GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ICRC (International Red Cross) in Geneva and the Libyan Red Cross have begun a three-week radio campaign in Libya to warn the population of the danger of explosive remnants of war. The programme is being launched a day after the Landmine Monitor Report 2011 cautioned that landmine detection work will need to be stepped up in Libya in the wake of several months of fighting.
The ICRC said in Geneva 24 November that billboards, posters and leaflets will back up the campaign, with four radio stations broadcasting the information six times a day.
“The danger exists in different places in Libya, but the campaign is primarily addressing people who are gradually returning to their homes in Sirte and Bani Walid. The heavy fighting which took place until last month left the two cities seriously contaminated by such devices,” the ICRC says in a statement. “The threat to civilians in these urban areas, mainly from small unexploded weapons such as grenades, rockets and mortar shells, is severe,’ says Jennifer Reeves, an ICRC delegate. ‘In Sirte in the past week alone, two children playing with one of these devices and a young man cleaning his damaged house were badly injured. Many people are unaware of the dangers posed by ordnance which may explode at the slightest touch.’ Dozens of civilians have been killed or maimed in the country in similar circumstances in the past month.’”
The ICRC says it has removed some 1,400 unexploded devices in some of the areas worst affected by the hostilities, including Ajdabiya, Misrata and the Nefusa mountains. It has also trained over 140 Libyan Red Crescent volunteers to raise awareness of the threat among the local population.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An ICRC (International Red Cross) official has told news agency Reuters that its staff has visited Seif al-Islam Qaddafi in Zintan, in western Libya, where he is being held. The ICRC limited its comments to the fact he appears to be in good health, noting that he is one of 8,500 people detained in Libya that the humanitarian group has visited since fighting began there early in 2011.
Al-Islam Qaddafi was widely considered to be in line to take over the Qaddafi regime before it lost its hold on power in Libya.
Peter Maurer, from Swiss diplomacy to Int. Red Cross(photo ©2011 Swiss EDA/DFAE)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jakob Kellenberger, 67, who has headed the ICRC (International Red Cross) since 2000 will be leaving, to be replaced by Swiss diplomat Peter Maurer, 55, currently head of the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department. The ICRC confirmed the news late Wednesday. Maurer will step into his new role in July 2012.
Maurer has headed the Foreign Affairs Department since January 2010. He was previously Switzerland’s ambassador and head of mission to the UN in New York.
He spoke at a conference in Bern Tuesday about his frustration with double standards in handling the Arab Spring.
Kellenberger, who also comes from the Swiss diplomatic corps, was born in Appenzell in 1944. He became a well-known figure in European diplomatic circles as the chief negotiator of Switzerland’s bilateral agreements, hammered out one by one, with the European Union, from 1994 to 1998.
The ICRC has been in the news this week for its role in the prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel as well as its role in obtaining the release of a 10-year-old girl kidnapped in Colombia, presumably by terrorists.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The kidnapping of a 10-year-old girl in Colombia three weeks ago outraged the country and when Nohora Valentina Munoz was released near the Venezuelan border Monday evening 17 October, the country’s president gave effusive thanks to the Geneva-based International Red Cross (ICRC), which negotiated the child’s freedom.
She and her mother were kidnapped 29 September, en route to the girl’s school. Her mother, the wife of Jorge Enrique Munoz, mayor of the town of Fortul in Arauca, was released the morning of the kidnapping.
It is not clear who took the pair, nor have any of the conditions for the child’s release been given. The ICRC in Geneva does not release details of such negotiations in which it is involved.
El Tempo (Spa) newspaper, which has covered the case heavily reported earlier that 1,800 police set up several search and rescue operations for the girl but that these were called off at the request of the ICRC, in order to allow negotiations to begin.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The International Red Cross, ICRC, has offered to help facilitate the swap of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, next week in Egypt, Reuters reports Monday morning 17 October. Officials involved in the negotiations have told media in the region that the swap could involved up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
© 2011 MSF / Brendan Bannon
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two women, Medecin Sans Frontieres (MSF) staff, were kidnapped at 13:20 Thursday 13 October from the Ifo extension area of the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya. Their driver is undergoing urgent medical treatment after being shot.
Dadaab is the world’s largest refugee camp, with 463,739 Somali refugees, more than 190,000 of whom have fled Somalia this year.
MSF issued the following statement, saying that in the interests of the safe return of the woman, it will not issue further statements:
“Two international staff, both Spanish, were taken. As yet, MSF has not been able to re-establish contact with the two staff taken. A crisis team has been set up to deal with this incident, and the families have been informed.
“‘We strongly condemn this attack,’ says José Antonio Bastos, the president of MSF-Spain. ‘MSF is in contact with all the relevant authorities and is doing all it can to ensure the swift and safe return of our colleagues. Meanwhile, our thoughts are with them and with their families in this difficult time.’”
