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International Committee of the Red Cross
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History

Comité International de la Croix Rouge - History



1960-1969


-Since 1960, Congo-Kinshasa: the ICRC sends relief supplies to victims of the troubles that erupt in the aftermath of the declaration of independence of the former Belgian colony. At the beginning, the instution is more concerned by the European population. Dispatched by the Norwegian Red Cross, a first medical team lands in Leopoldville (Kinshasa) on 25 July 1960. Others follow in their wake, travelling deeper into the country, particularly in the Kasai region. The conflict takes a new turn in August 1960 when Blue Helmets are sent to suppress the Katanga secession. ICRC teams are transported in United Nations vehicles and planes. Between September 1960 and June 1961, the Committee is allocated a DC-3 belonging to the WHO (World Health Organization). However, the peace operations conducted by the international community fail to put an end to the conflict. An ICRC delegate, Georges Olivet, and two Belgian and Dutch ambulance drivers of the Katanga Red Cross, Styts Smeding and Nicole Vroonen, are killed in Elisabethville on 13 December 1961, almost certainly shot at point blank range by the UN Ethiopian contingent. Refusing to recognize its direct involvement in the tragedy, the United Nations Organization agrees to pay compensation to the families of the victims on 19 October 1962. Meanwhile, the Geneva Committee supervises prisoner exchanges between Blue Helmets and Katanga secessionists on 28 December 1961 and 15 January 1962. While it is unable to gain access to all political and military detainees, one of its envoys, Laurent Marti, provides relief supplies in Albertville and secures the release of fifteen Europeans evacuated to Bujumbura, Burundi, in July 1964, from a rebel chief, Gaston-Emile Soumialot. The following September, the same delegate is allowed to send medicine to Stanleyville, where a short-lived people’s republic has been declared by Christophe Gbenye. Laurent Marti is less successful in Buta near the Central African Republic border in March 1965, where fifty-three Europeans are executed by rebels led by Colonel Augustin Makombo after a raped hostage escaped with the help of the ICRC. In October and November 1967, the Geneva Committee attempts to evacuate European mercenaries and their Katangese allies entrenched in Bukavu near Rwanda. However, the operation is delayed as a result of the reluctance of Raymond Gafner, the head of the ICRC mission and a former military officer who, unlike Laurent Marti, is keen to secure the area and insists on waiting (in vain) for the troops of a Pan-African intervention force. The national army of General Joseph Désiré-Mobutu, in power in Kinshasa, seizes the opportunity to attack and bomb the town of Bukavu, causing the death of seventeen injured patients in a hospital. From neighboring Rwanda, the ICRC eventually evacuates the European mercenaries and their families in planes dispatched by the Securitas private security company in April 1968, while Katangese gendarmes are repatriated to their country. The violence continues nevertheless. On 11 May 1978, another delegate, Frédéric Steinemann, is dispatched from Zambia to prevent a famine in the Shaba province after the occupation and plundering of Kolwezi by the guerrilla fighters of the Congolese National Liberation Front. Refusing to purchase supplies at exorbitant prices on the black market, the ICRC envoy is unwilling to wait any longer for the relief supplies promised by Geneva and decides to hire a train to send free food provided by Gécamines, a large mining company in Lubumbashi, serving as a scout to ensure that the tracks are not mined. Following the collapse of the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, the ICRC is finally able to provide assistance to Rwandan refugees – including those who took part in the genocide of April-June 1994. However, working conditions remain difficult and, on 14 December 1994, Geneva appeals to the international community to intervene in the African Great Lakes region. On 6 November 1995, the Committee decides to suspend its operations in Masisi when one of its convoys transporting displaced people is redirected toward Goma by the Zairian army. Following the uprising of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo-Zaïre), which results in the fall of Mobuto Sese Seko, the ICRC is also forced to end its operations in Kivu, where five volunteers of the local Red Cross are killed in October 1996. No region is thus immune from fighting and crime. While Committee vehicles and offices are regularly stolen, looted and burgled in Uvira and Bukavu, a driver, Sylvain Mutombo, is killed in Kinshasa by armed men who steal his car on 12 January 1998. The frontier district of Ituri, where the ICRC opens an office in Bunia in April 1998, represents one of the most dangerous areas for humanitarian workers. According to Johan Pottier, the lack of transparency of the Committee is partly to blame since it exacerbates the mistrust of the militias, who kill three local collaborators (Véronique Saro, Aduwe Boboli and Jean Molokabonge), a Swiss nurse (Rita Fox-Stucki), a Colombian delegate (Julio Delgado) and a Congolese employee (Unen Unfoirworth) of the Central Tracing Agency of the ICRC on 26 April 2001 while travelling on a road between Djugu and Fataki north of Bunia. Having received no explanations from Kampala, whose army controlled the area, the Committee decides to withdraw from Uganda. In Ituri, tensions remain high, and the local Red Cross loses two employees during combats in Bunia on 11 May 2003.

