Military

DATE=6/10/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=RED CROSS / LIBERIA (L-O)

NUMBER=2-304206

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The International Committee of the Red Cross says refugee camps outside Monrovia have emptied out. It says 150-thousand people have moved into the Liberian capital, seeking protection from fighting between government and rebel forces. Lisa Schlein reports from I-C-R-C headquarters in Geneva that the agency says humanitarian assistance is desperately needed but few aid agencies remain in the city to provide care.

TEXT: A senior Red Cross official describes the situation in Monrovia as quiet but tense.

The relief agency's chief of operations in West Africa, Laurent Corbaz, says the shops are closed and few people are on the streets. Most of the 150-thousand people who fled into the city are staying in official buildings such as schools and in the stadium.

In the past few days, Mr. Corbaz says, Red Cross doctors have treated 500 patients. Tuesday another 130 people wounded in the fighting were admitted to Monrovia's surgical hospital.

The Red Cross official says, for now, the condition of the displaced population is not bad because they had access to food, water and medical care in the camps which they recently were forced to abandon.

///CORBAZ ACT///

Certainly, today, the situation cannot be described as catastrophic, but in one week, it could be. There were various organizations taking care of these people. Today, apart from M-S-F (Medecins Sans Frontiere-Doctors Without Borders) and I-C-R-C, there is nobody left. Many of the organizations of the United Nations system were present on the spot. None of them is still present. Of course, this creates a gap.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Corbaz says many of the 530 people who were flown out of Monrovia on Monday were people working for U-N humanitarian organizations.

He says only M-S-F, a French acronym for Doctors Without Borders, and eight expatriate I-C-R-C staff remain in Monrovia to care for the hundreds of thousands of people who might need help. He says the I-C-R-C will do the best it can, but with only eight people on the spot, no one should expect miracles. (Signed)

NEB/LS/KL/MEM/RH