ICRC News 45 / 11.12.97

ICRC News 45 / 11.12.97


** SHORT MENU....

SOMALIA/ETHIOPIA: FLOOD VICTIMS NEED URGENT HELP: The ICRC has this week
launched an emergency relief operation for the victims of flooding in
Somalia brought about by torrential rains that have caused the Shabele
and Juba rivers to overflow their banks.

UGANDA: AID TO 80,000 PEOPLE DISPLACED IN THE SOUTH-WEST: Whenever
35-year-old Biira, mother of nine children, wants to see her house
again, she has to negotiate steep hill paths, escorted by three soldiers
of the Ugandan army.

RWANDA: HELPING THE VULNERABLE HELP THEMSELVES: The need is simple but
pressing: seeds and a hoe. For some of the poorest people in Rwanda, the
rudimentary means to grow their own food spells the difference between
being dependent on outside aid and being self-sufficient.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION/NORTHERN CAUCASUS: AFTERMATH OF A CONFLICT: The
situation in the northern Caucasus remains a source of humanitarian
concern, and security conditions still leave a great deal to be desired.

COLOMBIA: ESCORT TO FREEDOM: The ICRC delegation in Colombia has
facilitated the release of two engineers, held hostage since early 1997
by the National Liberation Army, one of the main guerrilla groups in the
country.

YEMEN: SEMINAR DECLARES SUPPORT FOR OTTAWA TREATY: A seminar on
anti-personnel mines held in Sana'a, Yemen on 3 and 4 November began
with an announcement by the Yemeni government that it would sign the
Ottawa treaty.


** STORIES IN FULL...

SOMALIA/ETHIOPIA
FLOOD VICTIMS NEED URGENT HELP

The ICRC has this week launched an emergency relief operation for the
victims of flooding in Somalia brought about by torrential rains that
have caused the Shabele and Juba rivers to overflow their banks. ICRC
pilots transporting humanitarian aid have reported that, in some places,
the rivers are eight kilometres wider than usual. The swollen waters
have washed away entire villages, recently sown maize and sorghum crops,
patiently built irrigation canals, food and seed supplies and livestock.
The situation is nothing short of a catastrophe, with an estimated
half-million persons affected in southern Somalia alone.

The ICRC has dispatched personnel by road from Mogadishu to the areas
surrounding the flooded towns of Jilib and Marere, in the Middle Juba
district. Further north along the Juba river, staff have been flown in
to the town of Buale in order to gather precise information on the
number of victims and devise the best way to reach them. They have so
far identified at least 10,000 families in need of aid.

ICRC aircraft have delivered high-energy biscuits, blankets and
tarpaulins to some 3,000 households in the towns of Luuq and Burdubo, in
Gedo district. Owing to the absence of dry firewood, these biscuits are
for the moment the only food available for immediate consumption. A
further 10,000 households should benefit from ICRC aid in the immediate
future if the weather, and the state of the landing strips, permit.

In Ethiopia -- unlike Somalia, where there is no national authority or
State structure -- the government has taken prompt relief action. While
food needs are being covered by the government, the Ethiopian Red Cross
Society, supported by the ICRC, is focusing on the distribution of
essential non-food items (blankets, plastic sheeting, jerrycans, etc.)
and basic medical supplies, as well as seed to enable agriculture to
resume immediately.

Further information: Josue Anselmo, ICRC Nairobi, Tel. ++2542 723 963
Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, Tel. ++41 22 730 2281


UGANDA
AID TO 80,000 PEOPLE DISPLACED IN THE SOUTH-WEST

Whenever 35-year-old Biira, mother of nine children, wants to see her
house again, she has to negotiate steep hill paths, escorted by three
soldiers of the Ugandan army. For a year now, this area of south-western
Uganda, near the country's borders with Rwanda and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, has been the scene of regular clashes between the
Allied Democratic Forces and the Ugandan army. Nearly 100,000 people
have had to abandon their homes and their fields.

Some 10,000 of these people have found refuge in the deserted houses of
Kilembe, a town that just a few years ago accommodated the families of
workers at a cobalt mine there. Now, Biira has nothing but the scant
harvest of cassava leaves which she gets from a tiny hillside plot of
land allotted her by the local authorities. She is alone in taking
caring of her children, who share with her a small room that doubles as
kitchen and bedroom.

On 8 November, the ICRC organized a food distribution in Kilembe to
augment the displaced people's meagre resources. Despite the burden of
the heavy basket perched on her small frame, Biira was all smiles as she
carried home her sack of flour, plus cooking oil, salt, beans and soap.

Since June 1997, the ICRC has been setting up programmes to provide aid
in the form of food and other essential items for displaced Ugandans,
most of whom live in extremely precarious conditions.

Further information: Josue Anselmo, ICRC Nairobi, Tel. ++2542 723 963


RWANDA
HELPING THE VULNERABLE HELP THEMSELVES

The need is simple but pressing: seeds and a hoe. For some of the
poorest people in Rwanda, the rudimentary means to grow their own food
spells the difference between being dependent on outside aid and being
self-sufficient.

In the last two months, the ICRC has acted through local associations
and Rwandan non-governmental organizations in different areas of the
country to distribute seed, agricultural tools and fertilizer to over
2,000 people.

