Why the red cross should live

On April 26, 2001, two vehicles flying the red and white flag of the International Committee of the Red Cross were ambushed in eastern Congo, some 250 kilometers northwest of here. Six Red Cross workers were murdered.

The ICRC teams were performing their normal humanitarian role in accord with the Geneva Conventions. No one knows who committed the murders, or whether the assailants knew what the ICRC's emblem stands for. It's possible the aid workers were massacred precisely because they represented the international Red Cross.

The attack raises two key concerns: First is the increase of deliberate assaults against aid workers - as well as journalists - in war zones around the world. Second is whether it is appropriate to contemplate, as is now happening, the creation of yet another logo for the international Red Cross movement.

For humanitarians, it is hard enough to ensure respect for the two existing universal symbols - the red cross and the lesser-known red crescent. A third icon would be a costly distraction that could lead to a serious weakening of the world's ability to protect war victims.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, most fighters involved in ideological or liberation wars tended to respect international aid organizations and the media. It was a matter of prestige if not good public relations to have them operating on your side.

But the face of conflict changed when the cold war ended, resulting in a less universal rationale for conflict. Warlords, armed factions, and even governments considered it more tactical to kill or kidnap aid workers and journalists.

One need only recall the cold-blooded shooting of ICRC workers in Chechnya by unidentified gunmen in 1996, the lynching of three United Nations employees in West Timor by pro-Indonesian militia in 2000, and the killing of dozens of journalists over the past decade in the Balkans, Algeria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

What this amounts to is a failure to convey the need for respect for the Geneva Conventions and its additional protocols. It has taken 138 years for the red cross to be acknowledged as the principal mark of protection for war-affected civilians, prisoners, and other noncombatants. Yet even if it remains one of the world's most recognizable emblems, the Red Cross still faces an uphill struggle, possibly even a losing one, to put across the humanitarian principles it symbolizes.

Now the international Red Cross movement, which consists of the ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, is indulging itself in efforts to find a new emblem. This is partly the result of arm-twisting by the American Red Cross, which is seeking to have the red star of David deployed alongside the red cross and red crescent, or, failing this, in conjunction with an entirely new compromise logo.

While the creation of a third logo - a red diamond and a double chevron have been among those considered - may appear to resolve the problem brought about by political or religious groups, it is doubtful that this will resolve the deeper issues.

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