'Indian Peace Keeping Force officers motivated, professional'

Officers in the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) are "motivated" and "professional" and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would like to work with them in accordance with their geographical expansion, its Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Boris Michel said today.
"We have worked with the India's peace keeping forces and have found them motivated, polite and professional. We would like to work in the other geographies too to which they are expanding," he said.
Speaking at a discussion organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club, Boris said that in several contexts, blatant disregard for the law of war was observed.

"Direct attacks against civilian population, schools and hospital bombings and triggering of massive displacements have been observed in several cases," he said at the discussion on 'the changing humanitarian landscape from Afghanistan to Syria'.
Among various measures to rescue people suffering in war and conflicts, he pitched for promoting political commitment, humanitarian diplomacy, and perseverance to find humanitarian solutions.
Boris also revealed about ICRC's efforts in rescuing a colleague of the committee who was kidnapped in Afghanistan.

"Our colleague Juancarlos who was a humanitarian worker was released on January 15. He was taken hostage on December 19 last year. We had to bring down our activities to rescue our colleague," he told PTI.

On the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, he said, "We are working with the Sri Lankan government to meet their obligations".
"They seem to have been facing a lot of pressure due to resettlement and reconciliation works after the conflict was over. Apart from that we are also working with the families of the missing, and sexually abused during the conflict," Boris said.
Concluding the discussion, Boris said the future is "complicated" unless every individual considers solidarity, humanity and concern for environment.
ICRC is a humanitarian institution based in Switzerland and has a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts.