TV news footage transmitted worldwide, 10 June 2008, on APTN Global Video Wire at 12:15 GMT, replay 19.15 GMT EBU – EVN feed at 11:45 GMT

Date, location: May 2008, Kabul, Afghanistan
Production: Jan Powell, Geneva; Graziella Leite Piccolo, Kabul
Sound: English, Pashto
Access: All
Length: 10 mins
Please credit ICRC footage where possible

Preview Extract : video phone link

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

A video phone link, set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United States authorities, allows families to see and talk to their loved ones for 20 minutes at a time. It is a vital source of reassurance that both sides are alive and well.

The system, the first of its kind, is proving popular. Families are travelling from all over Afghanistan, and beyond, for the chance to see and talk to fathers, sons and brothers. They must queue up at the ICRC Office in Kabul on Sundays to register to make a call, and then wait their turn on Monday for the precious moments in the video conferencing booth. "It is really an important moment and I am so happy that this is happening," says the ICRC's Graziella Leite Piccolo in Kabul.

Since the programme started in January this year, 870 video calls have been made. There are an estimated 600 to 650 detainees in the Bagram Detention Centre and to date, about 70% have had a chance to see and talk to relatives. ICRC delegates visiting the detainees report that the calls are a great morale boost for the men who do not know when or if they will be released.

An emotional moment

For the families who have sons detained in Bagram, the calls are a highly charged event. "I have not seen my son for one year - that is a very long time. You ask me why I cry?" says one lady, who is a member of the Kuchi tribe from Ghazni province. She comes from a family of nomads who roam the highlands finding pasture for their herd of 180 goats and sheep. She has travelled to Kabul with her husband Janan and her youngest daughter to talk to their son, Barialai. Barialai disappeared after he went to collect money owed by neighbours who had bought some of the family's sheep. Three days went by and Barialai did not return. Janan went to the village to enquire and found that his son had been arrested during the night in a military operation by international forces. No one knew where he had been taken. It was three months before they got news that there was a letter at the Afghan Red Crescent office in Ghazni. It had not been delivered because the family had no fixed address. The letter was the first news that at least Barialai was alive and well, but Janan cannot write and did not send his son a letter himself. He seized the opportunity to come to Kabul to see and speak to his son through by video phone. The ICRC helps with travel expenses but Janan says he would have sold any number of his sheep to see his son.

Other families have similar experiences. Mohammed has not seen his brother for over a year since he was taken to Bagram prison. His family of nine live in a Kabul suburb, but come originally from Nouristan in north-east Afghanistan. Fifteen year old Nadjima misses her brother especially: "We were absolutely certain he would be released because they don’t have any charges against him… this place is empty without him," she says. During the video call she can hardly speak, she is so overcome with emotion.

Phone calls cannot replace face to face visits

The ICRC has been working in Afghanistan since 1987 and visiting the US detention facility in Bagram since January 2002. As part of its humanitarian mandate, the ICRC helps people held in connection with the ongoing armed conflict to keep in contact with their families. This is largely done through "Red Cross messages", letters written to relatives who cannot be reached otherwise because of conflict. According to the ICRC's Graziella Leite Piccolo, although the video phone calls provide huge reassurance to both sides they should not replace face to face visits: "This is an issue that the ICRC continues to push with the detaining authorities…but it is a step forward."


