Red Cross seeks access to Mali prisoners
2013-02-01 21:21
Geneva - The Red Cross is seeking access to prisoners
captured during the Mali conflict and is urging authorities to help prevent
revenge attacks, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) chief Peter
Maurer told AFP in an interview on Friday.
"We are currently going through all the channels to
convince the political leadership to... guarantee us access to all the prisoners taken
during the conflict," said Maurer, who took over as the president of the ICRC
last July.
He stressed that his organisation had previously had
access to Malian prisoners, but said it had not yet been able to see any of the
new prisoners taken since France launched an offensive last month to help
Malian troops block an advance towards the capital, Bamako, by al-Qaeda-linked
extremists who have occupied the north for 10 months.
"It is... of crucial importance for us that we have
access to the prisoners [taken] in the conflict so we can assure proper
treatment of those prisoners," Maurer told AFP.
It was also important, he said, for the ICRC to gain
access to Malian troops to help "avoid that violent acts of retribution be
carried out against prisoners or the civilian population, something we have
been hearing rumours about."
In addition to its efforts to ensure proper treatment of
prisoners and civilians in the midst of the ongoing armed conflict, the ICRC
was also busy providing aid across the war-ravaged country, Maurer said.
Even before the conflict in the impoverished country
began a year ago, in the north especially, "the situation of the civilian
population has been extremely fragile," he said, pointing to persistent
droughts, repeated armed conflicts and deep economic crises.
His organisation had been able to create "an
important humanitarian operation last year servicing more than 500 000 people,
[and maintain] more than nine or 10 medical facilities and hospitals in the
north."
"We are trying to adapt this aid to the current
situation, where there are a number of war-injured arriving, as well as people
displaced by the recent conflict," he said.
