Saint-Pierre Cathedral, Geneva, 20 December 1996
Address by Stephen Davey, Under-Secretary General, Communications and Policy Coordination, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Dear Friends/Chers amis
Aujourd'hui est un jour très douloureux pour nous tous. Il y a trois jours, six de nos collègues travaillant pour le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, originaires de cinq pays situés dans trois continents, ont été sauvagement assassinés dans leur sommeil. Six personnes venant de cultures et d'horizons différents qui, toutes, avaient déjà travaillé dans le cadre d'actions humanitaires, pour le CICR, pour la Fédération internationale
ou encore pour d'autres organisations. C'était un technicien en construction, un administrice médical et quatre infirmières qui avaient notamment en commun, leur engagement vis-à-vis d'autrui, en faveur de toutes les victimes et cela, au nom des Principes Fondamentaux du Mouvement international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge. Triste et dramatique coïncidence, le même jour, dans un autre pays, un autre continent, une déléguée de la Fédération internationale a été tuée dans un accident, au cours d'une action d'aide en faveur des réfugiés du Rwanda. Permettez-moi d'associer sa mémoire à celle de ses collègues du CICR.
Comme I'on dit le Président Mario Villarroel Lander et le Secétaire Général George Weber dans leur lettre au Président Sommaruga "Ia nouvelle a choqué tout le personnel du Secrétariat et les Sociétés nationales membres de la Fédération". Nous vous adressons, Monsieur le Président ainsi qu'à tous les collaborateurs du CICR notre profonde sympathie et nos sentiments très émus dans ces moments difficiles que nous partageons.
To the families and friends of those who lost their lives we extend our deepest sympathies. If the Red Cross means anything, it means a channel through which people can express their commitment to each other in times of suffering. On behalf of all the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies throughout the world who share a sense of outrage of what has happened, we express to you the hope that you will, as the days and weeks go by, find within yourselves and within your communities a healing for this terrible event.
We need also to reflect on the situation of the other victims of these terrible events -those people in Chechenia who today are left without the assistance of the ICRC.
Colleagues and friends of those who died, people who knew them, people who did not, in their own National Societies and in other National Societies throughout the world everybody is shocked by what has happened. And for the ICRC this is a further terrible shock coming so soon after the death of the delegates in Burundi. It is but a few months since we were here in the cathedral to mark and to mourn those tragic events in Burundi. On that occasion I stood after the service in the courtyard with others, who, like me, were not yet ready leave, and a friend from the ICRC remarked "we come here too often in the last years". And we are here again today.
It is terribly important that you the colleagues in the ICRC find the way to continue the work which you do so well in so many places whilst you with your friends and colleagues in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement reflect on the implication for us all of what has happened.
Equally it is important that the States Party to the Geneva Conventions reflect on how they will react to this new tragedy. It is an obligation of the Geneva Conventions not only to protect but also to ensure protection. How will governments, individually and collectively respond? For many the Red Cross and Red Crescent represents a lifeline. A Iifeline in responding to needs of elderly people who live alone, of disenchanted youth, of the sick and the wounded, of victims of disaster and conflict. With each attack against the emblem and the spirit of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent that lifeline becomes a little weaker. The question that lies unanswered before all of us is "who will take what new action to restore respect for the emblem and the protection of those who work under it".
Finally, once more to the families of the victims, in the name of the President, of the Secretary General, of the staff of the secretariat and of the 170 National Societies members of the International Federation, I convey to you, from the bottom of our hearts, our deep sympathy and condolences in this tragic and unacceptable act which affects all of us here present and so many others throughout the world.