-Since 1961, Indonesia: the ICRC, which had facilitated the evacuation of Dutch settlers from Java during the war of independence in 1946-1948, represents the interests of the Netherlands after the breakdown of diplomatic relations between The Hague and Djakarta over the annexation of Western New Guinea, known today as Irian Jaya, in August 1960. Between September 1961 and May 1962, the Geneva Committee serves as a consulate working on behalf of the former Dutch colonial authorities, which entrust the humanitarian institution with the responsibility of paying grants and facilitating the repatriation of their last remaining nationals in the country. In the 1990s, the ICRC will also perform a similar role in providing travel documents to East Timorese people wishing to travel to Portugal, which has no diplomatic representation in Djakarta. In the meantime, Geneva encounters significant difficulties in seeking to assist the victims of various political troubles after the declaration of independence of Indonesia. For example, during the secession of the short-lived Republic of South Maluku on Ambon Island in April 1950, the ICRC had already failed to secure the right to transport supplies to rebel areas and to break the blockade imposed by Djakarta troops before the defeat of the insurgents and the suspension of military operations. The Committee is also unable to provide assistance to the victims of anticommunist and anti-Chinese repression, resulting in half a million deaths from January 1965. The dictatorship of General Mohammed Suharto, in power since March 1967, only allows Geneva to distribute relief supplies to 50,000 displaced people of Chinese origins fleeing the unrest in Pontianak and Singkawang in the Kalimantan region on the western coast of the Island of Borneo. The authorities are careful to evacuate and to conceal their political prisoners before the arrival of ICRC delegates, who are required to give advance warning of their inspections. The Committee protests publicly in 1977 against the ban on visiting the penitential colony of Buru Island, accessed in 1971 and where 14,000 prisoners suspected of communist sympathies are detained. The situation improves significantly in the following decade. From October 1979, along with the Americans of the CRS (Catholic Relief Service), the ICRC is one of a small number of humanitarian organizations to be granted access to East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by the Indonesian army in December 1975. However, working conditions remain difficult. In the absence of roads, Geneva is forced to distribute relief supplies by air, suffering two fatalities in the process: a pilot, Ashoka Lolong, and a doctor from the Indonesian Red Cross, Bagus Rudiono, in a helicopter crash near Dili on 2 April 1983. The fighting between the Djakarta troops and the FRETILIN rebels (Frente Revolucionário de Timor-Leste Independente) also prevents the Committee from accessing many areas and forces the ICRC to restrict its assistance to 2,000 displaced persons on Atauro Island before returning to the hinterland. Prison visits in Atauro, Con (Los Palos) and the prison of Comarca in Dili remain dependent on the good will of the Indonesian authorities, which decide to suspend all operations between July 1983 and April 1985. It is not until the riots of Dili in November 1991 that Geneva is able to conduct interviews with political prisoners, in particular with the leader of FRETILIN, Xanana Gusmão. The Committee intervenes more widely in the troubles of September 1999 that result in the independence of East Timor. Seen as supporting the secession, the ICRC delegation in Dili is attacked by pro-Indonesian militias and is forced to close its offices for two weeks. The institution is subsequently forced to withdraw from the Western and Indonesian part of the island, where it was seeking to facilitate the repatriation of roughly 100,000 people and where three expatriates of the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees are assassinated by Djakarta partisans on 6 September 2000. Undeterred, the Committee becomes involved in other secessionist conflicts affecting the rest of the archipelago. As the only humanitarian organization to be given access to the Irian Jaya province, the ICRC opens a delegation in Jayapura in September 1989 and begins to visit prisoners of conscience in January 1991 before experiencing a new lease of life as a result of the unilateral declaration of independence by the Congress of the Papuan People in June 2000. From December 1991, the ICRC is also granted permission to assist political prisoners in Aceh. However, a new wave of fighting with the Aceh freedom fighters of the GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) significantly limits the potential for humanitarian deployment, both because of the prevailing insecurity and because of the restrictions imposed by the army. The ICRC seeks to operate via the Indonesian Red Cross, one of whose employees, Jafar Syedho, is tortured and killed by rebels in the village of Glumpang Payong near Jeumpa in the Bireuen district on 3 October 2001. As a result of the introduction of martial law in May 2003 for the duration of a year, the offices of the Committee are closed temporarily between August and December. If the institution facilitates the release of over 100 prisoners held by the GAM after May 2004, the Tsunami of December 2004 is the key event that enables the ICRC to conduct a full deployment. While Geneva distributes relief supplies to victims in the north-eastern part of Aceh, where the freedom fighters are based, the International Federation of the Red Cross is in charge of the western coast, where one volunteer from Hong-Kong, Eva Yeung, is shot and injured in Lamno in Leupung district on 22 June 2005.

-Since 1962, Yemen: in the north of the country, where monarchists supported by Saudi Arabia are waging war on republicans funded by the government of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, the Red Cross movement is non-existent and the ICRC begins to conduct operations in difficult conditions requiring the use of radios to communicate with Geneva for the first time in its history. Initially, the intervention is primarily medical and involves dispatching volunteers such as Max Récamier in 1964 and Pascal Grellety-Bosviel in 1968, two of the twelve founders of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) in 1971. The ICRC staff initially focus on a field hospital transported by an American military plane and set up in Uqd near the Saudi border in an area secured by a UN observation mission until 1964. Led by an enterprising delegate, André Rochat, the Committee struggles to persuade the combatants to lay down their arms before receiving medical care, and the itinerant doctors operating outside hospitals are regularly threatened by Bedouins who demand priority treatment. The treatment of women, who refuse to be undressed, involves a complex examination process since injections need to be performed through clothes. According to a documentary by Frédéric Gonseth entitled La Citadelle Humanitaire and broadcast on Arte on 29 September 2010, the republicans complain that the ICRC works exclusively with royalists because of a lack of funds needed to open a second hospital. To rebalance its position, Geneva distributes milk to children in Sana’a and emphasizes the provision of care to Egyptian prisoners of war detained by Imam Muhammad Al-Badr. After the withdrawal of the troops of Gamal Abdel Nasser following the Six Day War with Israel in June 1967, the Committee continues to encounter the hostility of the republican general Hassan Amri, now in power. The prevailing insecurity significantly limits the potential for action, forcing the ICRC to recruit armed guards. In May 1967, a convoy of the organization bearing the Red Cross emblem is deliberately attacked and destroyed by the Egyptian Air Force in the Wadi Herran valley. Delegate Laurent Vust is the only survivor of a plane crash in June 1967, while Doctor Frederic de Bros is shot in an ambush by Bedouins in the Jauf desert the following August. Established in Jihanah in January 1968, a health post is bombed two months later during an attack that causes the destruction of key facilities and seriously injures the two Yemenites guarding the site. Geneva abandons the position in January 1969, and its teams withdraw to Saudi Arabia under armed escort. Attempts to provide assistance to prisoners are also impeded by a number of obstacles. In the pro-monarchy camp led by Imam Mohammed el-Badr, the life of detainees is negotiated in exchange for gold coins. Pressed by the Committee, the jailers remove the chains of captives, but lock the cell doors, which had previously been left open to enable prisoners to walk in chains in the streets. The republican camp does not comply with humanitarian law either. In press statements issued on 31 January and 2 June 1967, the ICRC publicly denounces the use of gas bombs witnessed – and subsequently proven – by its delegates in the field. While Geneva abstains from blaming the attacks on any particular party, the responsibility of Cairo appears to be beyond doubt since only the republican camp has an air force. On 28 July 1967, an article published in the New York Times assigns the responsibility of the crime to the Egyptians, seemingly on the basis of a confidential report written by the ICRC. As the fighting continues, Geneva reduces its activities to intervene in other conflicts, such as the Biafra War in Nigeria. In February 1970, the ICRC abandons the idea of sending a surgical team to the extreme north and relocates until August to Khamer near Sana’a in premises that had never been used since being built three years earlier. The demand for aid remains significant in Southern Yemen, which secured independence in November 1967. On his own initiative, André Rochat had already successfully negotiated to gain access to prisoners held by the British colonial authorities. He was subsequently able to organize the evacuation of the last remaining republican pro-Egypt soldiers to Cairo. However, Aden soon begins to voice border claims over the North. The ICRC gains access to soldiers caught on both sides during combats between the two countries in September 1972. In March 1973, the institution begins to distribute supplies to refugees fleeing the South, now a people’s democratic republic affiliated to the Soviet camp. In March 1979, Geneva assists the victims of border skirmishes between the two countries. Leaving the North, where a Yemenite Red Crescent was founded on 4 July 1970, the ICRC refocuses its activities on the South. In Aden, where it had secured the right to assist prisoners held by the British colonial authorities, the Committee visits the fortress of Mansura in October 1968, April 1969, January, June and October 1970, and in September 1971. In January 1971, while it is still unable to conduct unsupervised interviews with prisoners, the humanitarian institution organizes an exchange of prisoners of war caught during border skirmishes between Southern Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the Hadhramaut in November 1969. The medical component of the operations conducted by the ICRC develops with the support of doctors and surgeons provided by Eastern European Red Cross societies. In 1969, the Committee establishes a team in Mukalla to provide medical care to the populations of the Hadhramaut. The situation subsequently becomes more stable. As a result, the ICRC closes its delegation in Aden in 1974. The Committee briefly returns to the town in January 1986 to visit prisoners, provide medical care and distribute food aid during infighting between two rival factions of the socialist party in power. Between May and July 1994, the ICRC intervenes once again in Aden during a civil war opposing Northern and Southern Yemen over their forced merger in May 1990.

