AsiaLIFE

One of the first organisations to assist Cambodia following the Khmer Rouge, the International Committee of the Red Cross recently celebrated 30 years of working in the Kingdom. Words by Craig Gerard.

In times of crisis all around the world, the International Committee of the Red Cross steps in when most organisations are running away. The humanitarian institution provides basic medical supplies and food support while helping families connect with lost relatives. In September 1979, when very few organisations were even thinking about returning to war-ravaged Cambodia, the ICRC set up emergency operations with Unicef. It remains in Cambodia to this day.

“Thirty years is a landmark because there are not many countries in the world where the ICRC has been working for such a long period of time,” says Björn Rahm, head of the ICRC delegation in Phnom Penh.

Though their mandate has changed, the ICRC continues to support the basic framework it started with over three decades ago.

It works in three core areas. In orthopaedics, through its work with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the ICRC supports nearly all of the hospitals and medical centres in the country that provide prostheses to disabled Cambodians. While the project’s initial scope was to help landmine victims, the organisation saw that its work could have a wider impact by helping every Cambodian in need of prostheses. Much of the work now focuses on helping victims of traffic accidents. Second, it works in improving conditions and treatment of prisoners in the Cambodian penal system. Third, it assists the Cambodian Red Cross in the spread of international humanitarian law, mine risk education, and tracing refugees. Rahm highlights the tracing of refugees as an area where the ICRC and the Cambodian Red Cross have scored a major success.

During times of conflict, the displaced and refugees struggle to keep track of their families. Not knowing what has happened to loved ones can be one of the most traumatic experiences of war. The ICRC has been assisting Cambodia in this area since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. While the main tracing files have been centred in Bangkok since 1975, the ICRC was able to hand over the responsibility for family tracing to the Cambodian Red Cross in 2000. A digitilisation of all the files stored in Bangkok began in 2005. That project was concluded in 2009.

Coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of the ICRC being in Cambodia, the Cambodian Red Cross took complete control over the tracing responsibility and file storage in December of 2009. “It allows the Cambodian Red Cross the means to independently conduct the search of missing persons,” says Rahm. To this day, people are still seeking the truth about what happened to their missing relatives during the conflict.

Working in the country for thirty years is not all cause for celebration. In an ideal Cambodia, there would be no need for the organisation’s work. As the country develops, what are the ICRC’s long-term objectives?

In its three focus areas, the ICRC concentrates on capacity building work with its government counterparts. In the long run, it will hand over all of its projects to either the Cambodian Government or the Cambodian Red Cross, like it did with the tracing records in December.

“We build the capacity of the authorities in these areas,” says Rahm. “We are committed to engage with them to support them in their reform process over the next years until they are able to engage in the issues themselves.”

At this point, it is impossible to tell just how long the ICRC office will remain in Cambodia. Over the next two years, Rahm plans to hand over responsibility for the project helping disabled Cambodians to the Ministry of Social Affairs. That will be another milestone for the ICRC. Additional handovers will happen in the coming years. The lack of specific timeline gives both the government and the International Red Cross time to work through the minutiae without urgency.

In the mean time, the ICRC will continue the important work it has done for the last 30 years in Cambodia – representing those without a voice, assisting those who might not otherwise be assisted, and giving a hand up to a country still feeling the effects of decades of conflict.