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EAST TIMOR: DILI GENERAL HOSPITAL - MORE THAN FREE MEDICAL CARE: The ICRC-supported General Hospital in Dili receives up to 150 patients every day. Besides providing free emergency health care for the city's population, it serves as a referral hospital for all of East Timor.
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/NORTHERN CAUCASUS: RED CROSS STEPS UP RELIEF FOR DISPLACED IN INGUSHETIA: The ICRC and the Russian Red Cross, which have helped tens of thousands of people since the latest outbreak of hostilities in the northern Caucasus, will step up their activities so as to provide assistance for 100,000 displaced people a month in Ingushetia.
SUDAN: ICRC DISTRIBUTES FISHING EQUIPMENT AND MOSQUITO NETS IN WESTERN UPPER NILE: During the first week of November an ICRC team conducted a four-day mission to Bow, 40 kilometres south of Bentiu in western Upper Nile. Having assessed the economic security situation, it distributed fishing equipment and mosquito nets to 6,000 households belonging to 13 different Nuer sub-clans scattered throughout the area.
ARGENTINA: SEMINAR ON HUMANITARIAN LAW FOR HIGH-LEVEL MILITARY PERSONNEL: On 2 and 3 November the ICRC regional delegation and the Argentine Joint Chiefs of Staff organized a seminar in Buenos Aires on the subject "Conduct of military operations and international protection of the individual".
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EAST TIMOR DILI GENERAL HOSPITAL - MORE THAN FREE MEDICAL CARE
The ICRC-supported General Hospital in Dili receives up to 150 patients every day. Besides providing free emergency health care for the city's population, it serves as a referral hospital for all of East Timor. It also provides medical assistance for those returning to East Timor from their places of refuge, mainly West Timor.
Long after dark the ferries of the International Organization for Migration and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees docked at Dili harbour continue to let off hundreds of returnees from the camps in West Timor. And every night up to 15 patients are admitted to the General Hospital's emergency room.
Medical care is extremely difficult to obtain in the camps, and after a long and harrowing journey by road and by sea the returnees show signs of exhaustion. Many come with old wounds and chronic illnesses. Each patient is immediately seen by a doctor, given medical care and kept under observation until the morning.
Those who come seeking medical attention are generally accompanied by similarly exhausted family members. As is the custom here, once the patient is admitted the relatives settle down for the night in the hospital compound, where they meet people who remained in East Timor during the recent turmoil or who returned earlier. They swap stories about their struggle to survive in the forests and their search for safety in West Timor. They also obtain information concerning those who arrived in Dili before them and have left for their home towns.
Some returnees bear precious news of relatives and friends who are still in the camps for the displaced in West Timor. At the ICRC tracing office, which is situated in the hospital compound, such news helps people determine where their loved ones are and thus speeds up the delivery of Red Cross messages.
Over 14,000 messages have been collected so far, mainly in East and West Timor, and are being delivered to people separated by the events which followed East Timor's vote for independence. The local network for the collection and distribution of Red Cross messages has also been reactivated in the towns of Baucau, Liquica, Los Palos, Viqueque, Ainaro and Same (East Timor) and in Kupang and Atambua (West Timor).
Further information: Michael Kleiner, ICRC Dili, tel. ++62 390 321 448; satellite tel. ++872 76 184 42 95 / ++872 76 184 39 55
RUSSIAN FEDERATION/NORTHERN CAUCASUS RED CROSS STEPS UP RELIEF FOR DISPLACED IN INGUSHETIA
The ICRC and the Russian Red Cross, which have helped tens of thousands of people since the latest outbreak of hostilities in the northern Caucasus, will step up their activities so as to provide assistance for 100,000 displaced people a month in Ingushetia. This has already begun with the dispatch of 3,000 tonnes of aid to the region.
