In late 1979 the ICRC and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) began a vast

relief operation for the people of Cambodia, threatened by famine. Thirty years on,
François Bugnion, the first ICRC delegate to return to Cambodia after the genocide,
talks of his experiences there.

See the film A question of relief (made in 1979)

Following the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in January 1979 by Vietnamese forces,
rumours were rife of mass starvation in the country, which had been closed to the
world for four years. It was claimed that millions of people had been murdered or
starved to death in labour camps.

The ICRC and UNICEF, which were the only two organisations that remained in Phnom
Penh until the fall of the capital in April 1975, made a joint approach to the new
authorities for what they knew would have to be a massive relief operation. In July
1979 the two agencies were invited to send representatives – François Bugnion for
the ICRC and Jacques Beaumont for UNICEF.

Bugnion’s immediate impression, as they arrived, was one of utter desolation: “We
flew low over the eastern part of the country where the countryside was totally
deserted,” he recalls. Phnom Penh itself was still a “ghost town”. In April 1975
the Khmer Rouge had evacuated the entire city in 48 hours; people who couldn’t keep
up were simply killed along the way.

Hardly anyone left in eastern areas

“At the time we were under the impression that half the population had perished.
Later, that impression was partly corrected when we were able to visit the western
provinces, there we found people. But in eastern areas between the Mekong River and
the Vietnamese border, hardly anyone was left.”

The task facing the ICRC and UNICEF was made even more daunting by the fact that
members of the new government of Cambodia had no government experience and could
not rely on any kind of administrative structure.
“At the Health Ministry,” says Bugnion, “they told us that out of 600 doctors in
the country listed in 1975, there were now 55! The others had either been killed or
had fled abroad.”

Reluctance to admit foreigners

Although no-one doubted the urgency of the situation, the new government and its
Vietnamese mentors were reluctant to allow foreigners into the country. Bugnion and
Beaumont spent weeks explaining that it was impossible to launch a large-scale
relief operation without the presence of the ICRC and UNICEF.

“First of all we had to ensure the practical running of the operation: if you have
aircraft and ships bringing in supplies, there has to be coordination, so there has
to be a physical presence,” explains Bugnion.

“Secondly, without an agreement guaranteeing that the aid would be distributed

impartially and that we could verify that for ourselves, we would never get the
support of the donors.

“Don’t forget that the financial appeal launched in October 1979, for a six-month
operation in Cambodia, amounted to more than three times the ICRC’s budget for the
entire world in 1978! It was a complete change of scale.”

Aid for Cambodians fleeing to Thailand

The two organisations wanted to carry out a similar relief operation for the
hundreds of thousands of Cambodians who had fled to Thailand. Some of these were in
refugee camps, most were scattered along the mountainous border. All of them needed
food and medical aid.

The Cambodian authorities took this extremely badly: “They accused us of violating
the country’s sovereignty and of using humanitarian aid to support the Khmer Rouge,
the very people responsible for the genocide” recalls Bugnion.

As a matter of humanitarian principle both ICRC and UNICEF insisted on being

allowed to help all those in need, wherever they were, and finally the relief
operation was able to proceed - on both sides of the border. An airlift using
military cargo planes provided by Britain, Australia, France and the Netherlands
was established between Bangkok and Phnom Penh in October. This allowed deliveries
not only of essential relief supplies but also of vital logistics equipment, such
as trucks and other vehicles.

“In the following 18 months the ICRC and UNICEF brought more than 1,000 vehicles
into Cambodia: we had never before done anything on this scale,” says François
Bugnion. “With the cranes we brought in we were able to re-equip the seaport of
Kompong Som, so as to be able to unload the ships bringing in food.”

Race to distribute food

Repairs were also made to the railways and river transport – vital elements in the
race to get food distributed. But for weeks the relief agencies were unable to move
far out of the capital, to assess the situation in the countryside.

In December, the government agreed to organise a field survey. “We visited several
provinces all the way round the big lake in the centre of Cambodia, the Tonle Sap,”
Bugnion recounts. “The situation in the towns was the same as that in the capital –
practically empty, with everything looted and destroyed. However, in the western
provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap part of the rice fields were being
cultivated... there was a sense of hope, of revival.”

The delegates took all the medical supplies they had, to distribute as they went
along. “In every province, according to the information we gathered, we gave out
supplies.” When we returned, our trucks were empty.

The Red Cross, both local and international, played an increasing role. The Khmer
Rouge had abolished the Cambodian Red Cross but over the following months hundreds
of volunteers joined up to help.

National Societies mobilized

In Thailand, the Thai Red Cross was an important partner to the ICRC. Still, the
need for extra help, especially for providing medical care, required
reinforcements; these came from national Red Cross societies around the world.
Teams worked at the Thai-Cambodian border as well as in health facilities within
Cambodia.

Beyond the physical suffering, Cambodians were deeply anxious for news of their
loved ones; countless families had been torn apart during the trauma of the Khmer
Rouge and in the aftermath. With no specific structure in place to respond to this
need – the absolute prio rity was to feed people – Cambodians found informal ways
of trying to re-establish contact with their relatives.

“Every day we were given letters to post,” recalls Bugnion. “Sometimes we would
find them tucked in the folds of a freshly-laundered shirt, or inside a book by the
bed. People counted on us to post them once we left the country.”

By the end of 1980, the emergency phase was over and the UNICEF/ICRC joint
operation came to an end. François Bugnion lists a number of achievements – the
main one being that famine had been eliminated.

Wide-reaching impact

“Our operation alone had brought in some 250,000 tonnes of food which, with
bilateral and NGO inputs, covered the basic needs. We also imported 40,000 tonnes
of rice and vegetable seed, which helped farmers start up local production.

“We had got the health system working again, providing supplies to hospitals and
health posts. The schools had re-opened and a basic transport structure had been
re-established.”

Bugnion believes the ICRC was transformed by this experience: “It was our biggest
operation since World War II, and served to reinforce the confidence of donor
governments that the ICRC was capable of doing it. It also showed the ICRC as a
fully equal partner to an inter-governmental organisation. Governments which had
previously viewed the ICRC as one NGO among others now saw a new reality.”

Beyond the facts and figures and the political analysis, François Bugnion holds
poignant human memories of this period, among them Orphanage No. 1 in Phnom Penh:
“When we first went there we were horrified to see children starving, many of them
unable to stand up… we began food deliveries there and after a few weeks went b ack
and found the girls having dancing lessons, girls seven to eight years old,
learning those beautiful, graceful movements of the traditional Khmer dances.

“The people in charge were determined that, now the children were being fed, the
priority was to give the