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.
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.
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.
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.”
"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.
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: 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
Haiti earthquake, the aftermath (Photo: Matthew Marek/American Red Cross)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Several organizations based in Switzerland are spearheading much of the relief effort in Haiti, and they are appealing to the public for funds. Aid has begun pouring into the country, more than 30 hours after the 7.0 scale earthquake that ravaged the capital, Port-au-Prince.
If you live in the Lake Geneva area and you would like to contribute to funds going to Haiti, here is a GenevaLunch selection of key groups, with fund appeals and explanations about their work in the area on their web sites:
Gereida camp Darfur, Sudan. ©ICRC/B. Heger
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The fate of Gauthier Lefevre, 35, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate abducted 22 October in the west Darfur region of Sudan, is still uncertain, according to Daniel Duvillard, ICRC’s chief of operations for Eastern Africa, in an interview 29 October.
ICRC confirms that it has received a ransom request, but as a matter of policy it does not pay ransoms. It is using all the channels at its disposal to obtain the release of Lefevre, and insists with his captors that his physical integrity be ensured. ICRC officials managed to speak to him two days after his capture, and he confirmed that he was being well treated.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – ICRC employee Gauthier Lefevre was taken by armed men near the town of al-Junaynah, West Darfur, Sudan near the border with Chad at about noon, yesterday 22 October, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. Gauthier, a French national, was returning to town in an ICRC-marked vehicle with colleagues after a field trip to check water supply systems for local communities north of the town, when he was seized.
The ICRC said neither the identity of the abductors nor their motives were known. It said it had immediately contacted local authorities and other parties in order to secure Lefevre’s release.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The International Olympic Committee was bestowed observer status at the UN General Assembly in New York, USA Monday, 19 October, in recognition of the IOC’s efforts to promote the UN’s Millenium Development Goals and the importance of sports in promoting development and peace.
Observer status is a privilege given to non-member states – currently only the Vatican is a non-member – and non-governmental organizations, like the International Red Cross. Observers may speak, but cannot vote or introduce resolutions.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has tried to reach civilians and wounded for nine consecutive days in the area of intense fighting in Sri Lanka’s northeast. It appealed again Monday 18 May to the government of Sri Lanka to facilitate access.
