16-02-2012 Operational Update No 12/01
Thousands
of people remain in detention, individual lives and communities
continue to be threatened by unexploded devices, and many families are
still trying to find out what happened to their missing loved ones. The
ICRC is pressing ahead with its humanitarian work.
Effective monitoring of the situation of detainees
ICRC
delegates currently visit approximately 8,500 detainees in more than 60
places of detention. About 10 per cent of the people held are foreign
nationals.
"We pay particular attention to the treatment of
detainees and stress that their dignity must be respected at all times,"
said Mr Comninos. "The current situation is complex and challenging,
with many places of detention and many different authorities in charge."
The ICRC has called upon the authorities at various levels to ensure
that detainees are handed over to the Ministry of Justice and are placed
in suitable detention facilities as soon as possible.
"While we
remain committed to addressing any issues in a bilateral manner with
those in charge, the current situation in Libya has confirmed that our
work is needed in places of detention," said Mr Comninos. "Our expertise
and the quality of the dialogue we have established with the
authorities at all levels enable us to obtain certain improvements at
this critical moment."
ICRC visits take place regularly. The
organization's delegates talk in private with detainees of their choice
in order to monitor the conditions in which these people are being held
and the treatment they receive. All detention facilities and all
detainees must be visited. The ICRC also looks into the detainees' need
for medical attention, and detainees are given the opportunity to
contact their families.
Between the beginning of March 2011 and
the end of last year, the ICRC carried out some 225 visits in 100 places
of detention in Libya.
In order to help ensure that conditions of
detention are acceptable, the ICRC has also provided detainees with
aid. More than 2,500 hygiene kits have been distributed to detainees in
over 30 facilities throughout the country. In prisons in the Nefusa
mountains, Tajoura, Tripoli and Misrata, the supplies provided included
over 3,000 blankets, 700 mattresses, and almost 2,900 sweaters and other
winter items.
Reducing the risks posed by explosive remnants of war
To
date, many areas affected by fighting remain contaminated by unexploded
ordnance. This continues to pose a serious threat to civilians as they
try to get back to the life they had before the conflict. The city of
Sirte is the worst affected area in the country.
Over the past few
weeks, reports about explosive remnants of war still littering Sirte
have been collected at a community clinic and at the local branch of the
Libyan Red Crescent Society. The ICRC also works in close coordination
with local authorities to identify areas that need to be cleared. "We
have removed hundreds of unexploded devices from Sirte since November
2011," said Jennifer Reeves, the coordinator of this ICRC programme.
"Now we also need to coordinate our activities with those of other
organizations that have arrived on the scene to help with the clearing."
In
the Nefusa mountains, ICRC staff are working with the local authorities
to destroy abandoned ammunition. Alerted by reports from the community,
they are also clearing contaminated farmland in remote areas.
At
the beginning of February, volunteers from 15 Libyan Red Crescent
branches received three days of training on how to educate communities
about the risks posed by unexploded ordnance, how to collect data about
casualties and how to identify dangerous areas.
Access to clean water and health care
In
early February the ICRC donated seven new pumps needed to supply clean
drinking water to an estimated 32,000 people in the town of Al Qubah and
12 villages near Benghazi. "The population had spent three months
without an adequate or regular supply of potable water," said Sari
Nasreddin, the ICRC delegate in charge of the operation. "The water
network stopped functioning because no maintenance was performed on the
original pumps during the conflict. People were relying on
water-trucking services, which were not able to supply enough water for
all those in need."
As clashes continue to occur sporadically in
the country, causing casualties, the ICRC is re-supplying health-care
facilities where needed in order to ensure that weapon-wounded patients
can be properly treated. Enough surgical supplies to treat 100 wounded
patients were delivered to Assaba'a along with other medical items, and
surgical instruments were provided in Gharyan. In December 2011, the
ICRC organized a seminar on the surgical treatment of patients with
weapon-related injuries, an event that was attended by over 100 surgeons
from all over the country.
Family reunited in Sabha
The
life of Aisha, a 52-year-old widow and mother of seven children from
Sirte, came to a standstill in October 2011. That day she went out with
her 10-year-old son and was stuck outside the city because of the
fighting. By the time she and her son finally managed to return home,
her house had been completely burned down and her six other children
were dead.
Aisha and her son were forced to leave. They ended up
in the Sidi Faraj camp for displaced people in Benghazi. The camp
manager noticed that Aisha and her son were terribly traumatized, and
brought them to the attention of the ICRC. Aisha said she wanted to be
reunited with her 15-year-old granddaughter, living with a host family
in a village close to Sabha in southern Libya. On 25 January, Aisha and
her son were taken there by the ICRC. "It was a very moving experience,"
said Fatma Eljack, an ICRC delegate who accompanied them on their
two-day journey from Benghazi to Sabha. "Aisha had lost everything: her
house, her personal effects and, above all, her children."
In late
June and early July 2011, in cooperation with the Libyan Red Crescent,
the ICRC carried out a large-scale maritime transfer to reunite several
hundred families dispersed by the conflict.
Approached by
grief-stricken families, the ICRC is providing the authorities with
technical support and advice to help them in their efforts to clarify
the fate of hundreds of missing people.
For further information, please contact:Soaade Messoudi, ICRC Tripoli, tel: +218 913 066 198
Steven Anderson, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22 730 20 11 or +41 79 536 92 50
Posts
.jpeg)