Nearly a thousand Ukrainian POWs are still held captive in Olenivka, in the detention camp in Russian-occupied Donbas where a fire broke out under unexplained circumstances at the end of July, killing dozens of prisoners. The Russians blame this on a Ukrainian Himars attack, but everything indicates that they have fabricated the ‘evidence’ for it.
The International Red Cross has still not been given access to it, which has fueled criticism in Ukraine of the aid organization (established after the 19th century Crimean War, of course): it is said to be doing too little for fear of losing its impartiality. Robert Mardini (50), the Swiss-Lebanese secretary-general of the organization who was briefly in The Hague on Thursday for a conference on humanitarian law of war, understands the accusations. ‘It’s frustrating. But we are doing what we can in Ukraine.’
What does the Red Cross do to get to the prisoners of war?
“The situation is of great concern to us. The Geneva Convention obliges the parties to an armed conflict to grant the International Red Cross immediate access to all prisoners of war. That has not happened to date. It’s not that we haven’t been able to do anything yet. We visited hundreds of prisoners of war, on both sides, after which we were able to deliver a message to their relatives. But there are thousands more. We will continue to negotiate with both parties. We’ll do everything we can until we’ve visited them all.’
Many relatives are angry because they still do not know the fate of the soldiers.
“I went to Kyiv in September and spoke to many of them. I understand their frustration, their impatience, their anxiety. We have a team of 11 people in Donetsk who are trying very hard to get to Olenivka. But we still don’t have permission. It must not only come from above, but also materialize on the ground. We can’t penetrate anywhere.’
You keep talking about ‘both sides’ – also in press releases, and just now in your speech here. Why don’t you mention one of those parties explicitly? Namely Russia?
“Everything we do is ultimately meant to help people – including everything we say in the public domain. We have to be very careful what we say. We must maintain our neutrality at all times, to enable breakthroughs. If you’re going to name one party, it might feel nice, but then it limits your access to the people it concerns.’
Some people call it cowardly, or even partial.
‘It’s a difficult balancing act. But our moral compass has not been affected. In bilateral talks we speak the truth loud and clear. But neutrality is our license to operate. It is our foundation, as it has been since 1863. If we want to make a difference in war situations, we must constantly be careful about what we do and how we say things.’
Is it frustrating that neutrality has not yet yielded any results?
“There’s no question that we’re not where we want to be. But like I said, nothing happened. Of course I would like to do more, but I am proud of everything we can do. We have a central system in Geneva where we store as much information about the prisoners of war as possible. We’ve received tens of thousands of emails from people looking for relatives. We were able to give five thousand of them a concrete answer. We do a lot of work behind the scenes.’
Can you help the civilian victims of the war enough?
‘We also do what we can for them. We have 720 employees in Ukraine, mostly Ukrainians. We have helped restore drinking water supplies in some places, such as Mykolaiv. About nine million people have access to drinking water again. We are trying to restore power and the heat supply. We have given hundreds of thousands of families cash to buy food and other items. And after the liberation of cities like Izyum and Kupyansk, we were there within 48 hours to take the wounded to hospitals. It is enough? No. But we make a difference.’