Recognizing the Red Cross

Among organizations not having a very merry Christmas this year is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), many of whose members will spend New Year's Eve far from their homes.

Times have been tough for the humanitarian organization recently, with six of its members brutally murdered in Chechnya and another team currently acting as go-between in the Peruvian hostage crisis.

The ICRC, or more specifically its emblem, is recognized globally for neutrality and its humanitarian and medical activities in war zones and natural disaster areas round the world.

Closer to home, the Red Cross played an active role in Cambodia during the war and in the aftermath, particularly in the clearance of land mines.

Last year, the ICRC established a regional headquarters in Bangkok. The headquarters is attempting to discourage the use of land mines in war, publicizing the message that these mines' deadly effect on the civilian population far outweighs their value as a military weapon.

The ICRC is also trying to convince all countries to abide by the "rules of war".

It's now time for many people to pay greater attention to the work being done by the ICRC, both internationally and regionally. The Thai Red Cross, which works independently of the ICRC, should probably evaluate its activities to end the public's perception that it is involved merely in blood donations.

Ironically, the ICRC seems to be in a precarious position with the end of the Cold War. Strange as it may sound, ICRC teams feel safer working in an environment where protagonists are confined to two different states rather than in conflict marked by the participation of several ethnic groups.

"In today's conflicts, there may be five, six, seven parties, a lot of militias, bandits and self-named warlords," Peter Fuchs, the ICRC's director general, recently told The New York Times.

No matter how many commitments the ICRC has -- and how many sacrifices it still has to make -- the organization must ensure the safety of its staff, specifically those who are assigned to areas of armed conflict.

This is not an easy task. However, if the ICRC can expand its links with governments (which underwrite many of the organization's expenses, with the U.S. and Switzerland the two largest contributors) to include different groups involved in national issues, during times of peace or war, it will have made a huge step forward.

-- The Nation, Bangkok