SHOTLIST

0 00 KABUL outside ICRC Delegation Office – Men line up and wait to register their families to make video calls to relatives in Bagram the following day. They talk to ICRC delegates - several shots
0 26 Families go into ICRC office to make video calls
FIRST FAMILY - nomads
0 29 Janan, his wife and young daughter have come to Kabul to talk to their son detained in Bagram – they have not seen him for over a year. The family comes from the Kuchi tribe, nomads who wander with their flocks in the highlands in south and east Afghanistan. They spend the summer in Ghazni province. Several shots, talking to ICRC delegates, CU daughter
0 56 Inside video booth - several shots of family talking to detainee on screen
1 16 Little daughter: "I will pray for you!"
1 24 detainee replies: "Don't worry, no problem!"
1 31 Mother: "Say hello from me too!"
1 38 Family come out of phone booth
1 42 Father Janan, makes thumb print and receives money to pay for travel costs
2 11 Outside in streets of Kabul – various showing ICRC delegates, Graziella Leite Piccolo walking through back street to meet Nouristan family who are about to speak to their son/brother
2 44 SECOND FAMILY from Nouristan. Family greet ICRC delegates in their home, and show them photos of the detainee
3 07 Mohammed (nephew of detainee) watering the garden
3 18 Nadjima – sister of detainee, in pink,15 years old) watches. She has moved from Nouristan to go to school in Kabul.
3 24 ITW Nadjima – Afghan dialect/Nouristani
3 24 "When he was arrested we didn't know that he had been arrested and we didn’t know when he would be released. He has a job and we expected that he would come back.
3 37 "We were absolutely sure that he would be released because they don’t have any charges against him. And this place feels completely empty without him here."
3 48 "He was always a good person in this family. He is everything to us, he is very important to us."
3 55 Boy looks through window into video phone booth
3 58 Mid shot Nadjima (pink) through the window
4 05 Shot of video screen – showing detainee talking
4 09 Nadjima weeping while others talk to her brother various with CU
4 43 Sound IN 'Everyone is fine, don't worry about us!'
5 10 Family exits
5 22 ITW Mohammed (English)

"After that I become very happy and I wish from God that he is released soon and then when I go to home I tell for all my family not to worry. He is okay. He is healthy and fat like last time. And as my father says, he is rolling his moustache. He was okay. He is healthy."

5 53 " I felt very happy and I cannot express the depth of happiness of my heart. I cannot express it. I am very happy.".
6 07 THIRD FAMILY (in grey) from Kunar province

CU son of detainee, called Faisal, has not seen his father since he was detained in Bagram over a year ago.

ITW Mother of detainee (Pashto)
6 11 " I haven’t seen my son for one year. This is a long time. You ask me why I cry?"
6 17 Question: " How do you feel, knowing you will see your son tomorrow?"
6 23 "Thanks to you we have a chance to have contact. It will be very good for us to talk to him on the telephone and see him like I see you now.
He will have a chance to see his lovely son. He is very handsome!"
6 49 ITW Shir Mohd, brother of detainee (grey polo shirt - Pashto)

"He was the eldest in the family and he was responsible for all the food, clothes, school fees, everything. When he was here we didn’t have these problems, because he used to send money for all these expenses. Since he was arrested all the responsibilities are on my shoulders. And for me it is difficult to bear. When we didn’t know where he was, it was very difficult for us, we have a lot of financial problems. I work as a labourer, just to feed the family."

7 18 Family in video booth - various
7 27 Brother: "Everything is fine, the boy is going to school, Nabila is also fine…"
7 40 Mother "Hello, how are you?" (smiles)
8 03 Mother: "Everything's fine!"
8 22 ITW Graziella Leite Piccolo, ICRC (English)

"And it is so important to see them especially, I mean, you have families that come with grandfathers, with people that are quite old in age, and others that come with all the children. Today for example we had a family from Pakistan coming with three small children and a baby, just for a 20 minute chat. Some people have not seen their relative for more than two years.

8 49 But it is really an important moment and I am so happy that this is happening. It is not a substitute for face to face visits, and this is an issue that the ICRC continues pushing with the detaining authorities in the specific case of Bagram. But it is one step forward so to speak and it brings them a very important feeling. It is very rewarding. "
9 18 ITW Greg Muller, ICRC (English)

"The ICRC and the US authorities have agreed that at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay we would start annual phone calls for all the detainees there. It’s a big step forward. There at least we hope there will be some big step forward in the future and why not at some point a video teleconference system, even though I must say that the logistical challenges to set up such a programme in another place like Guantanamo Bay might be much bigger than they are in Afghanistan because of the population there, they come from many different parts of the world."

9 58 END