It is a welcome pleasure for me to make this presentation on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross at this International Consensus Forum on Health and Human Security in Conflict and Transition aimed at improving policies, strategies and programmes in Africa.

I wish to congratulate the Tulane University and their co-organisers for holding such an important forum.

This forum could not have come at a more opportune moment. Armed conflicts in modern times are becoming more complex. The once classic distinction between international and non-international wars is very easily blurred. Technical developments on weapons continue to advance, their destructive power, their velocity and their range have not ceased to grow.

Only one hundred years ago fighting took place between soldiers and did not affect civilians, apart from the very few who had the misfortune to be near the battlefield. But since then, and particularly since the second World War, civilian casualties have increasingly outnumbered the military.

The principles and basic rules of International Humanitarian Law remain a hard core of values universally accepted by the International Community, but peace time efforts to implement these at the national level are nonetheless insufficient and the rules of the law are still imperfectly known by those who have to apply them, especially by members of the armed forces and armed groups.

I am sure conducting forums such as this will help to overcome the lack of knowledge and further the need to identify policies, programmes and strategies that would enhance rapid transition from complex emergencies to sustainable development.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the founding body of a Movement that is now universal, has greatly expanded its activities yet still gives precedence to its original mandate.

As a neutral intermediary in the event of armed conflict or unrest, it endeavours on its own initiative or on the basis of the Geneva Conventions, to bring protection and assistance to victims of international and non- international armed conflict and internal disturbances and tensions.

Today, we cannot discuss complex emergencies without the mention of conflicts. Conflicts are changing. Two diverging trends can be observed in today's warfare. High tech weapons are developed with minimum risk to the user and maximum effect on the opponent. Their direct effect is described as clinical, but they can produce new and excessive suffering. Side effects can be disastrous for civilians.

The other extreme is the occurrence of 'unstructured' conflicts, where armies and warriors are no longer under the control of government. The institutions of today's societies seem unable to deal adequately with such conflicts.

The collapse of governments and military structures in a number of situations makes discussions with authorities very inconclusive. In certain armed conflicts, the purpose of using armed forces appears to have become overtaken by lawlessness and banditry. Both the high tech and the 'primitive' war challenge International Humanitarian Law and the providers of humanitarian assistance.

We on the African continent know that certain parties to armed conflicts act as if International Humanitarian Law does not exist. They often resort to systematic torture, racial, ethnic and religious discrimination, ethnic cleansing, hostage taking, forced and unjustified population movement, and the deliberate hindering of all humanitarian action.

Despite the praiseworthy efforts of the various institutions providing emergency humanitarian aid, the co-ordination of their activities and concerted approach adopted has not yet made it possible to respond adequately and fast enough to satisfy the immense human needs arising from armed conflicts.

The ICRC as a humanitarian organisation, whose mandate is to provide protection and assistance to victims of armed conflicts is directly concerned with the evolution on the humanitarian environment.

Let me first underline the importance of the need for knowledge, understanding and most importantly the respect of International Humanitarian Law. The knowledge and understanding of the main preoccupation of the ICRC and other related institutions will certainly promote the expression of humanitarian purpose in the most effective way possible, through reflection and action alike by all parties.

More than ever today, international humanitarian law finds it's justification. It is all too often flouted, however, undoubtedly out of ignorance, but also and in this case, the ICRC can but issue a solemn and urgent appeal to all belligerents - to government armed forces and to armed opposition groups alike- to spread knowledge of the principles and rules of humanitarian law and to make every effort to apply them.

Not only have the civilian populations been the tragic victims of such events; the very people who have brought them protection and assistance have been directly targeted as well. It is clear that humanitarian agencies are reaching the outer limits of their operational capacity in the face of anarchy, chaos, racist and genocidal policies.

Humanitarian action has certainly helped save lives in those situations, but its effectiveness is bound to be limited when it is confronted with policies which are the very negation of every principle of humanity.

Emergencies situations are results of disasters, and disasters occur when hazards and vulnerability meet. Whatever the trigger event, for a disaster to take place a community must be involved, and it must be vulnerable. The community's capacities must be absolute or relative and insufficient to respond/ readjust to the new conditions of existence and level of suffering.