According to official figures, more than 180,000 people have been displaced as a result of renewed violence in the region. In Ingushetia, where most of them have fled, and where living conditions have deteriorated in the last few days as temperatures have fallen below zero, the ICRC and the Russian Red Cross have distributed relief items such as family food parcels, bread (5,000 loaves daily), hygiene kits, stoves, kitchen sets, plastic sheeting and jerrrycans to more than 30,000 people in 40 different locations. Last week alone, seven ICRC trucks brought aid to 10,000 people in Nazran. A water and sanitation programme has also started with the installation of bladder tanks in places where the displaced are gathered and where poor sanitation conditions prevail.
As humanitarian needs continue to grow in Chechnya, the ICRC is seeking to determine the best way to carry out its activities there. Its priority is to obtain safe and unhindered access to all those in need throughout Chechen territory. Another urgent need is to ensure that medical assistance reaches hospitals so that they can continue to function. Owing to the precarious security conditions and to the theft of nearly all the equipment in the ICRC office in Grozny, ICRC staff have been temporarily relocated to Ingushetia.
On 1 November, on behalf of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, the ICRC launched an appeal for more than 18 million Swiss francs to increase its activities in the region. A plan of action drawn up by the Russian Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the ICRC provides for the distribution of aid to some 150,000 victims of the conflict in the region over the coming five months.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 4122 730 23 07; Victoria Catliff, ICRC Moscow, tel. ++ 7095 926 54 26.
SUDAN ICRC DISTRIBUTES FISHING EQUIPMENT AND MOSQUITO NETS IN WESTERN UPPER NILE
During the first week of November an ICRC team conducted a four-day mission to Bow, 40 kilometres south of Bentiu in western Upper Nile. Having assessed the economic security situation, it distributed fishing equipment and mosquito nets to 6,000 households belonging to 13 different Nuer sub-clans scattered throughout the area.
Last April, before the start of the rainy season, the ICRC had already distributed seed and tools in various parts of western Upper Nile. In May fighting resumed between the military factions present in the region, and the ICRC and other humanitarian organizations were denied access to the area between Bentiu and Leer.
The ICRC team discovered that despite the intense fighting of the past months the local inhabitants had been able to stay in their villages and cultivate their fields. Moreover, thanks to this year's abundant rainfall the coming harvest is expected to be a good one and economic security has generally improved since April. This may not reflect the situation in the entire Upper Nile region.
As is their custom, with the onset of the dry season the population of the areas visited will move to the nearby swamps with their cattle and remain there for four to five months. Besides milk, game and whatever they can find growing wild, fish is the main source of food for these people during the dry season, and fishing hooks and twine were what they needed most to ensure an adequate diet. Since mosquitoes are a serious health hazard near the swamps, netting was distributed as well.
Further information: Markus Brudermann, ICRC Khartoum, tel. ++ 249 11 476 464
ARGENTINA SEMINAR ON HUMANITARIAN LAW FOR HIGH-LEVEL MILITARY PERSONNEL
On 2 and 3 November the ICRC regional delegation and the Argentine Joint Chiefs of Staff organized a seminar in Buenos Aires on the subject "Conduct of military operations and international protection of the individual". The seminar, held under the watchword "Even wars have limits", was attended by about 200 people, comprising senior officers of the three branches of the armed forces and military attaches from several countries. During the two days of discussions the participants were able to update their knowledge of the international responsibilities involved in the command of military operations.
Talks were given by the ICRC and by Argentine university professors and military experts on topics such as the convergence of the systems of protection afforded by human rights law and international humanitarian law, the application of humanitarian law in internal conflicts, the responsibility of commanders in military operations, the repression of grave breaches, the latest developments in the rules governing the conduct of hostilities, and the role of the ICRC in the implementation of this body of law.
At the closing session, which was chaired by the Minister of Defence, addresses were given by the ICRC regional delegate, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the official responsible for national defence. The participation of these senior military authorities demonstrates the importance accorded by the Argentine armed forces to instruction in international humanitarian law, which over the years has become an integral part of military training and has been placed on a professional footing.
Further information: Corinne Adam, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2224 Steven Andersen, ICRC Buenos Aires, tel. ++5411 4312 1713
During the weekend of 13 - 14 November 1999, for all information please call the press officer on duty Corinne Adam, on (mobile) 41 79 202 36 80