ブックタイトルThe Journal of Humanitarian Studies

概要

The Journal of Humanitarian Studies

Journal of Humanitarian Studies Vol. 4, 2015Thus, in the evening, we would spend our free time talking to each other and I would listen avidly toKokawa-san telling me about Japan, about the colours of the trees in autumn, about the cold winter, inHokkaido, where bears and deers roam freely, about the taste of the“nama biru”with“eda mame”, of thesushi, the sashimi and about all what makes Japan such a special place in the world. He would tell me thatin Japan, we sleep on the floor and we take off our shoes when we enter a house. And then I would dreamthat all Japanese girls would wear a bright-coloured kimono when they go out with friends, to drink greentea, while all the boys dream to become sumo fighters and drink a lot of sake.Then, I would tell him about my country, Switzerland, such a small place in the world, and about thecheese, which replaces your sushi on our tables. I would also tell him the taste of the white wine, fromthe vineyards we grow on the slopes falling in the lake, in the Lavaux region, close to my village. And,since then, Kokawa-san believes that, in Switzerland, we eat cheese and chocolate all the time and we allgo skiing to reach our schools in winter, which is why, in 1972, in Sapporo, the Swiss won so many goldmedals at the winter Olympics.In NW 9, most of the time, the situation was calm enough to allow us to spend some time in the open, infront of our“bunker-house”, where we had built a small veranda. One Sunday afternoon, as I wanted tolift the curtains of bamboo that Kokawa-san had someone made for us in the camp, in order to allow somewind to come in, he argued that we should let them down, to prevent the sun from penetrating and heatingup the whole bunker. As we had time to do so, we started arguing about what was more comfortable: tosuffocate in the shade, without air coming in, or to roast under the sun but enjoying some kind of breezefrom the jungle…Finally, Kokawa-san cut it short:“we, in Japan, we invented the curtain of bamboo, tokeep the sun out and we made the“uchiwa”, to create our own breeze. Do not try to change what 2000years of Japanese wisdom taught us”…More seriously, besides a lesson on the 2000 years of Japanese wisdom, the first field mission of my 35years of ICRC career in more than 20 countries made me discover the suffering provoked by the crueltyof armed conflict and taught me how fragile is life, which can be stopped by a bullet, a shrapnel, a handgrenadeor a machete in a split second…I learned, while transferring war wounded to the ICRC hospitalin Kao I Dang, where a JRCS medical team operated, how painful and long is the recovery for a poorfarmer, who had lost a leg on a landmine and, at the same time, all hope to lead a normal life again. I sawthe dignified tears of the family of a young and beautiful girl, who would never be able to bear a childafter having been raped and tortured by marauding fighters and I saw the fear in the eyes of those orphans,whose families had disappeared, and who had to contemplate a new life, alone in the world…An unknown place under the sunBeginning of 1986, from the ICRC sub-delegation of Kassala, in the desert of North Sudan, where I hadbeen posted since 1984, I had to transfer directly to Kenya,“to see if there was a way to do somethingfor the war wounded transferred there from Southern Sudan”. These few words were the only“Terms ofReference”I received from my boss, in Geneva, to start my mission“along the border between Sudan andKenya”. I was given 50,000 USD, available on the ICRC account of the Nairobi Regional Delegation, incase a first relief operation emergency had to be set-up. I had no clue where I was going and I had neverheard before the words“Turkana”,“Lokichokio”“Toposas”etc.. I did not really know where and what wasSouthern Sudan, except that it was…in the South!The ICRC Delegation in Nairobi, based on its headquarters agreement with the Government of Kenya,could not work in the Sudan. Therefore, I was dispatched there as a“flying Delegate”detached from theICRC Delegation in Khartoum. After we clarified this with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi, I22人道研究ジャーナルVol. 4, 2015