hello yeah they're welcome to spotlight the international prime cauldron all and today my guest in the studio is eve. the international committee of the red cross

says it's not leaving libya colonel gadhafi is dead nato is gone but the conflict isn't settled yet as people keep fighting and many cities are virtually destroyed rebuilding the country may take years making libya another long lasting red cross nish. how does the red cross manage to conduct so many troops are in appraisals all around the globe and what are the primary issues the organization has to face we're asking the head of the red cross. the international red cross committee conducts several hundred humanitarian operations in some eighty countries despite its purely humanitarian activities the red cross is not always welcome the volunteers have to take between the warring parties sometimes coming under fire they also have to show diplomacy skills as somebody splash. in africa and not

friendly towards any kind of. our midst of the current thank you very much for being with us here that are well this week the red cross was meeting the c.s.t. yell at the head of this year's tour which is the main the leading post soviet security organizational meeting them outside moscow what was the agenda of our that meeting you have to attend that we have a very very strong relationship with this city oh for another four years and i think that we have two elements one is we wanted to share in fact our reading of what's going on now in the region central asia but also what's going on in afghanistan in libya in yemen in syria to make sure that we have a joint understanding that's one and the other element is to talk about preparedness we are living a very very strange world even for the i.c.r.c. even for the red cross i mean things are happening with such a pass and such a difficulty sometimes that is important for us to be ready more than ever and it's

important to understand that organization like this year's deal are also ready maybe to intervene and to understand their point of view and to see how we can collaborate together you have the red cross you work a very humanitarian organization i know you have different aspects but still while the c.s.t. you know is considered by many in the west and the rightly as sort of an they term i mean like well like a mill trade military post so little book they're also having many functions well how do you come to did do you feel that you still have much in common with this organization you have to know when we are where nine people are working in libya you mention libya or syria or yemen or palestine or afghanistan every day they're dealing with people but also dealing with soldiers with military we know military very well we know the securities issues so these people are absolutely critical to understand but also to talk to that's one element the other element is there is no crisis anymore in the world. without having

a humanitarian element but there is also security element there is also economical and today so we very important to bring that together and that send this year's to you with this seven country represent a lot of interesting discussions for us and interesting experience very important for us to be able to to have this type of discussions it's interesting that you consider the more security the military organization i know this is right i think it is in a given conditions at least and you know these days there's a blurring line between military and security you should not look any more into just armed or a war i think what is a war today i would ask you a war is levy a war is mexico a war for us what is simple if you look at it and judging by the fact that the last ministry of war was closed about seventy years ago they are called ministry of defense or the war is going to screw up but what we see in the field is moment and more minister of interior as the minister of defense working together what we see is security is issues about terrorism counterterrorism which goes much beyond just

armed and i think we need to be able to understand this kind of element very important for us and. the root cause has been actively involved in the humanitarian operations after the conflicts in chechnya and also in southwest thirty which is the southern borders of russia are you still involved there is there still work to be done for your humanitarian mission on the ground one of the problem is that in most of the conflict the conflict might end now we know that then long lasting consequences give you two examples also said yes we are the only international you made an organization still in south ossetia and we are helping more than half of the population not of issues there poverty but also direct consequences of conflict north caucasus yes we are still north caucasus we are in one cheek we are in grozny were in dagestan one of the reason is there are some direct problems still links with this region don't know about the missing for example from the former conflict we need to be able to follow that very close. they were the people and to

understand their needs on the spot we are the i.c.r.c. we are the red cross what we do is we are close to the people we are trying to understand their needs and their needs can change talking about something else you mention libya we are convinced today that we need to maintain a presence in libya to be able to understand what the conflict will evolve i hope i hope that the conflict will end maybe but we are rather convinced that we need to stay for a while to understand what might be the problems and we think there will be some problems in the coming months you know i worked myself with a humanitarian mission in africa for a couple of years in the eighty's and i are right where was it anything during the drought and famine and i saw red cross of action and i know that you guys you like giving hard times to authorities well this is probably not going to authorities world we are going hard time but you know this is this is the is inspired in a job so there say in church there in south a city which say that you are arguing hard to authorities or authorities are

