URL: http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57JMZB
Archived page (may contain outdated information)31-05-1996 Annual Report 1995
Introduction
Activities for civilians
Activities for detainees
Medical activities
Cooperation with the National Society
Dissemination
Introduction Activities for civilians Activities for detainees Medical activities Cooperation with the National Society Dissemination
ICRC delegates in Belgrade, Podgorica and Pristina provided substantial support for the operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while closely monitoring the situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and particularly in Kosovo. They were also closely involved in dealing with the humanitarian crisis that arose from the events in western Slavonia. After the ICRC made an appeal on 16 May calling on the warring parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina to reach a minimum humanitarian consensus, the ICRC President visited the President of the Republic of Serbia on 21 June to request his support in ensuring the protection of civilians and ICRC access to all victims of the conflict.
In December a ceremony was held in Cetinje to commemorate the first ICRC mission to the area 120 years ago and the founding soon after of the Red Cross Societies of Montenegro and Serbia, which together now constitute the Yugoslav Red Cross. It was attended by representatives of the Yugoslav government, the Republic of Montenegro, the Yugoslav Red Cross and the Federation, and by the ICRC head of delegation in Belgrade.
The 170,000 refugees who crossed into Serbia in the wake of the fall of the former Sectors North and South in August were received and relocated by the Yugoslav Red Cross, the Federation and UNHCR. As they moved through Banja Luka and along the Posavina corridor, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, towards the border, the ICRC provided food and first-aid at points set up along the roads.
From August on the ICRC conducted regular visits to over 750 men who had fled Zepa for the Federal Republic, and some 35 from Srebrenica, who were being held in refugee camps in Sljivovica and Mitrovo Polje, in order to monitor their situation and living conditions. They were given material assistance and the opportunity to exchange Red Cross messages with their families.
In 1995 ICRC delegates visited about 200 detainees in 13 places of detention in the Republic of Serbia. Among these were some 120 new detainees, policemen of Albanian ethnic origin, arrested at the end of 1994 in connection with the situation in Kosovo.
Under the surgical assistance programme covering the whole of the former Yugoslavia, the ICRC regularly distributed surgical supplies and medicines to hospitals and other facilities treating the war-wounded evacuated to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Surgical and medical assistance was given to health establishments in eastern Slavonia. The Red Cross of Serbia and the Red Cross of Montenegro continued to receive financial support to enable them to purchase drugs to treat chronic diseases among refugees. Medical equipment and medicines were transferred to the delegations in Pale, Trebinje, Bijeljina and Banja Luka for use by ICRC delegations in eastern and north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Training seminars for Yugoslav Red Cross dissemination staff continued throughout the year although preparations for them were slow on account of the events in Bosnia in July and in Sectors North and South in August. The ICRC helped fund and organize National Society dissemination seminars for members of the medical profession, tracing staff and local Red Cross dissemination officers.
The ICRC delegation in Belgrade carried out an investigative study of the experience gained by local Red Cross branches in cooperating and working under the aegis of international humanitarian organizations. The results of this study should be of great help to the ICRC in developing local contacts and strategies, and in furthering collaboration between the local branches and outside aid agencies.
No major progress was made on the agreement obtained in 1994 from the Federal Minister of Defence to launch a comprehensive five-year programme to spread knowledge of international humanitarian law among the Yugoslav armed forces. The ICRC therefore pursued its representations to the authorities with a view to formalizing the establishment of this programme. The institution's efforts in the dissemination field mainly focused on establishing direct lines of communication with the Yugoslav army, and at maintaining regular contacts with civilian decision-makers.
A huge media demand for information during and following the events in Sectors North and South meant that the ICRC's information services in Belgrade were giving, on average, 150 national and international interviews a week. The ICRC's activities and mandate thus received unprecedented coverage and, as media from the Federal Republic could be picked up in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this may have helped the ICRC in its efforts to reach victims of the hostilities there.
The Serbo-Croat edition of Warrior without weapons, the World War II memoirs of an ICRC delegate, was presented at the Belgrade international press centre, as well as the ICRC film Working against the odds, early in the year.