International agencies expressed their outrage. “These MSF colleagues were working to rescue lives, says UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. “It is wholly unacceptable that they should be made targets for kidnap. I appeal to those responsible to facilitate their immediate and safe return.”
ICRC, the International Red Cross, has been increasingly vocal about the dangers facing international independent aid workers.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ICRC (International Red Cross) said Wednesday 5 October that it has started to distribute food to help 1.1 million Somalis living in the areas hardest hit by war, in southern and central Somalia. Enough beans, rice and oil to survive for one month are already being given to 72,000 people in the Gedo region, says the ICRC, and several more distribution rounds are planned.
The distribution follows successful negotiations with the Al-Shabaab militants who have control of the region. The ICRC said Wednesday that Al-Shabaab is respecting its neutrality. It has been working in Somalia since 1978 and since 1982 has had local and Nairobi-based staff, some of whom can venture into areas closed to foreigners. It works closely with the Somali Red Crescent Society.
The region has been closed to foreign aid groups, adding to the woes of the estimated 750,000 people who may be close to starvation, according to the UN, and the 4 million who are considered by the UN to be in need of aid. The UN in September declared a famine in six regions in the country.
The US considers Al-Shabaab a terrorist organization with close ties to Al Qaeda.
“While food distributions are needed to relieve immediate suffering, the ICRC also aims over the medium term to give the population the means to sustain their own livelihoods,” the Geneva-based group says in a Wednesday press release.
This is how the new ICRC building in Satigny will look like - Photo Fipoi
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, inaugurated its new logistics centre in Satigny 14 September: a 3,500m2 building close to the airport that serves mainly as an area to stock medical supplies the ICRC furnishes to populations hurt by armed conflicts and violence.
The new building, where supplies benefit from temperature control and are well-guarded, also houses 30 offices: logistics and financial departments. It is about 15 minutes from the ICRC head office near the United Nations.
The land was supplied by canton Geneva and FIPOI, the Fondation des immeubles pour les organizations internationals, provided an interest-free CHF26 million 50-year loan to cover the cost of construction.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Appeals are being launched from Geneva to help fight the famine that is following the worst drought in 50 years in southern Somalia, coupled with fighting in the region. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 18 July officially labelled the catastrophic situation a famine and UN organizations, including those based in Geneva, are scrambling to provide more aid, rapidly.
Links to operations update and donors pages for some organizations:
- ICRC, International Red Cross
- IOM, International Organization for Migration
- UNHCR, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- Chaine de bonheur, known in English as Swiss Solidarity, is a Swiss foundation that works with Swiss Public Broadcast Corporation and Swiss humanitarian and charitable organizations to organize major fundraising drives. The funds are then shared by several organizations. The current on to help fight the famine in Somalia has raised nearly CHF2.3 million in 10 days, but more is needed, the group says.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two Geneva-based humanitarian aid groups, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Red Cross (ICRC) are to receive $8 million in new funding from the US government for operations in Cote d’Ivoire, the US Mission in Geneva announced Friday 6 May. The money brings to $43m the total the US State Department has earmarked for humanitarian aid in the region.
The UNHCR will receive $6.5 million and the ICRC $2m. The funds are intended for health care and essential household items, construction and maintenance of camps, increasing access to clean water, and restoring family links severed as a result of displacement, the US State Department says.
More than 170,000 people have fled the fighting in Cote d’Ivoire, most of them to neighboring Liberia and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced.
The US announced 5 May it is donating $6.5m to the IOM in Geneva to help fund the evacuations from Misrata, Libya.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The IOM (International Organization for Migration) and other Geneva-based humanitarian aid groups, including the ICRC (International Red Cross), say the situation has worsened for civilians and the injured trying to flee the fighting around Misrata, Libya.
The IOM mentions that civilians are facing not only shelling but landmines laid in the area around the port, their lifeline to liberty.
The latest Red Star One rescue boat left Misrata Wednesday with only 800 people aboard, including a group of 20 journalists and doctors, instead of the 1,000 that IOM hoped to pick up:
“Heavy shelling of Misrata in addition to mines having been laid had prevented the IOM boat from docking for five days. The fighting had forced at least 1,000 migrants who had been waiting at the port to be evacuated to flee the area.
IOM had been hoping to rescue about 1,000 stranded migrants in addition to evacuating the most serious medical cases . . . the IOM team leader on the boat Othman Belbeisi reported that hundreds of Libyan civilians had also tried to board the ship in desperation to get out of Misrata. But with a limited capacity, the ramp of the boat had to be pulled up so that the ship could pull away from the dock in safety.”
The Norwegian Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva says that at least 106,000 Libyans are now internally displaced by the fighting inside the country, many of them having been forced to move several times since the war broke out in mid-February.
