For reasons of health, Mr. Michel Testuz has been obliged to give up his position as editor of the International Review of the Red Cross, in which he served with distinction since 1977, and enter into early retirement.

Those who have seen him at work, during a career devoted to the humanitarian cause for nearly forty years, and in particular the readers of the Review, will greatly regret this decision and the loss it entails, while deferring to the circumstances which made it necessary. This scholarly man, with his rich culture and brilliance as an editor, maintained the standards of this traditional voice of the ICRC at the high level befitting its function and assured the universal respect it enjoys.

On 13 December 1985 the Eastern Republic of Uruguay deposited with the Swiss Government an instrument of accession to the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts (Protocol I) and non-international armed conflicts (Protocol II), adopted in Geneva on 8 June 1977.

It is the understanding of the Government of Italy that the rules relating to the use of weapons introduced by Additional Protocol I were intended to apply exclusively to conventional weapons. They do not prejudice any other rule of international law applicable to other types of weapons.

The Italian Government understands, in relation to Articles 41, 56, 57, 58, 78 and 86, that the word “feasible” is to be understood as practicable or practically possible taking into account all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations.

The members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), meeting in Assembly on December 3 and 4, 1986, welcomed a new member: Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga, future President of the institution.

On 16 December 1985 the Republic of Suriname deposited with the Swiss Government an instrument of accession to the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts (Protocol I) and non-international armed conflicts (Protocol II), adopted in Geneva on 8 June 1977.

The ICRC thought that it would be useful to set down its unrivalled experience of war surgery in a manual on the subject which could be used in the training of surgeons from the ICRC itself and from National Societies who go on medical missions.

In January and February, the ICRC reduced, as planned, the level of its relief activities in Ethiopia. This reduction was made possible, on the one hand, by an increase in food supplies for the population in the northern provinces of that country affected by conflict and drought and, on the other, by more intensive activity on the part of other voluntary agencies in the area. While leaving in place the structures which would enable it rapidly to set up a large-scale assistance programme if the need were to appear in a given region, the ICRC has lowered the volume of its general relief distributions. In December 1985, 10,700 tonnes were distributed to 830,000 persons. This was reduced to 5,000 tonnes for 424,300 persons in January, and further to 2,800 tonnes for 181,000 persons in February in the provinces of Eritrea, Tigray, Wollo, Gondar and Hararge. The last three therapeutic feeding centres were closed on 16 January (Wukro), and on 16 and 27 February (Idaga Hamus and Adwa). However, ICRC medical teams continued to monitor the health of the populations living in provinces which were receiving assistance, concentrating their activities on groups of displaced persons in Eritrea (in the region between Keren and Barentu), Tigray (in the region between Aksum and Adwa and the region of Mehony), Wollo (in the region of Sekota) and Hararge (Wobera Woreda; Habro Woreda), all areas with major security problems.

Mr. Jacques Meurant, who succeeds Mr. Michel Testuz as editor of the International Review of the Red Cross, was born in Lille, France, in 1932. After studying in Lille and Paris, Mr. Meurant became a teacher in 1957 and taught English at the Henry IV High School and the Jules Ferry High School in Paris.

Following a period with the French Red Cross, Mr. Meurant went to the League of Red Cross Societies in January 1962 as Special Assistant attached to the Secretary General's office.

Following the decision reached on 28 October by the Twenty-fifth International Conference of the Red Cross to suspend the South African government delegation from participation in its work, the ICRC was requested by the South African authorities to suspend its activities in South Africa and to leave the country at the latest by 30 November. The ICRC delegates based in South Africa therefore made the necessary arrangements to close down the delegation and return to Geneva by that date.

Mr. J.-M. Bornet, ICRC delegate-general for Africa, went to Khartoum where he was received on 3 June by the Sudanese Prime Minister, Mr. Sadiq el Mahdi. The discussions centred mainly on the ICRC's work in Sudan and in the Horn of Africa.

The ICRC continued the operation undertaken from Kenya in April (ICRC office and storage depots in Lodwar-Lokichogio), involving the provision of relief supplies and the evacuation of the wounded in southern Sudan, continued. However, because of adverse weather and dangerous conditions, the operation was scarcely stepped up despite the increase in the number of displaced people in the Narus area (20,000 by the end of June).

During November and December 1985, ICRC activities in Angola increased. This period of the year being between two harvests, the nutritional condition of the population on the Planalto seriously deteriorated. Distributions of food were therefore resumed from October onwards in most townships in the provinces of Huambo and Benguela, and from 18 November in the province of Bié where they had been suspended two months earlier after an ICRC aircraft had been damaged by a mine at Chitembo.