Red Cross defends supplying aid to Taliban
Help is given to all sides under international humanitarian law
Tom Blackwell, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, October 13, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It is no shock that Canadian and Afghan troops found Red Cross medical supplies in a Taliban hideout last week: the organization routinely equips insurgents with bandages, drugs and other first-aid products, a top official of the agency said yesterday.
The International Committee for the Red Cross provides medical help to fighters on all sides of the conflict as part of its humanitarian mandate -- and that includes the "armed opposition," said the Red Cross head of delegation for Afghanistan.
In fact, the group could not do the important work it does -- such as sometimes helping negotiate release of foreign hostages -- if it did not maintain neutrality, said Reto Stocker.
"If you see medical material labelled ICRC (in Taliban possession) ... it is neither surprising nor frightening for us," he said in an interview.
Mr. Stocker dismissed any suggestion the Red Cross is providing support to the wrong side in the war.
"If we had given in to the language of good guys and bad guys, we would have had to leave Afghanistan in the 1980s," he said. "There are no good guys and bad guys in this situation. ... It is much more complex than that.
Soldiers taking part in an operation southwest of Kandahar City unearthed a major cache last Wednesday of weapons, ammunition, IEDs and bomb-making ingredients.
The haul also included products for treating trauma patients, including hundreds of bags of IV fluid, intravenous antibiotics, hypodermic needles and surgical implements, most of it western-made. One Canadian medic said it was enough to treat hundreds of casualties.
The find was a major blow to insurgents, said Col. Roger Barrett, commander of the Canadian battle group in Kandahar. "This is basic stuff they need to do what they're doing," he said in a weekend briefing. "I think it will rattle them quite a bit."
Mr. Stocker said the Red Cross focuses much of its support on hospitals such as one in Kandahar City and requires that the institutions accept insurgents as well as wounded soldiers and police. But it also tries to find ways to bring medical help to victims in rural areas, so injured fighters and others can be stabilized before getting to hospital.
It has first-aid posts throughout the country and works with the Afghan Red Crescent Society. It also provides bandages, antibiotics, painkillers and other medical supplies to representatives of the insurgents and of the Afghan security forces.
Its activities are in line with international treaties that require combatants to care for each other's casualties if captured, said Mr. Stocker.
"There is no such thing as going into a battle and leaving your adversaries wounded in the field," he said. "This is clear in international humanitarian law."
That does not mean, though, that the Red Cross protects insurgents who are treated in its facilities, such as orthopedic clinics for amputees and others, said Mr. Stocker.
"If you are an opposition fighter coming to exchange your prosthesis, we have no objection to the (security service) arresting that person once they are out on the street."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