Critically injured French journalist part of 935 rescued Wednesday from Misrata
Update 17:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The IOM (International Organization for Migration) and the International Red Cross (ICRC) say the Red Star One, a ship that left Benghazi, in eastern Libya late Tuesday 26 April for Misrata to deliver medical supplies and pick up 1,000 refugees, was forced to wait offshore until Wednesday morning, due to heavy fighting in the area. Reuters reported Wednesday morning that one migrant from Niger was killed by the shelling and up to 20 people reportedly injured.
IOM says in a statement issued Wednesday evening that the ship is safely en route to Benghazi and is expected to land there Thursday morning. “Among the 935 evacuees are 848 Nigeriens and small groups of Sudanese, Egyptians and Tunisians as well as 30 Libyan medical cases and 50 accompanying family members. Also on board are a group of journalists being taken out of Misrata, including a French journalist who had been shot in the neck and now in intensive care.”
Fifth ship with migrants makes it out of Misrata
The ship was making its fifth refugee pickup at the port city. The IOM warns that another 500 are waiting for help near the port and that people in the area say the number may be closer to 1,500 when those who ran from the area, as shelling started, return.
It had been loaded with 160 tons of food and medical supplies, according to the IOM, including two new ambulances to help transport casualties to Misrata’s Ras Touba hospital and from the hospital to the port area for medical evacuation.
A specialized medical team of 11, including personnel from the International Medical Corps, was on board the Red Star One to take care of up to 25 war-wounded, including 4 patients requiring intensive care.
More than 625,000 have fled Libya since March
Wednesday’s statement notes:
“So far, IOM has rescued 5,512 people, the vast majority stranded migrant workers from more than 21 nationalities, including Nigeriens, Bangladeshis, Ghanaians, Nigerians, Egyptians and Tunisians as well as hundreds of Libyans, many of them war-wounded.
From Benghazi, IOM provides the migrants onward land transportation to the Egyptian border at Sallum. Since it began a land evacuation from Benghazi to Sallum on 3 March, IOM has evacuated more than 8,000 migrants from Benghazi to the Egyptian border before taking them to their home countries.
IOM’s humanitarian evacuation programme out of Misrata is funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office (ECHO), Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), Germany, Ireland and Australia.
Nearly 626,000 people have fled Libya and crossed into Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Algeria, Chad, and Sudan with some of them putting their lives in great danger to reach the shores of Italy and Malta.”
Two Geneva-based organizations at centre of Libyan aid and evacuation say more funds needed
The UNHCR is appealing for $160 million or the Libyan evacuation. It has to date received $68 million.
The ICRC earlier in April opened an appeal for $24 million for the Libya crisis, mainly for food, water, medical care, sanitation and hygiene, for 100,000 people inside the country and another 100,000 crossing the border into Tunisia. Its director-general, Yves Daccord, is interviewed on the ICRC site about the funding crunch, as state donors are providing less and the needs are growing.
The Red Cross has created a Family Links web site to connect families after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), working closely with the Japanese Red Cross, has created a Family Links web site to help people who are seeking other family members in the wake of the 11 March earthquake and tsunami north of Tokyo.
The list of those missing, created Friday, had scores of names by Saturday. The ICRC notes on the site that if you do not find the name you are looking for, be sure to return, as names are added continually.
The areas particularly affected are the prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima, Tochigi and Ibaraki, says the ICRC.
“People in Japan and abroad can register on the website to inform their family and friends that they are safe and provide their current contact details, while those looking for people can check the list for information. They can also register the names of missing family members and friends, encouraging them to get in touch,” the Geneva-based organization says.
The service is free and open to everyone. For those who don’t have easy Internet access or who need help using the site, the ICRC suggests contacting the nearest Red Cross office.
Libya-Tunisian border, end of February (photo, ©UNHCR / A Duclos)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The numbers are daunting, whether the size of the crowds fleeing Libya’s battlegrounds, or the amount of aid needed, in kind and in cash, to help them. A roundup of the latest news and appeals from Geneva-based humanitarian and emergency aid teams:
ICRC (International Red Cross)
Two ICRC medical teams, 10 surgeons and nurses, have been in the cities of Benghazi and Ajdabya since 5-6 March, treating people wounded in the fighting.
“The first team was sent to Al Jalaa Hospital in Benghazi, which has received the bulk of the casualties since the onset of the crisis. The second team was posted to Ajdabya Central Hospital, which has also received dozens injured in the clashes in and around the city. These steps were taken in coordination with the Libyan Red Crescent and the Benghazi Health Committee, after thorough discussions with all concerned.”
The ICRC teams comprise four specialists from the German Red Cross, four specialists from the Norwegian Red Cross, and an ICRC doctor and nurse.
“‘Even though hospitals in Benghazi and nearby cities have coped so far with the influx of casualties, we are helping some of them replenish their emergency stocks in case the situation deteriorates,’ said Simon Brooks, ICRC representative in Benghazi. ‘Today, in cooperation with the Libyan Red Crescent, we also sent enough surgical supplies and equipment to treat 100 injured people in the west of the country.’”
