Date, location: 17 August 2008. Tbilisi, Georgia
Production: Jon Bjorgvinsson, Jessica Barry, Jan Powell,
Sound: English, Georgian
Copyrights: ICRC – Access All
length: 2' 15" mins

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Jan Powell, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

ICRC TV NEWS FOOTAGE, distributed on EBU News feed 15.00 GMT, 17.08.08

At a shelter in the city, (Bagetbi Student City) Mr Kellenberger met families who have fled the fighting in south Ossetia.

In the shelter, ICRC representatives gave out basic household goods to nearly 400 families (stoves and cooking utensils) who fled their homes leaving all their possessions behind them.

He will also travel to Vladikavkaz in the Russian Federation and Tskhinvali in South Ossetia to meet with officials there.

On Tuesday, the ICRC president is expected to meet senior officials of the Russian Federation, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow.

During his discussions, Mr Kellenberger will stress the ICRC's ability to aid the most vulnerable on all sides, especially those who have been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting or who remain isolated and in need of help.

At the shelter, President Kellenberger stressed that all those affected by the conflict – especially civilians and people captured or arrested in connection with the hostilities – should be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.

SHOTLIST

1 Bagetbi Collective Centre, for displaced people, Tbilisi , woman in shelter

2 ICRC President Jacob Kellenberger in the Tbilisi shelter visits accommodation for people fleeing conflict.

3 Jacob Kellenberger, ICRC President, soundbite, English

“Displacement is a way you become extremely vulnerable, extremely dependent on outside assistance, and I think this centre, with very poor conditions, its really a place you can feel in a very strong way, the extent to which displaced people are uprooted, they are vulnerable, and dependent.”

4 ICRC gives out household goods, stoves and cooking pots

5 Jacob Kellenberger, ICRC President , English

“The good news is we have just learned we have access to Georgian prisoners of war who are wounded and that our surgeon has been implicated in the medical care. So that is very good news because one of our priorities is clearly that, for all sides, all parties in the conflict, that we have access to prisoners of war, and other people deprived of freedom.”