-1963, Norway: on the occasion of its centennial, the ICRC is awarded its third Nobel Peace Prize alongside the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS). The initiative is the result of a Norwegian survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, Anders Daae, whose father had already been charged by Henry Dunant to accept the 1901 Nobel Peace Prize on his behalf. To avoid rekindling pointless quarrels, the ICRC had requested that the LRCS should also be rewarded. Some argued that the League had made a greater contribution to peace since the Committee was designed fundamentally to work in times of war despite its preventive role at the time of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The Nobel Peace Prize sanctions the development of an organization which, long dominated and run by the Americans, has undergone significant changes since the chair of the Swedish Red Cross, Emil Sandström, was appointed at the head of the League in 1950 and turned it into a Federation in 1952. Following the accession to independence of Third-World countries, an unwritten rule soon emerged that the chairmanship of the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), which has a purely honorary status, should represent the diversity of the movement. In chronological order of their election, the various presidents are: John Macaulay of Canada (1959), José Barroso Chavez of Mexico (1965), Joseph Adetunji Adefarasin of Nigeria (1977), Enrique de la Mata of Spain (1981), Mario Enrique Villarroel Lander of Venezuela (1987), Astrid Nøklebye Heiberg of Norway (1997), and Juan Manuel Suárez Del Toro Rivero of Spain (2001). The vice-presidency of the IFRC is generally held by the president of the Swiss Red Cross. The position of secretary general, who has decision-making powers, has traditionally been held by a Westerner: William Rappard of Switzerland in 1919, René Sand of Belgium in 1921, Tracey Kittredge in 1927, Ernest Bicknell in 1930 and Ernest Swift in 1931 (all of the United States), Bonabès de Rougé of France in 1936, Henry Dunning of the United States in 1957, Henrik Beer of Sweden in 1960, Hans Høegh of Norway in 1982, Pär Stenbäck of Finland in 1988, George Weber of Canada in 1993, Didier Cherpitel of France in 2000 and Markku Niskala of Finland in 2003. The appointment of the secretary general is the result of highly political negotiations. A former Minister of Education and Minister of Foreign Relations in Finland, Pär Stenbäck was chosen on the grounds that his country was conveniently located between Western and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. His successor, George Weber, was nominated because he was from Quebec and spoke both French and English. Ultimately, the democratization and internationalization of the IFRC mainly affects its central body, the council of governors, replaced in 1976 by an assembly of delegates with a renewable mandate every two years to inject new blood into a body too often made up of elderly individuals remote from the concerns of their national society. Created in 1919 at the instigation of Henry Davison, who was keen to appoint another American (the Secretary of Interior Franklin Lane), the position of Director-General of the LRCS was suppressed in 1927 after having been held by the British military attaché in France, General David Henderson, succeeded after his death in 1921 by the British president of the Indian Red Cross, Claude Hill, and in 1926 by a US army officer, Ernest Bicknell.

-From 1964, Vietnam: the ICRC extends its operations when the United States dispatch troops to the South in support of the Saigon regime, threatened by the attacks of Viet Cong guerrilla fighters and the incursions of the communists in power in Hanoi in the North. Since 1961, the Geneva Committee had been able to transfer North Vietnamese nationals via Thailand and to repatriate American and South Vietnamese citizens held by the Chinese on the Paracel Islands. However, the escalation of fighting significantly restricted the potential for action. Despite recognizing the Red Cross societies of South then North Vietnam in 1957, the ICRC is not permitted to intervene in Hanoi and is limited to working with the authorities in Saigon. On the communist side, the regime of Ho Chi Minh, which signed up to the Geneva Conventions in 1957, considers its American prisoners as war criminals, arguing that the conflict is an internal problem since the 1954 peace agreements make no provision for the formation of two Vietnamese states. By contrast, the Americans defend the territorial integrity of South Vietnam, denounce the violation of an international border by the North, and treat captured combatants as prisoners of war. The Saigon government, which signed up to the Geneva Conventions in 1953, adopts a similar attitude toward the irregular fighters of the Viet Cong, who account for three quarters of the 40,000 detainees caught in possession of a weapon. The main problem concerns civilians suspected of communist sympathies, who are subject to arbitrary administrative measures and ill treatment in prison. Having been denied access in 1965, the ICRC is largely unable to assist them and to conduct systematic inspections. An agreement negotiated in 1969 compels the Committee to give the authorities one month’s notice and prevents it from conducting unsupervised interviews with prisoners. As a result, Geneva is caught in a scandal when the government quotes an ICRC report describing the conditions of detention as ‘good’ despite the use of ‘tiger cages’ uncovered by US congressmen in the infamous Con Son prison. In the International Herald Tribune of 10 and 15 July 1970, the Committee is forced to issue a formal denial and to re-emphasize that it only has access to military prisoners, not civilians. Concerned that it may be hijacked by the propaganda of the regime, the humanitarian institution decides to go along with the opinion of its delegation in Saigon and to suspend all visits to administrative detainees in late March 1972. However, the ICRC continues to assist civilian victims in urban and rural areas. For instance, it is invited to negotiate with the North over the establishment and neutralization of sanctuaries in the South, a proposal already made by Geneva in 1966 during discrete protests against American bombings. The project is subsequently abandoned following the peace agreements signed in Paris in 1973, when the League of Red Cross Societies begins to take over in the field. The results of the Committee’s operations are somewhat mixed, as noted by Marcel Naville’s adviser Michel Barde, who left the institution in 1975 to publish a critical memoir on ‘The Red Cross and the Indochinese Revolution’. While a small number of prisoner exchanges were conducted, including detainees from Phu Quoc camp sent to Hanoi in 1971, Geneva was not involved in the release of nine American pilots by the communists, largely for propaganda reasons during the war. Besides its failure to protect administrative detainees in the South, the ICRC was never able to intervene directly in the North. In January 1966, the Viet Cong of