The ICRC’s medical teams, headed by Dr Marco Baldan, held a surgical seminar for more than 70 Libyan doctors and nurses at Al Jalaa hospital on 5 and 6 March.
IOM (International Organization for Migration)
The IOM says the hardest-hit group is Bangladeshis, many of whom have now been sleeping out in the open in bitterly cold weather for 10 days, with very limited food and water supplies. Evacuations “cannot happen fast enough” for them, say IOM spokespersons.
“In Tunisia, where there are still about 13,000 Bangladeshis at Choucha camp near the Ras Adjir border, 1,264 will leave on IOM charter flights from Djerba. A group of 516 Bangladeshis who left Libya by road via Egypt’s Sallum border crossing will leave on IOM three charter flights in the course of the day from Marsa Matroh, 230 kms east of the border.
A further 372, who arrived in Alexandria yesterday on an IOM-chartered ferry from Benghazi in Libya, will fly home directly from Alexandria airport.
While today’s evacuations were welcomed by the nearly 3,700 Bangladeshis still stranded on the Egyptian border, IOM will need to charter at least 20 more similar flights from Egypt alone to get them home, even if there are no new arrivals from Libya.
However, IOM sources in Libya and passengers on the ferry from Benghazi which docked in Alexandria yesterday indicate that there are thousands more foreigners, including Bangladeshis in the city, who may decide to leave if conditions deteriorate. Two more IOM charters carrying nearly 340 more Bangladeshis are scheduled to fly out of Marsa Matroh tomorrow, Wednesday, with an estimated 1,200 more to fly from Djerba.”
UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees)
The UNHCR is urgently seeking help to provide an additiona 40-50 flights to help Bangladeshis and other Asians to leave, even though funds and charter flights donated by governments are already well underway. The number of refugees on the Libya-Tunisia border has dropped significantly, but this is because of limited mobility, arriving refugees say, due to intense fighting in Libya.
“The UNHCR is alarmed by increasing accounts of violence and discrimination in Libya against sub-Saharan Africans. These accounts are coming from both eastern and western areas. . . Yesterday a UNHCR team at the Egypt border interviewed a group of Sudanese who arrived from eastern Libya who said that armed Libyans were going door to door, forcing sub-Saharan Africans to leave. In one instance a 12-year-old Sudanese girl was said to have been raped. They reported that many people had their documents confiscated or destroyed. We heard similar accounts from a group of Chadians who fled Benghazi, Al Bayda and Brega in the past few days.
At the Egyptian border, one Bangladeshi man died over the weekend after a fight over food distribution. UNHCR staff said that many of the 3,500 Bangladeshis at the border have been waiting for up to 10 days for onward transport, and are becoming increasingly agitated. Many are sleeping outside in the bitter cold as available shelter at the border is filled to capacity. Over 14,000 meals were distributed to the stranded population who are in and around the border post yesterday. An estimated 5,000 people are awaiting onwards transport.”
Update 2 March Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Libyan government Tuesday 1 March sent troops to the remote southern border crossing of Dehiba, reports Reuters, ignoring the warships massing around the country. Humanitarian agencies in Geneva meanwhile report that Monday saw the heaviest outpouring of refugees from Libya to date, 14,000 people, with another 10-12,000 expected Tuesday.
The Tunisian border has seen more than 75,000 people cross the border from Libya since 19 February, the vast majority of them Egyptian, and another 40,000 are waiting to cross the border. The massive exodus is putting an enormous strain on local resources in Tunisia, report the IOM and UNHCR in Geneva.
Joint project to speed up evacuations to avoid humanitarian disaster on Libyan border
UNHCR and IOM joined forces late Tuesday, working in partnership with the Egyptian and Tunisian governments, to put in place plans for handling the massive evacuation from Libya on the Tunisian border. Thousands of Egyptians, but also citizens of several other countries, need to be moved rapidly beyond the border areas to avoid a humanitarian disaster. The two Geneva UN organizations are appealing to governments to fund the joint effort and to send experts and supplies as well as to provide boats and planes urgently.
Updates from international organizations in Geneva that are heavily involved in helping the refugees:
UNHCR: UN High Commissioner for Refugees staff at border points Tuesday said the situation is quickly reaching a crisis point, with transport to move those who have just arrived on to their final destinations. Thousands have waited three days on the Libyan side of the Tunisian border, with no shelter at night and bitterly cold temperatures. Self-appointed border guards are refusing to let sub-Saharan Africans cross into Tunisian. Some 1,000 tents that will hold 6-8 persons are being erected Tuesday, and UNHCR is appealing to Unicef and ICRC for more assistance in supplying precariously scarce drinking water and food to the refugees.
ICRC: Medical staff from the International Red Cross are waiting with supplies, ambulances and equipment to enter the western part of Libya to, but conditions are as yet too unstable and the ICRC is calling on Libya to allow it to help the wounded and those in need of medical care.
