A conflict seemed inevitable, and as it drew nearer, anxiety grew across the country. I think that most Iraqis believed the attack would come, despite the protest demonstrations that were bringing enormous crowds into the street around the world.

The Iraqis remembered the bombings of 1991 and I believe they feared the consequences for life, limb and health. At the same time, I don't think that they felt sufficiently free or safe enough to dare express a clear opinion or voice their hopes for the future.

As soon as military operations began, the city of Baghdad was paralyzed. The economy ground to a halt. Access to medical care and supplies of food, water and electricity were severely limited.

In addition to the massive aerial bombardment, the sky was filled with black clouds of smoke from oil fires lit by the Iraqi army all around the city in a vain attempt to obscure the vision of the bomber pilots. The air was almost unbreathable. To make matters worse, an incredibly violent sandstorm came up, so that at any given moment the sky was either yellow with sand or black with smoke.

The stores were closed and the population was basically holed up at home. After the strategic points had been bombed, there was no longer either electricity or telephone.

What action did the ICRC take?

The ICRC had been active in Iraq for a long time and had thorough knowledge of distribution networks for water and electricity. Iraqi engineers working with the ICRC were able to keep things running in Baghdad, to a limited extent, until the ground troops arrived and took the city.

When the bombing began, the chief concern of the small ICRC team remaining in Baghdad was to make sure people had at least some water and electricity. We also distributed emergency surgical kits to treat the wounded.

We constantly went around to the city's hospitals, but since there were so few of us we had to make a considerable effort to achieve an overview of the situation.

The most important task for me as ICRC spokesman was to represent the people suffering from the conflict – and there was enormous suffering – and to make known the desperate situation in the hospitals.

How did you deal with the fact that infrastructure, in particular the telecommunications network, had been destroyed.

At first we were virtually cut off from the rest of the world. We were also cut off from our local staff. All the city's telephone exchanges had been wrecked and it was impossible to stay in touch with them. Baghdad was occupied, there was no longer any military resistance, and yet it was so difficult to find a working phone line that there was a risk of humanitarian action being paralyzed.

Fortunately, as soon as Baghdad fell, many Iraqis came forward to volunteer their services. It was partly thanks to this spontaneous wave of support that we were able find people anxious to help us.

So it was the solidarity shown by Iraqis with each other that made it possible to meet the most urgent needs?

Yes. Many Iraqis – among them doctors, pharmacists and sanitation engineers – wanted to help and immediately offered their services to the ICRC. Or they went to the Palestine Hotel, where journalists and military personnel were staying. There were so many volunteers that sometimes they had to wait in line.

Some journalists were also very helpful to us. When they managed to visit an isolated hospital they would contact us with the information they had gathered about the number of wounded and the hospital's needs.

Do you feel that 2003 marked a turning point in Iraq from a humanitarian viewpoint

Some Iraqis had placed great hope in regime change. They were also counting on rapid restoration of public infrastructure, as had been the case after the 1991 war.

But at that point Iraqis had been enduring the consequences of economic sanctions for over 13 years. Programmes launched by humanitarian organizations hadn't even come close to meeting the needs of an entire nation. The ICRC had been particularly concerned about the tragic plight of children in hospitals and the general shortage of essential medical supplies.

In the months following the invasion, humanitarian workers arrived in the country in droves. There was also a massive military presence. The combination of the two made it very difficult to maintain the vital distinction between the military realm and the humanitarian realm, especially as there were military units engaged in civil engineering work.

Then, a few months later, huge numbers of humanitarian workers left again, which must have left a bad taste in the mouths of a people who had suffered for so long.

Enormous frustration followed because, for weeks and even months after April 2003, no tangible progress was made.