TNAG-1546-FCO40-2110-International-Committee-of-the-Red-Cross-(ICRC)-proposal-to--1986 — Page 20

Dissemination of humanitarian law along the border:

“THE RED CROSS DRAMA”

August 1985: the first staging of "The Red Cross Drama" at site 2. Theatre is the medium used to explain the principles and basic rules of humanitarian law along the Thai-Kampuchean border.

This three-act play portrays a conflict situ- ation and the consequences it has for civilian and military victims before and after the application of the Geneva Con- ventions. The actors in this instructive drama are recruited from amongst the Khmer refugee population.

Two other plays are performed along the border: one entitled "Donate your blood" was put on at site 2 when the centre for the handicapped was inaugurated; the purpose of the other is to show the importance of respecting human dignity and the role of the Red Cross. There are two perfor- mances every week.

Since the beginning of 1985 the ICRC has been providing the Khmer combatants with individual first-aid kits. Their pur- pose is twofold: a message in Khmer is included with their rudimentary contents (an adhesive elastic bandage and a field dressing) urging the combatants to respect and protect the wounded and civilians, both friend and enemy, prisoners of war, and vehicles, installations and personnel displaying the Red Cross emblem. This simple method is also used by the ICRC in Pakistan, where it came into being in the context of the Afghan conflict.

operation began for the 3,900 VNLRs still in site 2, to- gether with 400 others waiting to rejoin the first group. At the end of 1985, 3,000 cases had been examined. In co- operation with the Thai authorities, the ICRC continued its endeavours to find host countries for all these refu- gees. Finding new homes for these people in a third coun- try is the only way to ensure their long-term protection.

12

Deterioration of the situation

in the PHILIPPINES: assistance stepped up

Mindanao: assisting displaced people

1985: acts of violence were on the increase in the Philip- pines, mainly on the southern island of Mindanao; this is the area where the ICRC, in close co-operation with the Philippine Red Cross (PNRC), is carrying out a large- scale joint assistance operation.

In the course of the year the ICRC strengthened its logistical system by opening four regional depots on the island, and made trucks and vans available to the PNRC to ensure that relief supplies were more effectively trans- ported to people who had been displaced because of hazardous conditions. The troubles here are characterized by evacuations and population movements the phenomenon was particularly worrying on Mindanao. ICRC delegates systematically visited the local sections of the PNRC to give them support from the moment when the victims were identified to the final task of monitoring distributions. A total of 2,400 tonnes of food were handed out in 1985.

General distributions consisted of supplementary rations of rice to which vegetable oil was added to increase the nutritional value. Rations were calculated on the basis of a three-week period. More than 500,000 rations were dis- tributed in 1985. In addition, over three-month periods, feeding centres provided a supplementary diet of milk, oat flakes, vegetable oil and sugar for particularly vulner- able groups among the displaced people: undernourished children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, the elderly and the sick. As an additional component of this programme, beneficiaries at the feeding centres received instruction in the basic elements of hygiene and public health. To deal with the more elementary and pressing needs of the displaced people, the ICRC supplied PNRC medical and paramedical personnel with basic medicines to treat common ailments.

Visits to detainees

Over and above the assistance pro- gammme for displaced people, the ICRC was involved in protection work in the Philippines and regularly visited security detainees ("public order violators"). In 1985, delegates saw 756 detainees in the course of 111 visits to 110 places of deten- tion and one hospital, throughout the entire archipelago.