IOM: Sea and air evacuations organized by the International Organization for Migration are picking up speed, with about 900 Egyptians being flown from the island of Djerba on five planes carrying about 900 people and another 1,450 Egyptians heading for the sea port of Sfax where they will pick up a chartered sea vessel. Bangladeshi refugees are also being helped to move on from Libyan border points and the IOM is working with their government to get them home.
Tunisia, Egypt keep borders open as their citizens rush to provide aid
International funds needed to ease pressure on Libya’s neighbours
Update 08:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Humanitarian agencies based in Geneva are reporting massive numbers of refugees fleeing Libya over the weekend as they step up emergency aid. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other world leaders flew into Geneva Sunday for a special session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Monday.
Switzerland has sent two of its Rapid Intervention teams to the Tunisian and Egyptian borders with Libya to assess the situation. “The humanitarian situation in Libya and the border areas is precarious,” the Swiss federal government said late Sunday in a statement. “It is difficult at the moment, however, to evaluate the extent of the problem.”
Tunisia Saturday told United Nations’ HCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, that 100,000 people had crossed the border from 20-26 February and another 10,000 were expected Saturday: 18,000 are Tunisian, 15,000 Egyptian, 2,500 Libyan and 2,000 Chinese, according to UNHCR.
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ICRC deliveries, video
Egypt has had 55,000 people cross its border with Libya since 19 February: 46,000 Egyptians, 2,100 Libyans and 6,900 third country nationals, mainly from Asian countries.
The two nations, which have both deposed their rulers in recent weeks, are desperately in need of emergency aid to cope with the influxes, say the organizations, which are appealing for generous help from other countries.
Red Cross and Red Crescent funds appeal launched
The International Red Cross, ICRC, launched an emergency funds appeal Friday night, “launched a preliminary emergency appeal for 6 million Swiss francs ($6.4 million/€4.7 million) to meet the emergency needs of people affected by the violent unrest in Libya.”
African refugees treated with distrust in Libya because of mercenary rumours
UNHCR reports that its staff have “met with Libyan police and military who said that they had defected from Government forces and were now working directly with local committees of tribal leaders. The police arranged for UNHCR to meet with tribal leaders, who highlighted the need for humanitarian assistance, with a critical shortage of food throughout the eastern region, as well as shortages of some medical supplies.
“According to the tribal leaders, Africans are being treated with suspicion in eastern Libya, due to rumours about the Government employing mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa. During the meeting UNHCR staff highlighted the fact that thousands of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa are in Libya, and are very vulnerable at this time. The tribal leaders promised to pass this information on to their communities.”
Tunisians, Egyptians: “ordinary citizens” respond to the crisis
Ayman Gharabeih, a senior emergency specialist with UNHCR at the Ras Adjir border with Libya, is working closely with the Tunisian Red Crescent. “It is impressive to see how quickly the government, the Red Crescent and ordinary citizens have responded to this crisis,” he says, noting that according to the Tunisian Red Crescent “Tunisians are driving from far and wide to bring food, blankets and to offer people a safe place to stay.”
ICRC’s Georgios Georgantas, is in charge of coordinating International Red Cross relief efforts in Libya and neighbouring countries at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva, says “our colleagues in Tunisia tell us that the arrival of tens of thousands of displaced people along the border is putting a strain on local infrastructure and that the need for basic services, such as sanitation facilities, is likely to increase as the numbers continue to rise.”
Sunday afternoon, ICRC staff in Egypt were reporting that the situation along the border there was calm, according to Georgantas, in an ICRC statement.
The BBC early Monday qualified the border situation as a “crisis” but, while the numbers leaving Libya are dramatic, reports of numbers of people stranded vary the UNHCR’s Sunday 27 February figure of 75 sent in a statement Sunday 27 February to the BBC’s quote from an unnamed source at a UN refugee agency that “20,000 Egyptians were stranded and needed food and shelter.”
Simon Brooks, the ICRC’s team leader in Benghazi, said Sunday, “We hear that surgeons and orthopaedic specialists are needed in Benghazi’s hospitals, as well as medicine for patients suffering from chronic illnesses. Our initial assessment is that there is no urgent need for food supplies. It’s difficult to know, however, what the needs are outside the city.”
Piedad Córdoba, a Colombian politican, and the ICRC helped negotiate the releases - Photo Ricardo Bello
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two hostages were released Friday 11 February by Farc rebels in Colombia. They released another hostage earlier in the week and have said they intend to free two more Sunday.
The International Red Cross (ICRC) based in Geneva, and a former Colombian senator, Piedad Cordoba, have mediated the releases.
Farc is known to be holding at least 15 other hostages.
The two men were released in separate locations near the jungle in Caqueta, a department in the south of the country.
