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Our world
at war |
| Documenting
the realities of war — death, displacement,
detention and loss — is one way of trying to help the
victims of war’s atrocities. Today, more than ever,
the ICRC recognizes the importance of being able to show
the images of the impact of war from the perspective of the
men, women and children who are affected by it and of those
who come to their aid from the ICRC and National Societies.
The ICRC strongly believes that photographs do make a difference — they
can inform, mobilize and influence the course of events today
and in the future.
This year is an important one for the Red Cross Red Crescent
as it marks 150 years since the battle of Solferino where
the idea for the Red Cross Red Crescent was born. This brutal
battle lasted more than nine hours. Some 6,000 soldiers died
and 35,000 others were wounded, went missing or were taken
prisoner. Horrified eyewitnesses told of wounded and dying
soldiers being shot or bayoneted. The birth of the Red Cross
Red Crescent coincided with the birth of photography. War
photographers and humanitarians share the same purpose: to
end the unacceptable suffering caused by war.
This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the Geneva
Conventions, the bedrock of international humanitarian law,
which afford protection and assistance to those not or no
longer taking part in hostilities. It is this law that was
developed to limit behaviour in warfare and to end barbarity.
Today, accepted by all nations, these four conventions are
truly universal law.
To commemorate these anniversaries, the Movement launched
a campaign — Our world. Your move. — as a way
to remind everyone of his or her individual responsibility
to lessen human suffering. For its part, ICRC commissioned
the VII photo agency to send five awardwinning war photographers
to eight conflict-affected countries: Afghanistan, Colombia,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon,
Liberia and the Philippines. The outcome of these photographic
missions was the exhibition Our world at war.
ICRC and the photographers Ron Haviv, Antonin Kratochvil,
Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey and Franco Pagetti unite
in this exhibition to bring individual stories of loss and
suffering in war to the forefront of the world’s attention:
women struggling to recover from sexual violence, families
coping with loss and displacement, and people victimized
by warfare. It also draws attention to the inspirational
attempts that are made, by ordinary men and women, to limit
human suffering in some of the most violent corners of the
world.
Ultimately, the exhibition aims to inspire people to act
on behalf of victims of war. As James Nachtwey explains: “Whatever
else one might see or feel when looking at a picture of human
suffering — outrage, sadness, disbelief — I think
an essential reaction is a sense of compassion. Compassion
humanizes issues, helps us identify with others and requires
us to correct that which is unacceptable.”
Charlotte Lindsey
Curtet
Charlotte Lindsey Curtet is deputy director of communications at ICRC. |
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Football for life
Amputee football has been the source
of enormous hope and solace for one of the most marginalized
groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: young
men. They are, most of them, victims of the war. That
some of them took part in it only adds to the stigmatization
of the group.
“When you ask them how they felt after being
amputated, most of them say that they wanted to kill
themselves,” says Paul A. Tolbert, senior coach
of the national amputee football team. “Life
no longer had meaning for them. Amputee football restores
their hope. Take the guy who was named the most valuable
player in the recent African Cup for amputee football.
He was a very good player, but he lost hope when his
leg was amputated. When I went to recruit him, I told
him, ‘You can make it. There is still a chance
for you.’ He has gained hope and, what’s
more, now knows that what he could not do, win a war
when he had two legs, he is now doing on one leg.”
©CHRISTOPHER MORRIS / ICRC / VII |
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Bedding on boards
On the island
of Mindanao, a child plays in front of his family’s
temporary home in an evacuation centre on the front
line
between government forces and armed opposition fighters.
While some families were able to find shelter in schools
and
public buildings, others are living more precariously,
sometimes sleeping on little more than sections of
cardboard.
©JAMES
NACHTWEY / ICRC / VII |
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Loss upon loss
Almost two years
ago, when fighting broke out between the Lebanese
army and Muslim militias in the Nahr el-Bared camp,
Hasniyye
Yehia Tawiyyeh, a resident, was forced to flee. Today,
she lives in the nearby Beddawi camp. Her husband was
hospitalized after their
flight. A week later, he died in her arms while she
was helping him up the seven flights of stairs to their
small apartment. Her son
visited her in 2007. One Friday, having gone to attend
prayers, he failed to return. Hasniyye learnt fterwards
that he was one of two
young men who had been killed that Friday during a
peaceful protest against the fighting. “I have
been through many things,” she
says. “But all the hardship I’ve been through,
I could put it in one hand. The death of my son, I
would put it in the other hand and it
would weigh much more than all the other suffering
I have endured.”
©FRANCO
PAGETTI / ICRC / VII |
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Waiting for
news
Ozias is 11 years
old. Here, at a temporary resting place, he is wondering
whether his parents are still alive. He would soon
be reunited with his family through the efforts of
the ICRC. When people flee their homes, families
are often torn apart. With each new conflict in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo the numbers of orphaned
or unaccompanied children increases. A Red Cross
worker explains: “In
the current war, women are raped, children are separated
from their families, and fathers die. The children
are left homeless and live like vagrants.”
©RON
HAVIV / ICRC / VII |
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One step at
a time
In the gait training
room at the ICRC’s orthopaedic
centre in Kabul, Alberto Cairo, the head of the ICRC’s
orthopaedic programme in
Afghanistan, works with a mine victim, a double amputee
who has just received his two prostheses. An amputee
has to learn to walk
again. It is extremely important for the patient to
be helped to stand and to walk correctly, from the
very beginning. A patient who learns
to do so from the start will walk well for the rest
of his or her life. Bad habits acquired early are very
hard to change.
©JAMES
NACHTWEY / ICRC / VII |
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Behind bars
This women’s
prison, El Buen Pastor, is in Bogotá, Colombia.
A section of the prison is occupied by 75 women together
with their babies and small children. The women are
being held because of their alleged links to rebel
groups and to crimes they are said to have committed
while members of those groups. The ICRC visits these
detainees in line with its mandate: to ensure respect
for the life and dignity of prisoners of war and other
detainees and to prevent torture, ill-treatment or
abuse, which violate essential rights and the basic
principles of humanity, breed hatred and feed a cycle
of violence. Regular prison visits enable the ICRC
to track prisoners’ whereabouts
and make recommendations to the authorities about any
improvements to conditions that may be necessary.
©FRANCO
PAGETTI / ICRC / VII |
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