ABSTRACT

The International Committee of the Red Cross started with a focus on wounded fighters and also showed early interest in detained fighters, but from World War I on it also focused on civilians. From a moral point of view, why should a concern for victims of war be limited to combatants but not civilians? As military technology evolved, so did the numbers of civilians in distress from fighting-from such factors as aerial attack and long-range bombardment. Because of these technological and other reasons (e.g. ethnic cleansing), modern wars in places like the Balkans resulted in victims that were about 85 percent civilian.1 Thus, for both material and political reasons, many modern wars tended to be total wars, with great civilian destruction. While some ICRC assistance is directed to wounded or otherwise incapacitated fighters, most assistance is for the civilian population.