Michael Kramer, deputy head of the ICRC’s Colombian delegation, says that Marcos Baquero, a municipal councillor, who was freed on Wednesday, 9 February, was the first of the group. Kramer details how what happens when a hostage is freed.
“When we receive them, we talk to them for a while at the place of the handover in order to prepare them for a return to their usual environment.” In Baquero’s case, “We are waiting until the ICRC doctor has examined him and has talked to him about his captivity, his family and his expectations. What is striking is the feeling of time loss experienced by people who have been in the hands of an armed group, not to mention the psychological after-effects and the exhaustion caused by captivity.”
Gontard case friction easing with Swiss, Colombian cooperation; $27 billion victim compensation programme high on Colombian gov’t agenda
Vice President Angelino Garzon listens to questions during a sit-down meeting with the press in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – “Our goal is that in 15 years, lands can be given back to the farmers exiled from their homes and that social programmes will be in place to help them,” Vice-president Angelino Garzon of Colombia told GenevaLunch during a visit to Geneva Thursday 14 October.
The second highest representative of the new Colombian government elected earlier this year, was in Geneva furthering his government’s agenda with the Swiss government, the United Nations and international organizations.
One of the most-talked about topics on his agenda was the “victim compensation programme” that seeks to give land back to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by violence in Colombia. The UNHCR estimates that over 3 million people have been internally displaced, which is why land restitution is a top priority for the government.
The $27 billion dollar programme has already put 200,000 hectares in the State’s hands. “We are seeking to confiscate an additional 600,000 hectares from armed groups operating illegally in the country,” he added.
Although the long-awaited plan may still be far in the future, Garzon believes that in Colombia the “political will to make this a priority is on everyone’s agenda.”
Implementing a broad land restitution programme with deep pockets may be viewed with distrust in a country where government agricultural subsidies that were geared to fostering peasant land productivity became linked, in some cases, to shady deals for the rich.
Garzon thinks things will be different now. “The government is counting on additional laws to ensure that [once approved] the programme works well,” he says.
“Priority will be given to women who are heads of households, orphans, people with disabilities and the elderly.”
Colombia to “respect the judicial system” over Gontard affair, bilateral talks to start in January Read more…
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – International organizations based in Geneva continue to send out urgent messages about the desperate state of humanitarian affairs in Pakistan, where more than 20 million people have been affected by flooding, and the rains continue to worsen the situation. Swiss Solidarity (La Chaîne du Bonheur in French), for its part, is holding a major fundraising appeal today, 18 August, to raise money for several aid groups who are working in Pakistan. Donations can be made by phone, 0800 87 07 07, or online.
Also making urgent appeals because current funds won’t cover the cost of the most basic food, water, shelter and medical care needs in Pakistan:
WHO is providing an overview of the developing health crises in Pakistan. UNHCR is running several human interest stories on their flickr pages, including one about a family that doesn’t even have enough food to break the Ramadan fast that is just starting.
Before the massive flooding in the north of the country in 2010, the Pakistan Red Cross and ICRC have been active in Pakistan in areas where fighting broke out in 2009: Swabi, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. An ICRC delegate interviews a woman in an IDP camp as part of the effort to help her restore contacts with her family (photo: ©2009 ICRC / M Von Bergen)
Update, Reuters video, 10:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The sheer scale of flooding in Pakistan in the past week, and the damage caused by it, is daunting: more than 1,100 people have died, according to official sources, and 2.5 million people have been affected. The International Red Cross (ICRC) and the Pakistan National Red Crescent Society are scrambling to provide emergency relief, with more than 20,000 emergency rations for individuals provided in Balochistan and southern Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), and more en route to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Balochistan.
Infrastructure washed away: delivery extremely difficult
But the scale of the flooding is such that delivering relief aid is extraordinarily difficult, says Geneva-based ICRC.
The death toll reportedly rose to 170 in Kyrgystan Tuesday 15 June, and the number of injured is over 1,200, as ethnic unrest continues. Uzbekistan closed its border. The ICRC (International Red Cross) says that some 80,000 refugees have now fled the area around Osh, in the south of the country. The fighting is the worst since 1990, reports CNN, when clashes killed several hundred people.
"The imposed closure of Gaza is entering its fourth year, choking off any possibility of economic development and condemning the population to unemployment, poverty and a deteriorating health care system." (caption, photo ©2010 ICRC
US ambassador to UN in Geneva Monday afternoon calls current situation “unsustainable”, says US open to possible international intervention in inquiry
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The International Red Cross (ICRC) has issued a strong condemnation of Israel and Egypt’s blockade of Gaza, about to enter its fourth year. The call MOnday 14 June for the international community to ensure that the “closure” ends comes as the European Community steps up pressure on Israel, and as Israel opens an internal investigation into a 31 May attack by its forces on an activists’ aid convoy heading for Gaza.