Disasters can set back or provide development opportunities, development can also either increase or reduce vulnerability. The most important thing to note is the need for proper planning and by taking into consideration the positive and negative of both aspects.

Looking to the long term, conflicts develop in a chaotic and above all an intermittent manner. Their heterogeneity in time and space causes the ICRC to overstep the strict limits of emergency action in favour of continuity.

The ICRC's role and responsibilities within the time-frame of situations of internal disturbances or tension, conflict and 'stalled' conflict must therefore be adapted and specified at every stage, particularly with regard to the other players involved.

Within the Movement, the ICRC's general leadership in situations of internal disturbances, conflict and 'stalled' conflict must be fully effective, in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Agreement on the Organisation of the international activities of the components of the Movement, and must rely on closer co-operation with the National Societies and their Federation.

Turning now to interaction with other humanitarian players in conflict situations, the ICRC would like to enhance the overall coherence of humanitarian activities by being available to ensure the co-ordination of emergency assistance operations, under conditions that guarantee the independence of its action.

In the sphere of preventive action, the ICRC invites states to take the necessary national measures in peacetime, in particular with regard to the dissemination of international humanitarian law and the adoption of penal sanctions for violations.

It is our hope that the development of the International Criminal Court with jurisdiction over war crimes will help to redress this situation.

It also promotes the teaching of international humanitarian law and reflection on its underlying principles, among interested circles. In addition it endeavours, but on a more targeted basis, to contribute to the easing of tension through its operations and to draw emergency situations to the attention of the international community in the framework of humanitarian diplomacy.

The ICRC first of all tries to persuade the state authorities to take direct action. If they are unable to do so, it initiates its own operations, taking care to give priority to supportive activities designed to help local services become self-sufficient rather than substituting for them.

This increased emphasis on proximity and on the long term means that the ICRC does set clear priorities for its action, taking into account the responsibilities incumbent on it by virtue of international humanitarian law and the Statutes of the Movement.

The international community including your institution, recently realised that certain types of emergency assistance could have negative effects on the still to come development phases. In that context, a theme has been brought under the limelight: the 'emergency-development continuum', the focus for this forum, underlying the need to design the activities in time of crisis taking into account the various stages.

The hypothesis presented here tries to go a few steps further: the relationship between an emergency and development starts long before the crisis erupts and lasts long after it has ended.

The analysis must therefore focus on four main points:

- What preventive andlor preparatory measures should be taken in times of peace?

One of the liveliest debates today in the development forum is focused on grassroots participation at every stage of the development process, from identification to evaluation and naturally implementation. In terms of emergency action, this same approach has been much slower.

How often have teams with their white uniforms and stethoscopes descended upon astonished villages and attempted to go about their work while ignoring the human and social resources already on hand? To reverse this trend, we must first decide to train men and women among the civilian population to cope with disasters. In cooperation with a number of National Societies and their Federation, the ICRC has developed a comprehensive strategy to train aid workers and emergency personnel. But much still remains to be done.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement must in any case continue to concentrate on damage control by training men and women in disaster prevention and management, whether natural disasters (which are the Federation's domain) or conflict-related (the ICRC's sphere of action).

The conventional, and often indispensable, response to nutritional problems is food aid paired with medical assistance. In the last 15 years, the ICRC has assembled millions of tonnes of foodstuffs and distributed them to millions of war victims: such were the large-scale operations on the Khmer-Thai border from 1979/1981; those in Ethiopia in 1985/1986; in Angola and the Sudan in 1986/1991 and again in 1993/1994; in Somalia in 1991/1993; in Mozambique in 1992/1993, in Rwanda from 1992 to 1994; not forgetting the former Yugoslavia, Liberia, the Caucasus, etc.

Food aid, however, has its limits and itself carries certain dangers also often observed by the ICRC in the field. Programmes must be set up which enable victims to stay alive today and to survive tomorrow.

It is my hope that this forum that brings together experienced and distinguish personalities from across the globe will deliberate adequately on the theme, and come out with workable strategies for dealing with complex emergencies.