getting a deal but how is that where our point of departure goes it's never it's never up what like perfectly aberrational isn't known but the point of departure is not to give hard time or not to some people in our point of departure is read the needs of the people right and some of the needs are very basic but some of the needs are maybe more difficult to express and let's take an example missing person we have in the region people especially in a conflict which he said here it's difficult and we are the only one to come again and really to insist on the fact that this family they need to receive a response of course these are not very happy to have people knocking on their door remembering them that you need to do that it's not only in russia or in caucasus it's true impossible it's true in afghanistan it's true or not of places but we need to be able to do that same element to gain something different in terms of the tensions as one of example yes of course when we work in afghanistan when we walk in one final our job is to make sure that they receiving are. acted and that

international human to know is respected so that's our job and we do that but important what we do we do that with everybody not only with one party we do that with every parties and we are serious about it well here started talking about libya well let's take a look at the humanitarian situation in libya these days spotlights you know that to me the reports. according to the beers national transitional council asked him a good number killed during the eight months of civil war he's twenty five thousand that bodies are being found in mass graves thousands of families across the country are waiting to find out what happened to their loved ones the war accompanied by neda ass trikes resulted in hundreds of thousands of libyans fleeing the country for safer places some of them eventually found themselves only dillies overcrowded lampedusa island together with other nationals fleeing from their arab spring out of rest those who stayed in libya have to face the shortage of water food medicine

and fuel many regions have permanent cuts in the electricity supply the civic infrastructure has been so degraded it will take months if not years to restore then there's the shock subsaharan africa who came to libya as migrant workers before the uprising many of them have been persecuted by the forces of the national transitional council over allegations they served as could duffy's mercenaries about one million sub-saharan africans are estimated to have fled leave years since the conflict started about seven thousand are still in the township amnesty international reports to which it is routinely used against suspected could darfur loyalists. is the red cross a part. of the access to people who have been captured during the recent. fighting

in libya especially in such a place for example a suitor which is which was a combative strong point from day one in fact we insisted to have access bourse benghazi but also in tripoli and that's what makes a difference with between the i.c.r.c. a lot of other organization we are trying to have access and discussing with all the parties yes we got that we got access to the condition of this because i cannot speak about that because normally the first things we do is we speak first to the authorities met in general the concern you have in you would you express by your journalist about what we called certain national people who have no passport are coming from sub-saharan africa and are absolutely serious lot of problems and a lot of concern about about their fate during and during the situation and typically that's one of our priorities detentions people detained are always always with high availability so we are there to try as much as we can to make sure that they are respected and we will follow that very closely but i must say i'm also very concerned about all health issues in terms of in fact infrastructure hospital

were hit i mean can see a lot of doctors and nurses left the country we need to make sure that there is ability in libya to have a health system which works again otherwise we would be confronted with very serious problems what can you say about libya from the point of view of compliance to the wooden rules are very. humanitarian law i mean where they are they really violated those conflicts in my experience and i'm sad to say it and i have not gone across an econ flicked where the rules were always respected right by all sides yes absolutely media in libya we had plenty of problems absolutely clearly on both sides war is so even a true first century a war is something the way people don't play by the rules that let's put it that way i would say the rules are absolutely fundamental but it cannot just make and elements it's like driving and i'm careful of what i'm saying but drivers driving is critical if you there will. no rules people will be

a totally crazy but even with rules just plenty of people who just don't respect the rules in wartime in a violent situation the rules are fundamental the basic are there its means respecting people who are wounded for them and i think this is basic and i must say you need to yes of course we had a violation but important to say we were able to work on both sides from day one we were able to go in prison and we were able to go into hospital and to really work it's not always the case i've been in other places where we're not be able to work a day one says eve the coffin director general of the international committee of the red cross spotlight will be back should be will continue this interview in no time so stay with.