US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, told the UN Human Rights Council Monday that “The situation in Gaza is unsustainable, and we urge all parties to work together to ensure that humanitarian and reconstruction goods are delivered to the people of Gaza,” after noting that “the United States government is deeply disturbed and regrets the tragic loss of life and injuries suffered among those involved in the May 31 incident aboard the Gaza-bound ships. We condemn the acts that resulted in the loss of lives and express our condolences to their families. We expect Israel to conduct a prompt, credible, transparent, and impartial investigation conforming to international standards into all the facts surrounding this tragic incident. We are open to different ways of assuring a credible investigation, including international participation.”
The ICRC said Monday morning 14 June in a press release that “The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law.” Humanitarian aid will not stop the growing problems of poverty, unemployment and poor health care, it argues: only ending the blockade can do that.
The ICRC says that before the blockade some 4,000 types of goods reached Gaza, and that this number is now 80, although it has doubled in the past 12 months. Electricity cuts average seven hours a day, with a “devastating” impact on public services, especially the primary healthcare system.
In recent years, the quality of heath care provided in Gaza has declined with a lack of medicines, drugs and equipment. ©ICRC/C. Goin
Prices have risen and the quality of goods has fallen, says the ICRC. “This is one consequence of the largely unregulated trade conducted through the tunnels that have been dug under the Gaza-Egypt border to circumvent the closure.”
Ninety percent of Gaza’s 4,000 fishermen are now considered poor or very poor, as Israel has continued to tighten fishing restrictions, with fishermen now limited to three nautical miles.
The blockade has had a major impact on agriculture, with the buffer zone imposed by Israel extending over one kilometre into the Gaza Strip. The 50 km2 area is host to nearly one-third of Gaza’s farmland and a large share of its livestock, says the ICRC, which notes that agricultural activities in the area are hampered by security conditions.
Prince Mired of Jordan at GICHD offices overlooking Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Israel’s commando attack on six ships have grabbed world attention this week. Last week it was North Korea’s torpedoes.
Amid the gloomy talk of wars and fighting, one man was quietly but forcefully convincing military and political leaders to take one step in the other direction, away from the tools of war.
Prince Mired Raad Zeid Al Hussein of Jordan was in Geneva last week as the convention president’s special envoy on the universalization of the Mine Ban Convention, en route to Washington, DC, where he spent the last week of May meeting with several top US officials.
His task: convince the US and 38 other states to sign the treaty, to which 156 other nations have agreed to be bound since the convention entered into force in 1999. The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is also known as the Ottawa Convention.
Several countries, including the US, are “coming closer”, he believes. “Having the US would be great. Others would come on board. It would create a media stir.
“There’s not a country we see that doesn’t ask about the US.”
Prince Mired of Jordan in Washington to encourage the US to sign the Ottawa Convention to ban landmines
The US could do enormous good by taking a leadership role and signing, he believes. “This is a walk in the park, compared to Start [the lengthy Start talks with Russia, in Geneva, to reduce nuclear warheads], and a golden opportunity for the US to show the world its goodwill,” he told GenevaLunch during an interview at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) where the secretariat of the Convention is housed in.
Prince Mired will provide an update on his Washington and other visits when he reports back 21 June in Geneva to the Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention.
Myriad reasons for not signing
The reasons for not signing are specific to each country. But a common thread, he says, is that “leadership is not engaged. There is a lack of awareness, really, of being uninformed. One only has to see and deal with victims to understand the importance of this. People see this less, maybe, in the US” than in other countries.
He had just returned from a visit to Laos before coming to Geneva.
“Laos has taken a leadership role in Asia on cluster munitions and there is widespread hope that it would do the same with respect to anti-personnel mines. The country is enjoying the benefit of being recognized for taking a leading role.” Additional benefits would no doubt flow to Laos should it accede to the AP Mine Ban Convention, he believes.
Step by step means progress
China, like the US, is a large country that has not signed, but “China has taken a number of steps – it has participated and made significant strides.” Russia, with fighting hot spots, is more reluctant, but Prince Mired says “the important thing is to take the next step.”
The Oslo Conference on Armed Violence poster depicts conflict and hope
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Each year almost half a million people die as a result of armed violence not related to war, while an additional 250,000 die in armed conflicts. Add to these figures the fact that 60% of homicides in the world involve small arms and light weapons and you can see why armed violence is being called an epidemic of global proportions.
Armed violence, according to Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Store, is a barrier to development, causes human rights violations, fosters impunity and undermines trust in public institutions.
The Minister made the remarks in the framework of the Oslo Conference on Armed Violence. Due to a Europe-wide air travel ban last month, an abbreviated Conference was held in Geneva instead of Norway.
Store joined the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UN high level representatives, and representatives of 60 countries and civil society, to promote adoption of the “Oslo Commitments,” a set of five actions geared to stop violence and foster progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Armed violence globally poses a significant challenge to achieving the goals outlined by the international community in 2000.
