Georgia / Russian Federation: ICRC president visits
conflict-affected areas
Date, location: 17 August 2008.
Tbilisi, Georgia
Production: Jon Bjorgvinsson, Jessica Barry, Jan Powell,
Sound: English, Georgian
Copyrights: ICRC
– Access All
length: 2' 15" mins For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Jan Powell, International
Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,
ICRC TV NEWS FOOTAGE, distributed on EBU News feed 15.00 GMT, 17.08.08
ICRC president Jacob
Kellenberger arrived in the Georgian capital Tbilisi this morning to see conditions in the city for himself.
At a shelter in the city, (Bagetbi Student City) Mr Kellenberger met
families who have fled the fighting in south Ossetia.
In the shelter, ICRC representatives gave out basic household goods to nearly 400 families (stoves and cooking utensils) who fled
their homes leaving all their possessions behind them.
He will also travel to Vladikavkaz in the Russian Federation and Tskhinvali in South Ossetia to meet with officials there.
On Tuesday, the ICRC president is expected to meet senior officials of the Russian Federation, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow.
During his discussions, Mr Kellenberger
will stress the ICRC's ability to aid the most vulnerable on all sides, especially those who have been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting or who remain isolated and in need of help.
At the shelter, President Kellenberger stressed that all those affected by the conflict – especially civilians and people captured or arrested in connection with the hostilities
– should be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.
SHOTLIST
1 Bagetbi Collective Centre, for displaced people, Tbilisi , woman in shelter
2 ICRC President
Jacob Kellenberger in the Tbilisi shelter visits accommodation for people fleeing conflict.
3 Jacob Kellenberger, ICRC President, soundbite, English
“Displacement is a way you
become extremely vulnerable, extremely dependent on outside assistance, and I think this centre, with very poor conditions, its really a place you can feel in a very strong way, the extent to
which displaced people are uprooted, they are vulnerable, and dependent.”
4 ICRC gives out household goods, stoves and cooking pots
5 Jacob Kellenberger, ICRC President , English
“The
good news is we have just learned we have access to Georgian prisoners of war who are wounded and that our surgeon has been implicated in the medical care.
So that is very good news
because one of our priorities is clearly that, for all sides, all parties in the conflict, that we have access to prisoners of war, and other people deprived of freedom.” For further
information, please contact:
Jessica Barry, Maia Kardava, ICRC Tbilisi, tel: +995 32 35 55 10 or +995 91 60 06 89; +995 91 60 06 85 (mobiles)
Claudia McGoldrick, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 217
3216 (mobile)
For audiovisual information contact Jan Powell, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 7302511
Russian soldiers travel on top of an armoured vehicles on a road near the Georgian town of Gori August 18, 2008. Russia has started to withdraw troops from the conflict zone ...