the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) refused its supplies, arguing that it had not requested them. The Committee was only able to fund hospitals in Hanoi after 1965 through the medium of the Soviet and North Vietnamese Red Crosses, though without the right to monitor the effective use of its funds. With the Paris peace agreements of 1973, the ICRC is not invited either to supervise the repatriation of some 500 American soldiers from North Vietnam. After the communist victory in Saigon in April 1975, the institution is also prevented from entering reeducation camps and is only able to gain access to a small number of Chinese prisoners of war caught during a border conflict with Beijing in February 1979. Similarly, the Committee is unable to facilitate the return of refugees and the resettlement of people displaced by the conflict. Closed in September 1976 and transferred to Hanoi, the new capital of united Vietnam, the ICRC delegation in Saigon is prevented from distributing relief supplies, officially for security reasons. With no access to political prisoners, the Committee eventually decides to relocate its regional office from Hanoi to Bangkok in March 1993. As noted by Richard Falk et al., Geneva was perceived as being guilty of bias by the communists for the entire duration of the conflict. Focusing mostly on combatants, the Committee had for instance remained silent about the massacres of civilians in the South, especially in My Lai, but had opposed the trials of American pilots captured and treated as war criminals by the North conducted in 1966. Hanoi vehemently criticized the ICRC for failing to condemn the American bombings, which had affected hospitals, and for protesting against all parties in an appeal dated 29 December 1972. Another argument was that the Geneva Committee had refused to support the accusations of the president of the North Vietnamese Red Cross, Tran Thi Dich, against the use by the Americans of herbicides with high concentrations of dioxins designed to destroy the natural camouflage provided by the forests in the south of the country between 1961 and 1971. By contrast, the ICRC voiced no disapproval of the behavior of the American Red Cross, which was funded by Washington and which helped US troops to accommodate displaced people in ‘peace villages’ in order to prevent the rebels from securing the support of peasants in rural areas. Geneva was suspected of approving this containment strategy because it failed to assist the mountain minorities evacuated by force by the Saigon government in 1966-1969.

-1965, Austria: held in Vienna from 2 to 9 October 1965, the twentieth International Red Cross conference presents the seven basic principles of the movement —humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteering, unity and universality. Organized in a country keen to emphasize its own neutrality, the event is less tense than the conference of New Delhi in 1957 since the rift between China and the USSR and a boycott by Beijing temporarily overshadowed the quarrel over the representation of the Taiwan government. In Vienna, the delegates sanction the emergence of new members in recently decolonized countries. Of the 90 societies attending the event, 25 are taking part for the first time in their history. Following the adoption of resolution 57, the delegates also decide to relieve the ICRC of the obligation to transmit the protests of national societies, often motivated by political considerations in conflicts where their country is involved. Between each international conference, the continuity of the movement is ensured by a Commission composed of nine members: five elected in a plenary session, two appointed by the Federation, and two Committee representatives. The role of mediator performed by the ICRC is henceforth limited to cases of serious breakdown in communication between states. Chaired since September 1964 by a retired colonel, Samuel Gonard, the Committee is keen to protect its neutrality, at the risk of undermining its role of whistleblower denouncing major humanitarian law violations during the Vietnam War. However, national liberation struggles result in major controversies that are detrimental to the ideals of impartial humanitarian action. Held in Istanbul from 6 to 13 September 1969, the twenty-first International Red Cross conference is hijacked by Arab representatives and made to serve as a political tribunal against Israel, which occupies the Gaza Strip and the West Bank territories since the Six Days War in June 1967. Founded in January 1969 and present as an observer in the Jordanian delegation, the Palestinian Red Crescent is among the most virulent voices. Similarly, the representatives of southern and eastern countries, now in a majority, politicize the twenty-fourth International Red Cross conference attended by 121 national societies and held in Manila from 7 to 14 November 1981. Under considerable pressure, the ICRC supports a resolution against the Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank territories. In exchange, it secures a vote against the obstacles preventing its delegates from accessing prisoners of war and civilians in Western Sahara, Ethiopian Ogaden, Afghanistan and Eritrea, where Geneva is not authorized to intervene. Keen to redress the balance, the Committee thus reminds the delegates that impediments to the provision of humanitarian aid are caused as much by ‘conservative’ governments as they are by ‘progressive’ guerrilla forces.

-1966-2002, Angola: after an initial refusal in August 1961, the ICRC is authorized by the Portuguese colonial authorities to visit political prisoners and captured freedom fighters. Like Mozambique in 1966, Guinea-Bissau in 1965 and Goa in 1961, the Geneva Committee can assist several categories of detainees, both civilian and military. In an attempt at reciprocity, the ICRC also secures the release of a small number of Portuguese detainees held by guerrilla fighters. From Congo-Kinshasa, the Committee convinces the National Front for the Liberation of Angola, the FNLA (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola), to release two young girls and a soldier seriously injured in 1970, following precedents set by the PAIGC (Partido Africano para Independência de Guiné e Cabo Verde) and the FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), which had released two Portuguese nationals and a further eight in 1968 and 1969 respectively. The 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon subsequently facilitates the work of the ICRC since the new government, which agrees to the independence of its African colonies, agrees to treat the rebels of the FNLA, the MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) and UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola) as prisoners of war and not as mere political detainees. While the Portuguese Red Cross assists its nationals evacuated from Angola, the Geneva Committee extends its operations in the area of healthcare. Following the declaration of independence of Angola in November 1975, the ICRC dispatches medical teams to areas held by the FNLA in Carmona (Uige Province), the MPLA in