The actions to be adopted by states include a better measurement and monitoring of armed violence, appropriate recognition of victims’ rights, improving international cooperation and assistance, and adopting a comprehensive approach to violence prevention.
El Salvador, a country that has struggled against armed violence during the past three decades is one of many to embrace these actions.
Henry Campos speaking in Geneva about the situation in El Salvador
“We have been affected by civil war, by the repatriation of hundreds of street gang members coming from the US who introduced criminal violence to our streets, and by the spilling over our borders of drug trafficking violence that originates in neighboring countries,” said Henry Campos El Salvador’s Vice Minister of Justice and Security.
This Central American nation has taken steps to, according to Campos, “keep moving this agenda forward regardless of who’s in power.”
Like El Salvador, many nations consumed by daily armed violence do not have the sole means to effectively fight its impact, thus the importance of international assistance.
The history of the Mara Salvatruchas, a transnational street gang responsible for spreading violent crime in El Salvador, is a prime example of how armed violence may impede national development. Firearm violence costs the Salvadorian state 11% of the annual GDP, more than twice the budget for education and health.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The eight ICRC (International Red Cross) workers kidnapped 9 April were released unharmed Friday 16 April, the Geneva-based humanitarian agency announced. One Swiss and seven Congolese workers were taken in southern Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo but released with help from the United Nations Mission.
UN peacekeeper killed in north of country
ICRC operations in the DRC (map, ©2010, ICRC)
Update 11:30 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - One Swiss worker and seven other members of an ICRC (International Red Cross) team have reportedly been kidnapped in South Kivu by Mai-Mai rebels, according to AFP news agency, which says it has confirmation from the ICRC’s regional office in DR Congo. The group was returning from a mission when they were taken, but their motive is not yet known and they appear not to have asked for a ransom.
Title: Exhibit: Humanity in war
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Exceptional tour with ICRC delegates on Sunday 18 April 2010 at 11:00 and 14:30. Free guided tour in English on Sunday 25 April at 11:00. This exhibition is a photographic account of war over the last 150 years. From the American Civil War to the conflicts at the beginning of the 21st century.
Start Date: 2010-03-31
End Date: 2010-07-25
Geneva UN and Red Cross groups work on sanitation, health problems
Installing a water reservoir in the women's prison at Petion-Ville. (photo: ©2010 ICRC/M. Kokic/ht-e-00577)
Work for cash, UNDP programme, Haiti 2010 (photo: ©2010 UNDP on flickr)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The arrest of 10 Americans accompanying a busload of children being illegally carried out of Haiti and into the Dominican Republic 30 January by a US religious organization has raised fears that children may be separated from members of their family who survived the 12 January earthquake in the country. Two Geneva-based groups, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and the Geneva office of Unicef, are active in the fight to ensure that children do not become victims of a new Haitian disaster, child trafficking, whether they are orphans or not.
The arrests come as fears are reportedly rising among Haitians of the ancient loup-garou, similar to a werewolf but a predator of children’s spirits, according to the Washington Post.
ICRC’s tracing service, usually deployed in times of conflict, is working closely with the Haitian Red Cross to re-establish family links. Working with lists provided by hospitals and first aid stations, the workers collate information to get families back together. ICRC says almost 1,500 people have been able to make “safe and well” phone calls. So far, it has a list of 25,600 names on its site www.icrc.org/familylinks.
The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) concentrates on reuniting children with their families.
Title: Chappatte exhibit, Liebeskind talk
Location: Société de Lecture, Geneva
Description: Opening of exhibit of Patrick Chappatte\’s cartoons from 2009 (to 28 March) at 18:00, with lecture by Alexandre Liebeskind, personal consul to Int. Red Cross president, on Obama\’s first year, humanitarian issues. Patrick Chappatte’s cartoons appear regularly in GenevaLunch.
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2010-02-02
End Time: 21:00
UNHCR calls on countries to stop repatriating Haitians
Red Cross offers advice on burying dead
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The International Red Cross (ICRC) opened a missing person’s site following the Haiti earthquake, Family Links, Wednesday evening 13 January. It has registered 14,000 messages in less than two days, says Robert Zmmerman, deputy head of the ICRC Central Tracing Agency and Protection Division in Geneva. The ICRC is working closely with the Haitian Red Cross Society, as well as several other national societies, to connect those who are missing, or knowledge of them, and their families.
At the moment there are”primarily two users,” Zimmerman told GenevaLunch. “People outside Haiti and those who are able to register, to make themselves known.” But he adds, this is obviously limiting as long as communication lines are down. Many people “won’t be able to register themselves so we have people, our colleagues, who are feeding in information about the injured” or dead as they find it – in hospitals and on the streets in Haiti. “This is being set up right now, on the spot, but we don’t have details yet for how this is going to go. We’re faced with the same communications problems with our own staff.”
People seeking information about persons missing in Haiti are advised to use the Family Links site. The list can be viewed publicly.