With the start of the rainy season, this assistance will allow the
beneficiaries to plant beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, carrots,
cabbage and onions, thus enabling them to start back down the road to
autonomy.

Many of these people are widows or orphans and often support an entire
household. Most work small private or collective plots owned by local
non-profit organizations. In other cases, however, age or infirmity
makes it impossible for them to do the heavy work required to prepare
the plots for planting. In these cases, the ICRC provides additional aid
to the organizations owning the plots to enable them to organize
food-for-work programmes to get the planting done.

Further information: Bernard Barrett, ICRC Kigali, Tel. ++250 72 783


RUSSIAN FEDERATION/NORTHERN CAUCASUS
AFTERMATH OF A CONFLICT

The situation in the northern Caucasus remains a source of humanitarian
concern, and security conditions still leave a great deal to be desired.
More than a year after the end of hostilities in Chechnya, a section of
the population -- largely destitute elderly people, orphans and the
disabled -- is poverty-stricken and in need of assistance.

For the inhabitants of the capital Grozny, another hard winter is
looming. Reconstruction work is progressing slowly and the supply
networks for water, electricity and heating, which were destroyed during
the conflict, are not yet fully operational again. The first to suffer
from this situation are the elderly, often of Russian origin. To assist
them the ICRC has just launched a new programme that will enable 10,000
of them to obtain bread throughout the winter.

Since six of its expatriate staff members were murdered in Novye Atagi
in December 1996, the ICRC has been maintaining some of its activities
in Chechnya and the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Daghestan
from Nalchik, in Kabardino-Balkaria, where it has a team of twelve
delegates. So far this year, it has provided food to over 30,000 persons
in Chechnya, while nearly 68,000 children have received school supplies.
This aid is distributed by local ICRC employees and by branches of the
Russian Red Cross, whose social welfare programmes are funded by the
ICRC. In Ingushetia and Daghestan, as in Chechnya itself, the security
situation prevents the ICRC from deploying expatriate staff there.

Meanwhile, the ICRC has broadened the scope of its activities in the
northern Caucasus. Working out of Nalchik, it is supporting the
programmes of local Red Cross branches to assist particularly vulnerable
people in the four republics of Adigea, Kabardino-Balkaria,
Karachaievo-Cherkessia and North Ossetia, and also in the territories of
Krasnodar and Stavropol in the south of the Russian Federation. For
example, 30,000 people (displaced and particularly vulnerable) benefited
from food distributions in these two territories in August and September
1997. The Red Cross branches in the seven republics reach a monthly
total of 1,200 people with their home-care programmes, while also
providing 1,200 particularly vulnerable people with food and other
essential items.

Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, Tel. ++41 22 730 23 07


COLOMBIA
ESCORT TO FREEDOM

The ICRC delegation in Colombia has facilitated the release of two
engineers, held hostage since early 1997 by the National Liberation
Army, one of the main guerrilla groups in the country. The releases,
which occurred on 9 November, took place in the department of Antioquia
and the department of Magdalena. The two men, a 47-year-old Norwegian
and a 41-year-old Spaniard, had been captured on 21 February and 27 June
respectively.

Nearly all the parties to the conflict in Colombia have for some years
now been involved in hostage-taking. In recent months, the number of
incidents has soared alarmingly. As of 15 October 1997, more than 420
cases had been recorded by the ICRC delegation in Bogota, compared with
273 for the whole of 1996.

Hostage-taking is a grave breach of international humanitarian law under
Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions. ICRC action in such
cases is strictly humanitarian, with delegates limiting themselves to
contacting the hostage-takers, visiting the persons held, forwarding Red
Cross messages between captives and their families or representatives,
where necessary providing basic essentials, and where appropriate
furnishing logistical support at the time of release.

Between 1 January and 15 October 1997, the ICRC helped in the release of
219 persons who had been abducted throughout the country. In addition,
the ICRC coordinated the release on 15 June of 70 soldiers who had been
held captive by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces. As regards the
two engineers who have just been released, the ICRC had no direct
contact with them during their captivity, but was able to send them
messages from their families and supply them with clothes.

Further information: Ruben Ortega, ICRC Geneva, Tel.  ++ 41 22 730 24 54


YEMEN
Seminar declares support for Ottawa treaty

A seminar on anti-personnel mines held in Sana'a, Yemen on 3 and 4
November began with an announcement by the Yemeni government that it
would sign the Ottawa treaty. It ended with an appeal to all other
countries to do the same. Some 50 participants from governments and
international and non-governmental organizations adopted the seminar's
declaration, which also calls on the international community to increase
funding for mine clearance and assistance to mine victims.

The seminar, the first of its kind in the region, was organized by
Sweden's Save the Children (Radda Barnen) in conjunction with the Yemen
Mines Awareness Committee and the United Nations office in Yemen. It was
hosted by the Yemeni government.

Representatives of the Sudanese and Yemeni Red Crescent Societies and
the ICRC took part in the seminar, which was attended by government
representatives from more than a dozen countries in the region.

Further information: Mary-Anne Andersen, ICRC Geneva,
   Tel. ++ 41 22 730 2329


New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org :
- Update 97/01 on ICRC activities in Uganda, dated  11.11.97

During the weekend of 15 - 16 November 1997, for all information please
call the press officer on duty, Ruben Ortega, 
   on (mobile) 41 79 217 3203