Dalatando, and UNITA in Nova Lisboa (present-day Huambo). After the takeover by MPLA ‘Marxists’, who drive the other factions out of the capital, the humanitarian institution has to interrupt its operations in October 1976 and is no longer authorized to visit combatants captured by Luanda’s forces, especially South-African soldiers supporting the ‘Maoist’ UNITA guerrilla fighters. In 1979, Geneva is officially allowed to return to Angola to distribute small quantities of relief supplies to displaced people in government-controlled areas. However, UNITA continues to prevent the Committee from accessing prisoners despite a letter dated 25 July 1980 stating its commitment to the general principles of humanitarian law. While the ICRC is able to visit one soldier held by SWAPO (South-West Africa People’s Organisation) in 1980, its actions are focused for the most part on the provision of medical and food aid to civilians. In 1981, as a result of the escalation of fighting and the deterioration of the situation, Angola becomes the Committee’s main field of intervention in Africa. The ICRC provides assistance to civilians displaced by the conflict opposing the MPLA and UNITA, as well as prisoners of war held by SWAPO, which attacks South-African occupying forces in Namibia. From Luanda, Geneva extends its operations to Huambo, Kuito, Lubango and N’Giva. However, the prevailing insecurity compels the Committee to suspend its operations on a number of occasions in the provinces of Huambo, Bié, Huila and Benguela on the Planalto in December 1980 and May 1981. On 20 February 1982, a local employee, Gabriel Sanchez Rodrigues, is killed in a UNITA raid against Mungo in central Planalto. On 25 May 1982, an ICRC convoy is attacked in the same region near Katchiungo, while a nurse, Mary-Josée Burnier, is taken hostage and detained by rebels until 18 September. On 18 October 1982, four local employees are kidnapped by UNITA in the province of Cunene and released several months later. In the region of Huambo, ICRC premises in Bomba Alta and Katchiungo are vandalized and bombed in March, July and September 1982, while André Redard, a delegate, is killed in a traffic collision on 11 May 1982 in Luanda. In the least secure areas, Geneva is forced to suspend its activities, and even suspends all operations for almost a year when, in 1983, the Angolan Red Cross challenges an agreement reached with the Committee. After returning to the area, the humanitarian institution continues to be a target of attacks. A local employee dies when an ICRC planes hits a mine while landing in Chitembo in the province of Bié in September 1985. Marc Blaser, a radio operator, is killed following a raid on Lobito in the province of Benguela on 10 December 1985. In February and November 1985, the ICRC again suspends its activities in the region of Bié as a result of attacks on its Kuito food center. In the province of Huambo, the Committee withdraws for five months following a raid that kills two children of a local employee in Bailundo on 30 December 1985. Both sides fail to comply with humanitarian law, and relief aid is either misappropriated or seized. In Huambo, a city under government control from 1983 to 1993, Jean-Paul de Passos notes that the efforts of the ICRC, seeking to restore water conveyance in 1987, mainly benefit the administration and not the general population. In UNITA strongholds in south-eastern Angola, where the Committee continues its medical operations, warehouses and trains are burgled and plundered on a regular basis. The prevailing insecurity forces the ICRC to resort to air transport, a far more costly and not altogether risk-free form of transport. For instance, in Kuito, the Committee is forced to suspend operations until February 1988 following a plane crash that killed all four crew members, the two passengers and two Angolan nationals on the ground on 14 October 1987. On 23 March 1991, another ICRC plane is hit by a missile near Kuito, this time without causing any casualties. On 14 June, an Angolan employee steps on a mine near Huambo airport. Finally, on 13 July, an ICRC plane hits a bomb on the N’Harea landing strip. After the withdrawal of Cuban and South-African forces, there are hopes that the situation will improve following peace negotiations between the MPLA government and the UNITA when the belligerents authorize the Committee to cross the frontlines by road to provide relief supplies to the population in October 1990. However, the ‘border’ is temporarily closed in December 1989-May 1990 and again in January-June 1991. The resumption of fighting eventually undermines the efforts of the ICRC. For the first time since 1979, the Committee is forced to withdraw altogether from the Planalto in January 1993 and to evacuate all of its expatriates from Kuito and Huambo, where its offices are bombed and destroyed by government forces the following August. In May 1994, Luanda suspends all flights to rebel-held areas. In retaliation, UNITA prevents aerial supplies from reaching the towns recaptured by the government and besieged by rebel forces. Aerial transport becomes increasingly difficult, and the ICRC loses two pilots when a DC-3 crashes while attempting to take off from Lobito on 15 December 1994. The fighting around the UNITA stronghold in Huambo is particularly destructive. Shortly after returning to the area, ICRC expatriates are forced to leave the city during an offensive by the MPLA, which takes control of the area in November 1994. The ICRC delegation is completely plundered and its 35 employees are physically threatened by people they had previously helped. At the national level, Geneva is largely unable to intervene in rural areas held by rebel forces and struggles to gain access to government-controlled urban areas, such as Kuito, which is evacuated following a UNITA bombing in December 1998. Despite significant needs escalating to the point of famine, the distribution of relief supplies is unbalanced because of sanctions imposed on the insurgents by the international community. Interviewed in the journal Politique Internationale in the autumn of 1999, the UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi complains about the situation: ‘Where’s all the aid going? First of all, it’s only sent to one side, the government side, despite the fact that we control between 60% and 70% of the national territory, where half of the population lives. Secondly, food aid is often misappropriated and resold on markets, benefiting the governor and generals. In an emergency, have you ever seen the Angolan government taking a concrete measure to help its population by using its own means and resources? No, the government merely appeals for help, calls on the United Nations, and the international community […]. It’s appalling to see humanitarian aid being used as a weapon of war. Aid is given to some Angolans and not to others just because the UN has decided to inflict punitive measures [on us]’. It is only as a result of the death of Jonas Savimbi on 22 February 2002 and the signature of a ceasefire with UNITA on 4 April that the ICRC is able to access all provinces in the hinterland.