those who are fascinated with history. to those who have a sweet tooth. to those who can't live without the sky. and of course to the nature lovers this magnificent land offers its treasures. between earth and the sky. a very warm welcome to you this is your news today protesters on a false scent they have. ladies and gentlemen your chance to choose the city good book for example the status of the human experiment if. we pursue a pro. business rap music is what it goes to the movies lately trying to make sense

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. took a break when we started talking mental libya well i want to ask you about the recent fighting the fierce fighting ensued and valley where leaders do two cities where the level of destruction well if we charge for what we saw on television was just enormous yes so what was the the level of human human suffering i mean how many noncombatant people suffered there and lost their lives it's difficult to have precise figure especially in this conflict that we've heard a lot of different figures let's say sirte as a country as a town has been rather severely destroyed and our concern is in fact to see that a lot of system have been destroyed and in libya our concern is about water system it's a country if the water system is this or is problematic it's also about energy system no they have always we know that but if the system is destroyed that's problematic and then as we discussed before health system i would be concerned if you saw in tripoli when tripoli fall we see that there was

a lot of one the people not treated any more lack of doctors lack of nurses but also a lack of access to prison and that's maybe one of my major concern and we see that not only be a by the way in syria we see that also in afghanistan where access to hospital is more and more difficult and it's important for us to make sure that access to ambulances the hospitals to fair treatment is absolutely ensured in libya we need to be very careful that it's maintain well you talk about access actually the red cross spokesman mr steven anderson says i quote that the team found the hospital in suit was overwhelmed with wounded people so why the medics from from the red cross from the for from the libyan red crescent allowed to two to get access to get adequate medical help we were we were allowed to get access but to be honest with you insert at that very moment it was during two days in fact the bombing in the shelling was so difficult that we are asked to go into hospital and then to go to

withdrawal because it was too dangerous and i didn't want them to be exposed you know. and to take too much risk but very clearly some of our colleagues from the libyan red crescent were able to work in the un hospital and then we were able to to do a difference in the hospital well let's change won't stick to the subject but change the location syria is a red cross able to provide help to the two to the victims of violence in that country in syria and syria it's a very difficult situation it's a complex situation we are the i.c.r.c. we got the access in fact to the to the country so we are able to work in the country where we want to work we negotiate to have access also in prison as you know for us in prison it's very important why prison because this is where you have a lot of vulnerability that's where people sometimes are faced with a very difficult situation and here i must recognize it's still difficult we've been able to visit one major prison in damascus but we are willing to visit more prison and it's and i'm really looking forward to get

a green line now from the government to be able to really work where we want to go to work in the country yemen is another place where we see a situation ready to go out of control or actually actually it's developing into a full fledged military conflict does it worry you does it worry the red cross are you getting ready to to to get fully involved in yemen we are worried about yemen for years some sorry to say that we perceive yemen already know very difficult situation the country is almost cut in three days a different dynamic and it's true are there is a lot of concern in the country now it's very worrying to see that even santa the capital of the country is now completely are would say torn apart by by the tensions there and yes we do thing in terms of the humanitarian consequences young men is in mind to be one of the worst country over over the coming months is absolutely we are ready but honest with you you never really ready to to face a conflict we have to have a lot of their people are well trained they can do the difference but on the same

time soon ever no they're the scale of the conflict and you have to be under about . about what might happen but rule do our best and we are ready and our team is in sun our inside out in hadn't been able to our to do the difference clear if i'm not mistaken but as a journalist a feel that the worst the worst humanitarian situation the that we ever witnessed at least in my lifetime was the situation around well if that's true do you think that we can see something similar to what happened in rwanda that in the twenty first century were the personal community can start things like that does have the leverage to stop. i'm shared you know on one side on my side with a never ever again but i thought before ninety four that we would never seen what we saw in general in rwanda so when i saw what happened in rwanda are i was so shocked so surprised i will cut my calling the world now but my colleagues where they're you know trying to treat people in the midst of the genocide now let's hope

