War in Iraq - War-wounded get Red Cross care

Despite concerns about war victims in towns such as Najaf, Nairiyah and Kerbala, which the Red Cross have been unable to access at this point, work has gone on in Baghdad, and the Red Cross was able to get into Basra over the weekend.

The Red Cross doctor also visited the Al-Nur General Hospital, where the victim's of last Friday's marketplace explosion were taken, the Red Cross delivered 13,000 one-litre bags of water, two stretchers, two trolleys and two emergency sets. The doctor also visited one or the 25 First Aid posts set up around the city by the Iraq Red Crescent Society. The post is staffed 24 hours a day by two Iraq Red Crescent volunteers and one medical assistant from the Ministry of Health.

A tent has been specially set-up in the Al-Yarmouk General Teaching Hospital to provide First Aid there, while another specialist First Aid post has been set-up in the Al-Khark Hospital. The Al-Numan General Hospital has been supplied with 250 blankets by the Red Cross.

Water supplies remain critical. In Basra, just 50 per cent of the city's water supply is functional. Red Cross engineers and technicians delivered urgently needed spare parts to Basra's main water treatment station, Wafaa Al-Qaid in the north of the city.

A children's hospital is one of a number of Baghdad hospitals that have also been getting emergency repair work to their water supply lines. In Al-Nu'man and Al-Karkh hospitals new water tanks have been connected, while in Shaheed Adnan and the Al-Ilwiyah Paediatric Hospital, back-up generators have been overhauled.

Red Cross-mandated work, in line with the role of the Red Cross as laid down in the Geneva Conventions, is also underway. Discussions with the Iraqi authorities to gain access to POW's are taking place. The Red Cross is also following-up cases of foreign journalists and peace activists who have fallen out of contact with home.

Contacts with home have been re-established for three Baghdad-based students, who are nationals of former Soviet Union states. In fact, a total of 428 foreign national had made 530 calls to relatives on the Red Cross satellite phones as most land-based telecommunications links have now been severed.

A centralized Tracing Unit, to deal with cases of missing people arising out of this war, is being set-up in Geneva. This Tracing Unit is in addition to the existing worldwide Tracing Service already provided by the Red Cross.

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