Responding to a long-standing invitation from the Chinese Red Cross, the ICRC President, Mr. Alexandre Hay, was in the People's Republic of China from 2 to 11 November, accompanied by his wife, by the Director of the Operations Department, Mr. J.-P. Hocké, and by the Chief of the Dissemination and Documentation Division, Mr. R. Gaillard-Moret.

From 27 January to 6 February, the President of the ICRC, Mr. Alexandra Hay, went to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. He was accompanied by Mr. Serge Nessi, head of the Financing Division, and Mr. Jean-Marc Bornet, regional delegate. This was the first official visit paid by an ICRC President to that part of the Arab world

The International Committee of the Red Cross was grieved to learn of the sudden death in a car accident on 17 January 1980 of Miss Christine Rieben, a delegate in Uganda.

An ICRC delegation, led by Mr. Richard Pestalozzi, Vice-President, who was accompanied by Mr. J. Moreillon, director of the ICRC Department of Principles and Law, and by Mr. Ph. Grand d'Hauteville, regional delegate for Europe, went to Moscow at the invitation of the Alliance of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the USSR, and stayed there from 27 to 31 October 1980.

The ICRC has appointed Mr. Ulrich Wasser to the post of director of the Central Tracing Agency as from 1 March to succeed Mr. Pierre Basset who has reached retirement age.

A bust of Henry Dunant was inaugurated in Geneva on 2 June. It stands at the entrance to the old town. It is a sober and elegant work representing Dunant in the prime of life and was sculptured by Luc Jaggi, a Genevese artist who died a few years ago. The base bears the following simple inscription: “Henry Dunant, 1828-1910, founder of the Red Cross”.

The Maurice de Madre French Fund was founded a few years ago with a large legacy bequeathed to the ICRC.

On 20 November 1978 a circular was sent to all National Societies reminding them of the existence of the Fund and inviting them to apply, in the first quarter of each year, for allocations to their delegates or nurses who qualify for grants from the Fund.

The President of the ICRC, Mr. Alexandre Hay, was in Italy from 15 to 20 June for an official visit. He was accompanied by Mr. Sergio Nessi, head of the Financing Division, and Mr. Melchior Borsinger, delegate-general for Europe and North America. The purpose of the visit was to contact the Italian authorities, to give them a detailed account of the ICRC role and function and to obtain greater moral and material support from them.

In November and December 1979, the ICRC delegation continued its various activities arising from the conflict in Rhodesia. In November, it distributed 269 tons of foodstuffs, 1,500 blankets, 3,000 items of clothing and 7 tons of soap to about 81,000 displaced persons. The value of the goods distributed was about 168,000 Swiss francs.

In a message addressed in French on 25 July 1980 to the ICRC and signed by its Information Secretary, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) made the following declaration:

“We welcome your assistance project for Angola and have requested the above-mentioned to notify you of the terms of our declaration of principle, as follows:…

On the occasion of its fifttieth anniversary, the Geneva International Motor Show has donated to the ICRC a heavy-duty ambulance specially equipped for difficult missions. It was delivered on 20 February to the President of the ICRC by Mr. Francois Peyrot, President of the Motor Show.

Mr. Alexandre Hay, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, accompanied by Mr. Sergio Nessi, head of the Financing Division, and Mr. Jean Hoefliger, delegate-general for the Middle East and North Africa, was in Tripoli (Libya) from 7 to 9 July. He was received by Colonel Moammar Qadaffi; Mr. Jadallah Azouz At-Talhi, President of the People's General Council; Mr. Abu Zaid Omar Durda, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs; and Dr Muftah Al-Osta Omar, Minister of Health and President of the Libyan Red Crescent, who was accompanied by Dr. Ahmed Abdallah Es-Sherif, Secretary-General, and Mr. Abdel Rahman Bonkela, adviser, to the National Red Crescent.

Under the London Agreements signed in December 1979, Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980. With the end of the conflict the ICRC, which for many years had been active not only in the capital, Harare (formerly Salisbury), but also in the rest of the country and in a number of neighbouring States affected by the repercussions of the fighting, began gradually to phase out some of its activities (mainly medical and relief programmes), depending on developments of the local situation. Discussions are now taking place with the government, the National Red Cross Society and various welfare organizations on the practical measures to be adopted for handing over certain projects which had been until now under ICRC responsibility and are still necessary for the inhabitants' welfare.

Twenty-five years ago the International Committee of the Red Cross took over the management of the International Tracing Service, founded at the end of the Second World War by the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States. A short ceremony, attended by some 250 staff members of the ITS, marked this anniversary, at the beginning of June, at Arolsen.

An ICRC team of four delegates, one of them a doctor, made a new series of visits to places of detention in South Africa, from 12 to 25 October. In eight places they had access to 515 convicted prisoners and four persons detained under Section 10 of the Internal Security Amendment Act.