FRANCAISNorwegian Church Aid - Comments
7) Links to the military
-NCA does take some positions on armed conflicts. It publicly opposed Norway’s participation to the United-States’ military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. And it demonstrated against the abuses of the Russian troops in Chechnya during an official visit of President Vladimir Poutine to Oslo in 2002. Yet it happens that the organisation co-operates with the Norwegian army; it used some its lorries to transport Red Cross food rations to AIDS victims in Malawi in 2002 for instance. NCA also recognises the need for an international military presence to provide basic security for the civilian population in some areas of conflict: this is accepted as long as such peace operations are anchored in the United Nations and follow civic authorities. In theory, NCA then emphasises the different mandates of humanitarian organisations and military forces. But things can be quite different on the field. Thus in former Yugoslavia in 1999, NCA was to build 200 houses near Pristina with the funding and the logistics of the Norwegian military of KFOR (Kosovo Force), i.e. the NATO’s (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) troops.
