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<< previous | index | next>> The Red Cross ConvoyA convoy of five clearly marked cars of the Chechen branch of the Russian Red Cross also came under fire. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a statement that two local Red Cross workers, Aslanbek Barzev and Ruslan Betelgireev, had been killed and a third seriously wounded.43 It said at least twenty-five other persons were killed and seventy wounded. The ICRC statement said that a Red Cross truck had suffered a direct hit as a result of which the Red Cross __employees were killed and wounded. The truck displayed a red cross on its roof.44 Several eyewitnesses mentioned seeing the Red Cross convoy as well as the dead bodies of Red Cross employees. The exact location of the Red Cross convoy, however, remains unclear. It is also unclear whether the twenty-five people mentioned in the statement as having been killed were wounded people that were transported by the Red Cross. Human Rights Watch has not been able to interview any Red Cross workers who were in the convoy at the time of the attack. [43] “Russian Federation: Red Cross workers killed in Chechnya,” ICRC Communication to the Press, Geneva, October 30, 1999. [44] Article 12 of Protocol II guarantees the immunity of vehicles marked with the Red Cross symbol. The Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 were ratified by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on May 10, 1954 and the Additional Protocols were ratified on September 29, 1989. As successor state to the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation has formally indicated that it is a party to all international agreements in force signed by the USSR.
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