and Kolda districts told the assembled officers that humanitarian law was not only a matter for the military -- the police were also greatly concerned by these rules.
The presentation in Casamance marked the beginning of a series of such events that should eventually reach all main national police units in Senegal. "The work of the police is not military in nature", said the deputy director of Senegal's military justice department and co-presenter at the event. "Policemen do not usually deal with combatants but with people who disturb public order, demonstrators and so on". With ICRC support, the national police force published the first-ever Senegalese handbook of international humanitarian law regarding action to maintain public order. It is intended to guide all police units in implementing specific rules.
The series of awareness-raising events for the national police complements the programme carried out by the ICRC in 1998 for Senegal's armed forces, in which 1,500 officers and men attended humanitarian law courses at 15 military bases and a soldier's handbook was published. "It is true that the ICRC is essentially concerned with the armed forces", explained the head of the organization's regional delegation in Dakar. "But in a situation of internal violence such as in Casamance, it is not always easy to distinguish between police action and military operations".
Further information: Gilbert Delechat, ICRC Dakar, tel.: ++ 223 824 12 93
During the weekend of 6 - 7 March 1999, for all information please call the press officer on duty Chris Bowers, on ++ 41 22 779 33 22 or ++ 41 79 202 36 70