Special report : ICRC assistance operation in Tajikistan
 Winter 1996-97      Tavildara: how will families survive the
winter at 1,800 metres?     [ICRC/Oleg Klimov, Ref.TJ-40/28] 
In the course of this year the ICRC has significantly stepped up
its activities in war-torn Tajikistan. Already fraught with
social and economic problems, the nation's life force has been
further sapped by internal armed conflict. Some 23,000 displaced
people, 2,000 others still living in a remote conflict zone and
nearly 7 ,000 detainees are in dire need of humanitarian
aid. The ICRC has provided them with basic necessities,
including medical material for health facilities cut off from
supplies. To help them survive the extremely harsh winter,
relief assistance needs to be considerably increased. The ICRC
is planning to send another 325 truckloads containing 2,400
tonnes of food and 200 tonnes of clothes, blankets and shoes,
plus essential medicines. Given the forbidding climate and
terrain of central Tajikistan, this repres