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YUGOSLAVIA: CLEAN WATER FOR NOVI SAD AND VOJVODINA Since April, when the water supply was cut for some 90,000 residents of Novi Sad on the south side of the Danube, the ICRC has launched a number of projects aimed at ensuring that those affected have sufficient clean water.
YUGOSLAVIA: EASING TROUBLED MINDS The ICRC has enabled more than 300 families in Kosovo to contact their loved ones. The organization's staff there are using mobile satellite phones to give people the chance to contact relatives who are abroad or in other parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
PERU: ICRC ASSISTS 23,000 PEOPLE IN UCAYALI Following the heavy flooding that devastated Coronel Portillo province in the department of Ucayali, the ICRC assisted 23,000 people for about 10 days. A total of 5,000 families living in 150 villages received food aid and hygiene items.
PERU: PERUVIAN POLICE INSTRUCTED IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN LAW Twenty-six officers of the Peruvian national police force completed a course in human rights law and international humanitarian law on 21 June.
COTE D'IVOIRE: PEOPLE ON WAR: NATURE GETS THE BETTER OF "ADJUTANT TUHON" On 19 June the ICRC and the Red Cross Society of Cote d'Ivoire launched a new phase of People on War, the ICRC's world-wide campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions.
ICRC RECEIVES ONE MILLION BANNER ADS: The members and Web visitors of a global banner exchange, "HyperBanner" (http://www.Hyperbanner.net), have selected the ICRC to receive one million banner placements across the HyperBanner network.
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YUGOSLAVIA CLEAN WATER FOR NOVI SAD AND VOJVODINA
Since April, when the water supply was cut for some 90,000 residents of Novi Sad on the south side of the Danube, the ICRC has launched a number of projects aimed at ensuring that those affected have sufficient clean water.
As an emergency measure, two tanker trucks were dispatched to the area in late April. Since then, the ICRC has ordered 27 water-storage tanks, each with pipes and distribution taps, to be installed at four locations in the affected area. So far, about a dozen such tanks have been set up. Their installation is progressing as quickly as the local producer can deliver them.
At the same time, two small water-treatment stations are being planned as a means of countering the problem of excess iron and manganese in local water. Both plants will be able to treat 10 litres per second.
The Public Health Institute in Novi Sad is about to receive assistance in measuring the quality of water, soil and air. The Institute is responsible for environmental control in the province of Vojvodina, where the need for such control has substantially increased since the refineries and chemical plants in the area were hit during the NATO campaign. The equipment being procured by the ICRC for the Institute includes a highly sophisticated instrument to measure fallout from the decomposition of crude oil, an ultraviolet spectrophotometer to check the composition of water, the corresponding software and disposable laboratory material.
Finally, the ICRC is importing an oil-absorbent chemical that should eliminate the oil spilt from the damaged refinery into the area where wells providing Novi Sad's water supply are located.
EASING TROUBLED MINDS
The ICRC has enabled more than 300 families in Kosovo to contact their loved ones. The organization's staff there are using mobile satellite phones to give people the chance to contact relatives who are abroad or in other parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. For the moment, three such phones are in use and are being taken all over the province's territory to reach as many people as possible. On 21 June staff visited the town of Malishevo, where 215 people made calls. On 22 June 142 made calls in Urosevac and Gnjilane.
Many who have used the phones are people who remained in Kosovo after the NATO airstrikes began and who have not had any contact with their families since March. Others are recent returnees from Albania and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who want to tell their relatives that they have arrived safely. "The chance to make a telephone call meets a very human need to let your loved ones know you are safe", says Edith Baeriswyl, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Kosovo.
Further information: Daloni Carlisle, ICRC Pristina, tel. ++381 63 344 164 Jette Soerensen, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2678
REMINDER:
Photographs of Red Cross and Red Crescent activities in Albania and Macedonia are available from the ICRC Public Information Department (contact Lo Chamrong, tel. ++4122 730 2036)
A 10-minute English-language video edit in either betacam (international soundtrack) version or VHS on the ICRC's work to restore family links for refugees in Macedonia is also available from the Public Information Department (contact Myriam Perrenoud, tel. ++4122 730 2406).
