Malaysia commended for successfully rendering humanitarian assistance through ICRC for 50 years

ICRC Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Christine Cipolla, said the world will not forget the episode where hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees were hosted by Malaysia at Bidong Island, Terengganu between 1970s and 1990s before being resettled to other countries.

"The ICRC supported the Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS) in providing the Mailing and Tracing Service for the Vietnamese boat people to keep in touch with their family members back home," she told Bernama in an exclusive interview at ICRC office here in conjunction with 50th anniversary celebration of ICRC in Malaysia.

Cipolla who is based in Geneva, Switzerland said in 2004, the ICRC had received assistance from the Malaysian authorities to help the Acehnese community in Malaysia to restore family links back in Aceh which was affected following a tsunami in the Indonesian province at that time.

She said in 2009, a contribution of RM1 million for ICRC's protheses programme in Gaza was funded by the Malaysian people and government through MRCS.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICRC supported the efforts of MRCS in its vaccination campaigns with the My Sukarela app, a platform that allows volunteers offer their assistance to organisations in need of voluntary services.

"Through My Sukarela app, Malaysia's first app for volunteer work, we hope to help promote volunteerism in Malaysia, inspiring individuals and corporations to contribute to humanitarian works," she said.

The ICRC activities in Malaysia can be traced back to as early as World War II. Its permanent presence in Malaysia began following a letter from the then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak in November1972, approving the establishment of an ICRC regional office, that was formally opened in March thesubsequent year.

Cipolla also said Malaysian authorities have been consistently promoting and integrating IHL in training syllabus for military, besides disseminating them among its population, with the first IHL course organised with the Malaysian armed forces in 1988.

"The Centre of Military and International Humanitarian Law (CoMIHL) was formed at the National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM) in August 2017 following a strategic partnership between the ICRC and NDUM to promote and disseminate knowledge of military law and IHL among Malaysian armed forces and the region's wider military and legal communities.

"Malaysians should be proud that the country has the first-ever regional centre for military and IHL in the region," she said.

Malaysia acceded to the Geneva Conventions in 1962, making 2022 the 60th anniversary of its accession to the core treaties of IHL.

Throughout the years, Malaysia has become party to many key treaties of international humanitarian law such as the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, anti-personnel landmines convention, convention prohibiting chemical weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons.