ECHO TO FUND INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS ACTION IN CHECHNYA

Emergency humanitarian aid worth 5 million ECU will soon be on its way from the European Union to people fleeing the fighting centred on the Autonomous Republic of Chechnya in the Russian Federation. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is coordinating a relief operation in the region, called on the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) to support its action, and the European Commission gave its go-ahead this week.

The ICRC, which has been active in the region since the end of November, has produced an overall programme to aid all those in need following the fighting and is ccordinating the activities of up to 18 national Red Cross Societies. Its mandate is to bring aid to those on both sides of armed conflict and because of this neutrality ECHO granted aid worth 310.000 Ecus to help fund ICRC's earlier action in the region on 23 December. This funding was spent mainly on plastic sheeting for emergency shelters.

The latest funding, which includes sums for the British, Dutch and German National Red Cross Societies as well as ICRC itself, will help pay for emergency assistance during the worst of the winter. Over the next six months, the ICRC and the Red Cross family will supply and distribute food, basic medical supplies, shelter and clothing to people who have fled their homes. In all, the ICRC estimates that over 400.000 people have been affected, including thousands of elderly people, orphans and hospital patients.

Some people have left the capital, Grozny, for the countryside within Chechnya itself. Others have fled to neighbouring Autonomous Republics, mainly Daghuestan and Ingushetia. Many of those displaced have found shelter with friends and relatives, but the resources of such hosts are now being stretched beyond their limits.

ECHO is committed to making available humanitarian aid on a non-political, neutral basis. It is monitoring the situation in Chechnya closely, and it expects to make further grants soon to the Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations when needs have been identified and means of delivery guaranteed.