The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday signed an agreement with the Jordanian government, making their work in the country official after over 30 years of presence in the kingdom, reported the Jordan Times.
“The ICRC was looking for a clear legal basis for its presence here,” Pascal Cuttat, the head of the ICRC delegation, told the paper.
“We have been here since 1967 as guardians of the Geneva Convention that laid down the basis of treating prisoners of war, injured soldiers and civilians in case of a conflict,” he said, adding that since then, the ICRC had never had any trouble working in the kingdom.
He said the committee had always enjoyed good relations with Jordanian officials.
Signing for Jordan was the director of international organizations at the ministry of foreign affairs, Abdul Latif Bawab.
According to Cuttat, the ICRC established a regional training center in Amman a year ago that serves the region and the Balkans, and another information technology center.
“Based on this agreement, we will set up the regional administration here next year to be able to work on a wider regional level,” he added.
The ICRC's mandate has changed in the past few years, since the signing of the Wadi Araba peace treaty with Israel in 1994, that helped bring an end to the potential for regional conflict, he added.
However, he noted, “we never stopped working, we continued visiting prisoners and establishing contacts between families living in the kingdom and their relatives in Palestine.”
“During the past nine months of conflict in Palestine, we have acquired a more logistical role through helping with shipping donations by international societies into the Palestinian territories via Amman,” he said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