-Since 1967, Israel/Palestine: like a premonition, the ICRC arrives a week before the outbreak of the Six Days War. The Israelis first accept to apply the fourth Geneva Convention in a military decree dated 7 June 1967. But they quickly contest it. According to them, occupied territories are ‘liberated’ and cannot be returned to any sovereign entity since Gaza and the West Bank did not belong either to, respectively, Egypt and Jordan. To follow this logic, Palestinian civilians cannot be protected by a Geneva Convention that they have no power to sign. After the ceasefire of 10 June 1967, however, the ICRC assists Arab soldiers held in Atlith, a camp near Caesarea, and supplies relief to the defeated Egyptian troops deprived of water in the Sinai desert. In July and August, the Committee supervises the exchange of soldiers’ bodies and Syrian, Israeli and Jordanian prisoners of war on the Allenby Bridge, over the Jordan River, and on the Golan Heights. An operation conducted in January 1968 involves over 4,000 Egyptians in el Kantara. Regarding civilians, the ICRC delegate in Tel-Aviv, Laurent Marti, is authorized by the Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to assist the population in the occupied territories, now described by Israel as ‘recovered territories’. As part of a personal initiative, the Geneva envoy unsuccessfully attempts to oppose the destruction of houses suspected of sheltering Arab resistance fighters and helps a Palestinian adulteress condemned to death by Koranic law to flee to Lebanon. Maintaining delegations in Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip, the ICRC also intervenes in matters that extend beyond its mandate and compromise its neutrality. For example, the humanitarian institution is solicited to act as a mediator during the hijacking of a Sabena plane at Lod airport on 8 May 1972. But despite the opposition of Geneva, the ICRC only serves to allay the mistrust of the hijackers before an assault by the Israeli army. As a result, the Committee returns to more traditional activities during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. On this occasion, the issue is the behavior of the belligerents. While Damascus prevents the ICRC from visiting prisoners of war, Tel-Aviv retaliates by refusing access to territories taken from Syria. In June 1974, repatriations on both sides are conducted under the aegis of the Unites States, not the Committee. In November 1973, Geneva is only able to evacuate some 1,300 patients from the Suez hospital and to supervise the release of Egyptian soldiers captured in the Sinai and released in exchange for a handful of Israeli soldiers. The ICRC turns its attention to prisoner exchanges with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in Cyprus on 22 February 1980 and in Lebanon on 23 and 24 November 1983. Despite challenging the applicability of the Geneva Conventions, the Israeli government authorizes the Committee to assist detainees in the occupied territories. Initially granted in December 1967, its right of access is subsequently renegotiated in November 1977 and again in March 1979, allowing the ICRC to conduct unsupervised interviews with prisoners and to provide medical care in a period reduced from fourteen to ten days after their arrest, as opposed to thirty days previously. Following the uprising of the first Intifada in December 1987, which results in an inflow of prisoners, the Oslo Accords represent a significant development by granting a limited autonomy to the Palestinian territories. By virtue of a protocol signed on 13 July 1994 with the PLO under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, who had signed up to the Geneva Conventions on 21 June 1989, the ICRC is authorized to visit all political prisoners held by the Palestinian Authority immediately after their arrest – at least in theory. However, in practice, the Committee is only granted access to detention centers in 1996, though it is unable to converse freely with prisoners. The continued fighting, resulting in the death of a Palestinian ambulance driver in September 1996, also imposes significant restrictions on relief operations for civilians. Beginning in September 2000, the second Intifada exacerbates the situation. Soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces (Tsahal) are ordered to kill all armed combatants, including those who do not target them, and make tragic mistakes by shooting minors who play with imitation weapons. On the Palestinian side, the proliferation of terrorist attacks, the corruption of the PLO and the erosion of its authority in favor of the rival Hamas Islamists also contribute to the resurgence of violence. Humanitarian law is largely ignored on both sides. Geneva is not authorized to visit prisoners detained by Hamas in the Gaza strip, and its staff are not immune to attacks. In the West Bank, a local ICRC official is briefly kidnapped on 14 March 2006 to avenge an attack of Tsahal on the Jericho prison carried out with the intention of capturing a leader of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Ahmad Sa’adat. As a result of the containment strategy devised by the Jews, who begin to build a separation barrier in 2002, ambulances encounter greater obstacles at Israeli checkpoints. The blockade results in a deterioration of living conditions in the occupied territories, particularly in terms of health. However, the ICRC is reluctant to distribute supplies because it refuses to act as a substitute for the occupying power, which has a social and economic responsibility toward the Palestinians. In West Bank towns between July 2002 and December 2003, the Committee only provides relief to the most vulnerable families in the form of vouchers worth 90 dollars per month. Despite the risk of forgery and fraud, the system has the advantage of circumventing the Palestinian authorities, who often attempt to misappropriate aid, and to favor the purchase of local products to boost the local economy. However, in the Gaza strip, the introduction of a blockade against Hamas, in power following the legislative elections of January 2006, results in a deterioration of the situation. The humanitarian crisis reaches a critical level following an Israeli attack on the territory in January 2009. Because of the restrictions imposed by the army, the ICRC struggles to conduct operations in the area and to assist the victims of bombings. One of its convoys comes under Israeli fire, while another is blocked in Khan Yunis before being allowed to evacuate the injured toward Egypt. Departing from its usual reserve, the ICRC deems the matter to be so serious that it publicly denounces the behavior of Tsahal in a statement issued on 8 January 2009.

-Since 1968, Nigeria: the ICRC intervenes in the conflict between the federal government of Yakubu Gowon and the Igbo secessionists led by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who proclaimed an independent Republic of Biafra in the east of the country in May 1967. Geneva initially seeks to distribute supplies in both camps: the rebel enclave, numbering almost six million inhabitants, and the territories reclaimed by the Nigerian army, sheltering between four and five million people. The need for relief is more urgent on the secessionist side, which is more difficult to access. The risk of famine becomes more pronounced when the rebel zone is completely surrounded following the loss of its last remaining sea outlet, Port Harcourt, in May 1968. A spectacular situation attracting significant media coverage, the humanitarian crisis results in the death of between 100,000 and four million people within two years, at a rate of 10,000 deaths per day from August 1968, based on the figures provided by humanitarian organizations. The challenge is significant for Geneva, which attempts to negotiate a land corridor to enable the provision of supplies across the frontlines. An ICRC delegate for West Africa until his dismissal in January 1968, Georg Hoffmann goes to Kampala during peace negotiations to obtain a relaxation of the Nigerian blockade, but to no avail: the federal government refuses the intervention of foreign troops to guarantee the neutrality of the proposed corridor and continues to use hunger as a weapon of war to hasten the surrender of the secessionists. For reasons of precedence and sovereignty, the rebels oppose the transportation of relief through Nigeria, alleging that the supplies may be contaminated ­– suspicions subsequently confirmed by traces of arsenic and cyanide found by a nutritionist, Jean Mayer, and a senator, Charles Goodell, during an inquiry presented to the United States Congress on 25 February 1969. Meanwhile, the Biafrans fear that the neutralization of a land corridor could interfere with their military operations in Agwu and prevent them from recapturing their capital, Enugu, recently fallen to the hands of the federal troops. They prefer to transport supplies by plane which, under the guise of humanitarian aid, can also be used to bring weapons and to counter the restrictions on imports by sea from Port Harcourt. The ICRC is thus forced