CENTRAL AMERICA
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EL SALVADOR:
the humanitarian message
the subject of an ongoing dialogue
Article 3 common to the Four Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol 2: on the basis of these provisions of international humanitarian law, the ICRC is working in El Salvador to bring protection and assistance to victims of the internal conflict which has been tearing the coun- try apart for seven years.
Visits to detainees, relief work for displaced groups: wherever hostilities are taking place the ICRC strives to ensure protection for the civilian population.
Dissemination of humanitarian principles and law: for the ICRC this is the way to encourage those who have taken up arms against one another to show the respect due to all those who are not taking part in the fighting (civilians, but also combatants who are wounded, sick or have been taken prisoner). Since the conflict began, the ICRC has endeavoured to keep up a constant dialogue with the forces concerned, its aim being the protection of the civilian population from fighting, shelling, reprisals and forced recruitment. During these discussions, the ICRC reminds all parties of the provisions of humanitar- ian law. Among the many ways to make this law, the prin- ciples and the work of the Red Cross better known are: talks for the public at large and for local sections of the Salvadorean Red Cross, advertising slots on radio and tel- evision, inserts in newspapers, participation in exhibi-
San Salvador
EL SALVADOR
San Miguel'
Puerto Cabezas
NICARAGUA
Managua
Bluefields
tions and in lectures (“charlas”) followed by discussions in army barracks and amongst the security forces.
In 1985 ICRC delegates based in San Salvador and San Miguel gave 80 lectures to 17,000 members of the armed forces and security forces. The exhibition "Feria del Hogar" held in the capital in November was attended by some 290,000 people; the ICRC and the Salvadorean Red Cross had a stand there. Lectures and film shows also took place throughout the country.
Release of prisoners, evacuation of the wounded:
THE ICRC A NEUTRAL INTERMEDIARY
On 24 October the daughter of the President of the Republic of El Salvador, Inès Guadalupe Duarte Duran, and one of her friends both of whom had been held captive by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) since 10 September were released under the auspices of the ICRC. Their liberation followed an agree- ment between the government and the FMLN, reached with the help of the Salvadorean Church.
The terms of the agreement provided, on the one hand, for the simultaneous release of President Duarte's daugh- ter and that of FMLN members held by the government and, on the other, for the freeing of mayors and municipal officials in the hands of the FMLN, and the evacuation to other countries of wounded guerrillas. At the request of both parties, the ICRC was entrusted with carrying out the operation. Simultaneously, Inès Guada- lupe Duarte Duran and her friend were released, 18 detainees freed and transferred by the ICRC to Tenancingo, and four others taken to the Panamanian and Costa Rican embassies in San Salvador. 101 wounded guerrillas were picked up at 12 different points and taken to San Salvador airport, where they boarded two planes, one bound for Panama and the other for Mexico City. Finally, 23 mayors and municipal officials were freed - again with the ICRC acting as intermediary. The operation was carried out in one day and required all of the delega- tion's personnel and logistical resources, backed up by workers and ambulances from the Salvadorean Red Cross. In addition, the ICRC regularly visited prisons administered by the Ministry of Justice and places of detention under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence and Public Security (army barracks, temporary places of deten- tion). In 1985, 2,386 people were visited by the ICRC.
On the FMLN side, 41 members of the government forces and also civilians who had been detained, were released through the intermediary of the ICRC.
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