PERU ICRC ASSISTS 23,000 PEOPLE IN UCAYALI
Following the heavy flooding that devastated Coronel Portillo province in the department of Ucayali, the ICRC assisted 23,000 people for about 10 days. A total of 5,000 families living in 150 villages received food aid and hygiene items.
ICRC delegates based in the region carried out the operation in cooperation with teams of Peruvian Red Cross volunteers.
The ICRC has 19 delegates and 44 local employees working in Peru. They are attached to the Lima delegation, the Tingo Maria sub-delegation and offices in Huancayo, Ayacucho, Chiclayo, Cajamarca, Tarapoto, La Merced and Puno.
PERUVIAN POLICE INSTRUCTED IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN LAW
Twenty-six officers of the Peruvian national police force completed a course in human rights law and international humanitarian law on 21 June. The group comprised 21 commanders and other high-ranking officers (all men) and five sub-lieutenants (women), who were appointed according to seniority and were part of a recently created special unit.
The course lasted for five weeks, six days a week, during which the participants received full-time training to enable them to spread knowledge of international humanitarian law. Under a follow-up and advisory programme established by the ICRC delegate to Latin American police and security forces, the officers will in turn teach human rights law and humanitarian law to their colleagues across the country.
This is the first time that Peruvian police officers have received instruction in these branches of law. The training takes into account their specific tasks and emphasizes knowledge of basic rules that, as law-enforcement personnel, they are responsible for applying.
Further information: Graziella Leite Piccolo, ICRC Lima, tel. ++511 460 27 19
COTE D'IVOIRE PEOPLE ON WAR: NATURE GETS THE BETTER OF "ADJUTANT TUHON"
On 19 June the ICRC and the Red Cross Society of Cote d'Ivoire launched a new phase of People on War, the ICRC's world-wide campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. At Ky-yi Village, a private institution for the rehabilitation of street children in Abidjan, a theatre group gave its very first performance of a play on the theme "Even wars have limits".
The audience quickly warmed to the play's plainspoken language and inventive plot. "You idiots!" a turtle exclaimed after routing the men of a cruel army officer named Tuhon. "Don't you know enough to abide by the rules?" Wishing to impress his superiors, Tuhon had urged his unit to wage a ruthless campaign against the northern rebels. But when it began to attack women and children, other forces - those of nature - rose to their defence. The officer, who refused to learn his lesson, was finally deserted by his men and captured by an enormous spider that threatened to eat him alive.
The campaign in Cote d'Ivoire provides for the organization of cultural events, debates on international humanitarian law and the use of surveys conducted by the ICRC in countries affected by war. A hundred diplomats, government representatives, artists and journalists attended the inauguration ceremony at Ki-yi Village. The play, the first in a series on war and its limits, will be performed every evening at the Ki-yi Village theatre, whose shows are highly popular with local people.
Further information: Christian Frutiger, ICRC Abidjan, tel. ++225 22 24 6061
ICRC RECEIVES ONE MILLION BANNER ADS
The members and Web visitors of a global banner exchange, "HyperBanner" (http://www.Hyperbanner.net), have selected the ICRC to receive one million banner placements across the HyperBanner network.
HyperBanner used its "Hyper-Poll" interactive Website tool to conduct the banner-donation poll, which began on 21 May and ran for 19 days on HyperBanner Websites world-wide. More than 7,000 site visitors voted for one of four international humanitarian organizations to receive a donation of one million banners (ICRC, UNICEF, UNAIDS and Greenpeace International).
As winner of the poll, the ICRC (http://www.helpicrc.org) will be able to place ads throughout HyperBanner's global network (with customers in 31 countries). The ICRC ad campaign will be launched shortly.
"We are very grateful and excited to receive the banner donation from HyperBanner because it gives us another means by which to publicize the work of the Red Cross, make people aware of our needs and show them how they can help", said Ilona Pongracz, deputy head of private fundraising at the ICRC. "We remain heavily involved in emergency work in Kosovo and elsewhere, and by using online banners we can immediately expand our publicity endeavour and enhance world-wide visibility and support."
Further information: Ilona Pongracz, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 2383
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update No 99/03 on ICRC activities in Angola, dated 22.06.99.
During the weekend of 26 - 27 June 1999, for all information please call the press officer on duty Chris Bowers, on ++ 41 22 779 33 22 or ++ 41 79 217 32 31