and i do think the world is changing and i think maybe what is changing is you and mean maybe not as a journalist and me being interviewed many people outside looking at us they have no bubble phone there is internet i think what we've seen in the middle east for example the vastness with which image goals fly and influence people maybe maybe dest what would make a difference and it puts so much pressure on all of us to go faster and to intervene that we won't see randa on your it's interesting that you mention the exchange of images will the public display our detainees and mortal remains that was committed by the new government. in then in different countries in the libya for example if it triggered a great deal of reaction and debate so what does the red cross think about these issues in general what we say is it's very it's very basic we like sometimes to come back to basic you know in conflicts always useful to remember that what we're

seeing is when somebody is arrested when somebody is a country under the control of. if people are these people to respect the person that's it that it was about detentions it's about one did and that's what we expect very clearly that people are respected whatever their rank whatever their responsibility that's very important they are respected. following the liberation of this israeli soldier of the young girl the international committee of the red cross cross said that the bloke eight of guns that violates the geneva convention which bans collective punishment of a civilian population that was a quote so was the captivity of john chiles and the function justification of the bloke a do you get any signs any any response from israel which would which will tell us the blockade may be lifted in terms we never ask ourself why there is a blockade right i mean we can have different point of view if the blockade is for

this reason or this one what we see is the humanitarian consequences of a blockade. and if this blockade amounts to i would say what we call collective punishment where an entire population doesn't mean we have the right to live as they said yes we do consider absolutely if the geneva convention apply and in this case the geneva convention yes we do actually consider is of your violation of of the geneva convention what we do we don't speak only about about that in the media what we do is we discuss that with the israeli but also with the palace you know authorities every day we discuss that in a must with hamas also every day in terms of their responsibility of the whole works in order to make sure that people can have access again to health to water to basic basic needs what are our of course will not be heard whose responsibility i mean sort of the israeli but if you can tell me why on whose side do you think the ball is today who is more able to mean israel or the pros to me and to to get it

moving i mean the dialogue the overcoming of the problems in the region i would say the ball is everywhere that's maybe the problem is there is not one ball right i think that we have several there is a very real chance we are several not and that's true and i think the question is what my senses when you see for different reasons you see a country or different country being blocked my hope was that the international community will be able and smart enough to bring these people together and trying to find solutions right but here i'm talking almost as a citizen you know citizen of the world if i may say i hope we find solutions for the palestine and palestine israel problems if we don't i think we should watch out carefully what's will happen over the next months is with syria with lebanon coming up possibly and with palestine i think we will be we again i confronted to have to deal with the humanitarian consequences and i really i'm i must say i'm not very optimistic if there is no real solution be found in the coming months now on the

other hand maybe when the tension is very high then you sue some gesture. i thought that the exchange of prisoners was a good humanitarian use let's hope it's not the only one ok now let's talk about another problem in africa which is far better and there are i myself witnessed witnessed famine in ethiopia now that i think some male somalia is facing a similar problem the world least event loop and they the expert with the national committee of the red cross in smelly he said we want to feed one million people by the end of the year feeding one million people by the end of the year means a major problem so so is it really so it is that yes the big you really have to look at not only somalia you have to look at all of africa you mentioned it european but you have if you look at all garden so mali and possibly part of kenya we all know this is a region under enormous pressure to pressure or three pressure if you want under one of these you're going to twenty years of so exactly i mean yes exactly you have one conflict look at somalia twenty five years of of

a very very intense conflict almost virtually no state no service and most importantly you have drought you had also floods and last but not least don't forget economic crisis i mean we all feel the economy crisis but the one really feel that our people will have to pay every day their price of the food and the price of the food are going up there so yes it's a very serious people crisis and the most serious crisis is really in somali absolutely and yes we are just giving you know one million it's serious and it's complex we can do it we have the absolutely the means to do it the problem is it we need to sustain this aid over time that's the problem of somalia and we hope this aid also will help them just to manage a little bit and you know me to long term there that's that's really the problem ok well both ross the message here for this interview thanks very much frank legislation just a reminder that my guest today was eve the director general of the international committee of the red and that's it for after all of us if you want to have yourself

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