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RUSSIAN FEDERATION / NORTHERN CAUCASUS: ASSISTANCE CONTINUES IN INGUSHETIA: The Red Cross is pursuing the humanitarian operations it has been carrying out in the northern Caucasus for the victims of the conflict in Chechnya and the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: ICRC VISITS POOL REGION: On 9 and 10 December an ICRC team visited the conflict-affected areas of the southern Pool region, 70kilometres south-west of Brazzaville. This is the first time that the ICRC has been able to travel to these areas since renewed fighting broke out in the country in late December 1998.
CAMBODIA: NEWS OF A SON AFTER 25 YEARS: Aun (all names have been changed to protect the people involved) had never lost hope that her son Meth was still alive, even though she had not heard from him for 25 years. Together with her husband and four other children, she prayed for some news of Meth, a former monk who left his native Kompot province with the Khmer Rouge guerrilla fighters in 1975.
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RUSSIAN FEDERATION / NORTHERN CAUCASUS ASSISTANCE CONTINUES IN INGUSHETIA
The Red Cross is pursuing the humanitarian operations it has been carrying out in the northern Caucasus for the victims of the conflict in Chechnya and the most vulnerable sectors of the population. Working together with the local committees of the Russian Red Cross, the 185 ICRC local staff members present in the region are conducting the operations under the supervision of five expatriate delegates based in Nalchik (republic of Kabardino-Balkaria).
Ingushetia is the main beneficiary of the aid being provided. According to official sources, the republic, which borders on Chechnya, has taken in some 200,000displaced people. From October to mid-December the ICRC distributed essential supplies (food and hygiene parcels, blankets, flour, kitchen utensils, jerrycans, etc.) to more than 100,000 people there. Thanks to the oven set up in cooperation with the Ingush committee of the Russian Red Cross, 10,000 loaves of bread are being distributed every day to the displaced. Several reception centres have also been equipped to store the drinking water brought in by tanker trucks.
Over two thirds of the displaced in Ingushetia have found shelter with local residents. Others are staying in reception centres (eight camps for 25,000 people) and about 30,000 more are living in makeshift shelters that are often unfit for human habitation. All these people depend largely for their survival on the assistance provided by the Red Cross, which has had to increase the rations.
Further information: ICRC Moscow, tel. ++ 70 95 926 54 26
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO ICRC VISITS POOL REGION
On 9 and 10 December an ICRC team visited the conflict-affected areas of the southern Pool region, 70kilometres south-west of Brazzaville. This is the first time that the ICRC has been able to travel to these areas since renewed fighting broke out in the country in late December 1998. The main purpose of the trip was to assess the general security situation in the two districts of Kinkala and Boko and evaluate the needs of the civilian population.
While the security situation has improved in some parts of the southern Pool in recent months, in other parts civilians are still caught up in the conflict. This remains a major concern for the ICRC.
The most urgent needs reflect the complete breakdown of administrative and health services in the area. Since late July, insecurity, food shortages and lack of medicine and proper medical care have forced up to 10,000 people a week to leave the Pool for Brazzaville. And every week hundreds more pour into the main towns, Kinkala and Boko, in search of assistance. Some of these people come from the forests, where they fled, others from surrounding villages. Most of them, both children and adults, are malnourished and in urgent need of medical treatment. The ICRC team was told that many had been left behind because they were too weak to walk.
In Kinkala, the destruction of the water treatment plant has made the situation particularly critical: 80per cent of the water needs are covered by rainfall and the rainy season is due to end in early January.
The programmes recently set up in Boko and Kinkala by humanitarian agencies are still insufficient to cover the population's needs. Unless increased assistance is provided, the displacement of malnourished and sick civilians will continue.
Further information: Laurent Colassis, ICRC Brazzaville, tel. ++ 242 81 12 08 / ++243 880 30 73 Roland Sidler, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 20 45
CAMBODIA NEWS OF A SON AFTER 25 YEARS
Aun (all names have been changed to protect the people involved) had never lost hope that her son Meth was still alive, even though she had not heard from him for 25 years. Together with her husband and four other children, she prayed for some news of Meth, a former monk who left his native Kompot province with the Khmer Rouge guerrilla fighters in 1975.
Years of war and hardship went by. After the fighting died down, the postal service remained disrupted in most areas and many Cambodians simply lacked the means to go searching for their relatives.
In 1995 Aun asked the Red Cross to help her trace her missing son. Since 1989 the ICRC has been actively supporting the efforts of the Cambodian Red Cross tracing agency to reunite relatives separated by long years of conflict. The agency has so far managed to trace 20,767 persons in the country and abroad but it has had difficulty gaining access to certain areas: those that used to be controlled by the Khmer Rouge were off-limits and many areas are still mined.
In December 1999 the Red Cross finally tracked down Aun's son in Samlot province, in western Cambodia. Now 44 years old, he was living there with his wife and three children, whose photos he attached to the message which the Red Cross workers took back to his family:
"Dear father, mother and siblings,
I miss all of you very much. For many years I had no news of you and could not tell you anything about myself. I did not know whether you were alive and well."
Knowing how anxious people are to find their missing relatives, he added:
"Please tell your neighbour Em that I have not seen her brother, my good friend Kem, since 1973. I have been looking for him everywhere, but in vain."
Nearly 8,000 Cambodians are still searching for their loved ones through the Red Cross. Many of them were separated from their relatives more than 20 years ago. Aun's story shows how important it is to keep hope alive.
Further information: Aleksandra Matijevic, ICRC Phnom Penh, tel. ++ 855 23 720 938 / ++ 855 12 804 795
During the weekend of 24 - 26 December, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Roland Sidler, on (mobile) ++ 41 79 217 32 58, or from the 30 December to the 3 January, please call duty press officer Urs Boegli on (mobile) ++ 41 79 203 94 05.
As 1999 draws to a close, we send our readers the season's greetings and our very best wishes for the New Year.
The next issue of ICRC News will appear on 6 January 2000.