to resort to an airlift and struggles to overcome the reluctance of the federal government, the secessionists and even the former British colonial authorities, which (according to Dan Jacobs) attempt to dissuade Geneva from providing relief to the Biafrans in order to shorten the war, protect their economic interests in Nigeria and prevent Lagos from swinging over to the Soviet Union if London had to suspend its arms shipments to Yakubu Gowon under the pressure of public opinion. The Committee, which had just evacuated Europeans from Bukavu in Congo, set a precedent by sending humanitarian goods by plane to the rebels in Port Harcourt in November 1967 without the approval of the authorities. The initiative offends the government in Lagos, which accuses the ICRC of supplying weapons to the Biafrans and which suspends all flights in January 1968, allegedly because it is no longer able to guarantee their security, though in reality to force them to land in federal-controlled territory to check their cargo. As an exception, Geneva subsequently decides in April 1968 to bypass official authorizations and to set up an air bridge like the Americans in Berlin in June 1948, yet on a bigger scale. Known as INALWA (International Airlift West Africa), the operation is very costly and results in a deficit roughly equivalent to a quarter of the Committee’s annual budget. Worse still, the air bridge is highly controversial since it contributes to prolong the conflict by enabling the surrounded rebels to continue fighting. The Geneva Committee initially resorts to the services of an American adventurer, Hank Warton, who also provides weapons to the secessionists. Repainted in the colors of the ICRC, the planes change their itinerary on a regular basis to avoid giving the impression of taking off from the Portuguese island of São Tomé and Príncipe, the rear base of the Biafrans used by churches to operate illegal flights in violation of the Nigerian airspace. However, Yakubu Gowon’s government is not fooled by the strategy: in July 1968, an airplane crash in federal territory reveals the deception. Within Biafra, the provision of relief is handed over to the forces led by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. As it does not have a permanent representative on site, the Committee has to entrust the secessionist authorities with the task of distributing supplies and must agree to feed the guards of Nigerian prisoners of war between April and July 1968. In other words, the ICRC has virtually no control over the use of its relief since its discussions with the Biafrans are conducted in Geneva through the intermediary of the vice-president of the institution, Jacques Freymond. The delegate general sent by the Committee to the rebel enclave area, a businessman called Heinrich Jaggi, is equally unsuccessful in neutralizing a civilian airport built in Obilagun with the help of Swiss Air Force advisers before being bombed by federal troops in August 1968. Despite refusing the armed escort of the Biafrans, the Committee’s activities are closely monitored. The radio equipment provided to guide the relief planes are seized by the rebels after the capture of Obilagun by the Nigerian Army in September 1968. The Uli military airbase is the only site where supplies are unloaded, along with weapons. Since it represents the last link of the secessionist enclave with the outside world, the place is often targeted by federal troops. The discussions conducted by the ICRC with the Nigerians and the Biafrans highlight the strategic issues at stake in the airborne supplies. Though initially hostile, Yakubu Gowon’s government eventually agrees to tolerate daytime landings on the condition that the secessionists neutralize Uli and allow the Nigerian aviation to fly over the site in order to unload humanitarian cargo. The Biafrans refuse to abandon their only military airport and argue that daylight operations would reveal the location of their camouflaged airstrips in the bush. The conflict also involves global public opinion. The image of the rebels suffers as a result of their decision to prevent daytime humanitarian convoys. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu is suspected of exploiting famine in order to attract sympathy and donations from the West. Despite the propaganda of his press agency in Switzerland, it is not altogether clear that he orchestrated the fate of the victims: as noted by Michel Leapman, the Biafran authorities seek to conceal the starving population from the prying eyes of journalists to avoid drawing attention to their incompetence in the provision of food supplies. But the ICRC is caught between the secessionists, who prevent the Committee from landing in the daytime, and the federal forces, who revoke the authorization to fly by night in November 1968. By virtue of agreements signed on 11 April and 3 September 1968, Geneva only secures the right to fly over by day ‘at its own risk’. The new measures mean that the Committee is exposed to firing from government troops and enable Lagos to control the rate of supplies from Santa Isabel on the Spanish island of Fernando Po, unlike the illegal flights operated by the churches from São Tomé and Príncipe. Other factors contribute to reducing access to Biafra despite the growing famine. Fernando Po, which secured independence as Equatorial Guinea in October 1968, suspends all ICRC flights to satisfy the demands of the Nigerian authorities and out of hostility toward the Igbo, the majority group in Biafra and in the immigrant population of an island also in the grip of secessionist tensions. Accused of transporting weapons, though in fact conveying fuel for trucks used to distribute supplies in the secessionist enclave, the Committee is forced to suspend all operations from Santa Isabel in November 1969. Various attempts to transport relief from other countries are unsuccessful. While Cameroon supports the federal blockade, Gabon openly sides with the secessionists and officially recognizes the Republic of Biafra. To preserve its neutrality, the ICRC declines the offer to operate from Libreville in a letter sent on 4 May 1969 to the French Red Cross based in Gabon, which began to send supplies illegally in French military aircrafts loaded with weapons for the rebels in August 1968. The Republic of Dahomey (present-day Benin), which borders Western Nigeria, is prevented from serving as an operational base because of pressure from the authorities in Lagos and the presence of a Yoruba minority hostile to the Igbo of Biafra. The attempt by the ICRC to set up an airlift from Cotonou in February 1969 is impeded by Yakubu Gowon despite the agreement of the president of Benin Emile Zinsou, a doctor sympathetic to the victims of the famine in the secessionist enclave. In the meantime, the situation continues to deteriorate in Biafra, where the Committee is subject to reprisals. On 30 September 1968, four volunteers are assassinated by federal troops during the capture of Okigwe in the district of Awo-Omama: two British missionaries of the World Council of Churches (Albert and Marjorie Savory), a Yugoslavian (Dragan Hercog), and a Swede (Robert Carlsson). In January 1969, Awo-Omama hospital is bombed by Nigerian forces, which ignore the Red Cross emblem. ICRC planes are not immune from attacks either despite the precautions taken by Geneva, which is careful to provide federal troops with the details of every flight to avoid blunders. Perilous landings in the bush result in a number of lethal accidents. On 6 May 1969, all crew members of an ICRC airplane – three Swedes and one German – die as a result of crashing near Uli. In addition, the federal forces have little trust in the Committee since its special envoy August Lindt protested against the military requisition of a Red Cross plane and authorized a cargo flight to Biafra without government authorization. The blunders become deliberate before reaching a climax when an ICRC plane is shot down by the Nigerian Army above Ikot Okoro on 5 June 1969, causing the death of one American (David Brown), one Norwegian (Stig Carlson), and two Swedes (Kiell Pettersen and Harry Axelsson). The blatant violation of humanitarian law forces Geneva to publicly protest and to suspend its operations. As a result, the federal authorities relieve the organization of its coordinating role and entrust the responsibility of all food and medical supplies to a governmental committee on 30 June. Stationed in Lagos since August 1968, August Lindt is expelled and replaced by Georg Hoffmann, who is reputed to be more favorable to Yakubu Gowon, and later by Enrico Bignami, a former Nestlé executive. The ICRC is limited to distributing supplies illegally transported by the French Red Cross and the churches, which refused to suspend their operations in protest against the attack of June 1969. The Committee unsuccessfully attempts to negotiate over Uli to secure the right to operate night flights from Cotonou or Santa Isabel by enabling the Nigerians to divert planes toward Lagos to perform unannounced inspections. Despite an agreement with the federal authorities reached on 13 September 1969, the Biafrans emphasize the principle of reciprocity and block the situation by claiming the right to ban all suspect planes from landing and to appoint a representative on the committee set up to control all flights. The secessionists argue that the proposed compromise weakens the defense of Uli in return for a relatively low level of aid, while the churches continue to operate illegal flights from São Tomé and Príncipe. With a three-week trial period and limited landing times, the new system has the disadvantage of forcing all humanitarian organizations to operate under the control of the ICRC. However, the project is made null and void by the surrender of the rebels in January 1970. The victorious Nigerian army is distrustful of humanitarian organizations, suspected of harboring Biafran sympathies, and prevents them from using the airstrips of Uli, Orlu, Uga and Obilagun. The ICRC, which is not invited to support the reconstruction of the country, is forced to hand over its equipment to the local Red Cross and to close its offices in March 1970. The Committee will eventually return to Lagos eighteen years later to open a delegation transferred in March 2003 to Abuja, the new federal capital (where its office will be briefly evacuated in September 2011 because of the fear of an Islamist terrorist attack by Boko Haram). The results of its operations in Biafra are somewhat mixed. David Forsythe argues that under British pressure the Committee failed to display political subtlety and lucidity, particularly August Lindt, a diplomat from the ‘chocolate family’, a Swiss ambassador in Washington and Moscow, and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Influenced by the Markpress agency, which relayed the propaganda of the rebels in Geneva, the ICRC was unable to preserve the trust of the Nigerian government. For example, in May 1968, the Committee fostered the impression of supporting the rebels when it launched an appeal inappropriately entitled ‘SOS Biafra’. Similarly, in a statement issued on 17 August 1968, the ICRC criticized the federal authorities but not the secessionists, despite the fact that the latter played an equally important role in putting up barriers to the transportation of aid. Within the Committee, some delegates made no attempt to conceal their Biafran sympathies and expressed outrage at their inability to break through the Nigerian blockade. Among the volunteers sent into the field, a young doctor called Bernard Kouchner broke the ‘law of silence’, forewarning of a ‘genocide’ that never actually occurred after the victory of the federal authorities. As for the vice-president of the ICRC, Jacques Freymond, Susan Cronje explains that he transmitted key intelligence from the American services to the Biafran envoy in Geneva, revealing that in July 1969 the enemy air force had acquired equipment capable of intercepting night flights. The Committee thus appeared to be biased and, according to Larissa Fast, it lost a total of 14 delegates during the conflict. Even the Arab societies of the Red Crescent, explains Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps, blamed the ICRC for being prompt to denounce violations of the humanitarian international law in Africa, more than in the Middle East. Within Nigeria, the press in Lagos accused the institution of infringing the sovereignty of the country, particularly the Daily Times of 8 July and 18 August 1968. With collaborators recruited on the spot and not always prepared for the reality of Africa, ICRC members also offended local sensitivities by their lavish lifestyle and their arrogant and (in some cases) neo-colonialist attitudes. In practice, the Committee appealed more often to the Swiss embassy in Lagos than to the Nigerian Red Cross. A marked reluctance to develop a genuine partnership was displayed on both sides. As noted by Max Niven, the Nigerian Red Cross was mistrustful of a distinctly ‘imperialistic’ and ‘white’ institution. Under the leadership of Saidu Mohammed, it imposed a maximum quota of a third of expatriates in its teams and requested their withdrawal where local competence was available. Its president, Adetokunbo Ademola (1906-1993), was a Yoruba protestant not inclined to put pressure on the authorities to provide aid to the Catholic Igbo in the Biafran enclave. The serving president of the Supreme Court, he even opted not to condemn the attack of the Nigerian Air Force against an ICRC plane in Ikot Okoro. Quoted by the Daily Times of 12 June 1969, he approved military operations against organizations illegally providing aid to Biafra. However, after the surrender of the rebels, the Nigerian Red Cross was unable to remove the administrative obstacles impeding the distribution of relief supplies placed under its responsibility since February 1970. With insufficient stocks, its trucks were forced to travel with armed escorts and were stolen on a regular basis. Others remained blocked in Lagos and were requisitioned by the government, which relieved the Nigerian Red Cross of all operations in June 1970 in order to take exclusive control of the situation.

-Since 1969, South Africa: unlike the system in place in Southern Rhodesia, where the Committee is only authorized to assist suspects before sentencing, the ICRC signs an agreement in 1969 with the racist apartheid regime to secure the right to interview political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela. But it is denied access to detainees awaiting trial, who are the most exposed to ill treatment and abuse, as illustrated b y the alleged ‘suicide’ of the leader of the Black Consciousness movement Steve Biko following an abusive police interrogation in 1977. However, in an attempt to improve its image in the international community, the government in Pretoria decides in December 1976 to allow the ICRC to visit detainees held as a preventive measure by virtue of the Internal Security Amendment Act, but not the Terrorism Act. After the Soweto uprising, the situation deteriorates nonetheless. The South African government refuses to grant a prisoner of war status to activists of the ANC (African National Congress) and even prosecutes and condemns some of them despite the legal precedents set by the occupying authorities in Namibia and Palestine, which avoided imposing death sentences on members of the SWAPO (South-West Africa People’s Organisation) and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). Thus three guerrilla fighters, Simon Mogoerane, Jerry Mosololi and Marcus Motaung, are executed in 1983. In 1985 and 1988, other detained members of the armed branch of the ANC dispute the legitimacy of South African tribunals and make an unsuccessful request to be granted a prisoner of war status in order to avoid a trial. Meanwhile, the Geneva Committee is unable to secure the right to visit detainees held as part of the state of emergency declared in July 1985. Compromised along with a police officer of the regime, an homosexual administrator of the ICRC mission in South Africa is imprisoned for embezzling funds. In October 1986, Committee delegates are declared persona non grata before being invited to return to the country in limited numbers: five, as opposed to sixteen previously. Having failed to gain access to all detainees, the ICRC eventually suspends its visits to mark its opposition to the regime’s prison policy. In the homelands of Gazankulu and Kangwane at the border with warring Mozambique, the Committee decides to refocus its operations on protection and the distribution of aid to refugees and asylum seekers. In dealing with persons deprived of their liberty, the ICRC is equally unsuccessful in neighboring countries where the exiled guerrilla fighters of the ANC are based. Despite its commitment to the general principles of humanitarian law in a letter dated 28 November 1980, Nelson Mandela’s movement consistently prevents Geneva from visiting ‘dissidents’ held in camps in Uganda, Tanzania or Zambia: at the end of the apartheid regime, the ANC will announce that it has released all prisoners, although no independent body will be allowed to verify the claim. The situation returns to normal following the democratization of South Africa. After the release of Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990, the ICRC negotiates an official agreement signed on 8 July 1992 to provide assistance to sentenced prisoners or persons in preventive detention. On 2 October 1992, Geneva also secures the right to conduct visits without prior notice in police stations in South Africa and the ‘independent’ homelands of Bophuthatswana, KwaZulu, Transkei and Ciskei. Unanimously accepted by all parties, the ICRC is able to help the victims of violence with funds granted by the ANC and the government at the hands of the NP (National Party). After the elections and the accession to power of Nelson Mandela in April 1994, significant challenges remain, particularly the rise of the AIDS epidemic and the high levels of armed crime. Despite the death of one of its employees in 2001, the ICRC continues to maintain a regional delegation in Pretoria.