Lavy, Rachel (Oral history)

British civilian nurse with Tearfund in Kurdistan, Iraq, 1/1992-4/1992; worked with British Red Cross in Hong Kong, 8/1992-2/1993; worked with International Committee of the Red Cross in Bosnia, 1993-1994; worked with Tearfund in Lamasi Camp, Ngara, Tanzania, 1995

REEL 1 Background in Uganda and GB, 1962-1992: family; education at Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar School; decision to become nurse and nursing training; training as midwife at Mother’s Hospital in London; work as community midwife in Tower Hamlets, London. Recollections of period as nurse with Tearfund in Kurdistan, Iraq, 1/1992-4/1992: reaction to television reports on plight of Iraqi Kurds; background to joining Tearfund team; reasons for interest in humanitarian work; degree of preparation for nursing in Kurdistan; reasons for resigning from job in National Health Service; reasons for packing reading material; composition of team; role training Kurdish midwives; living conditions for Kurdish refugees; lack of help from Kurdish authorities; supply of medical equipment; initial impression of weather conditions and devastation of Kurdish villages. REEL 2 Continues: team accommodation; living conditions for Kurdish refugees; attitude of Kurdish refugees towards Western societies; experiencing Muslim attitudes towards gender; relief organisations working under umbrella of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR); precautions taken against threat from Iraqi extremists; Kurdish fear of Iraqi atrocities; use of interpreters; improvements for Kurdish refugees during period in Kurdistan; instances of inappropriate aid; opinion of work of Red Cross teams; attitude to leaving Kurdistan; nature of Kurdish society; joining Red Cross on return to GB, 1992. REEL 3 Continues: opinion of Red Cross training. Recollections of period as nurse with British Red Cross in Hong Kong, 8/1992-2/1993: background to Red Cross decision to send her to High Island Detention Camp for Vietnamese refugees; living conditions for refugees; violence amongst refugees; dilemma of allowing refugees to use sophisticated medical facilities in Hong Kong; learning how to examine patients, diagnose problems and treatment; conditions in segregation unit; nature of medical problems amongst refugees; attitude of refugees to prospect of repatriation to Vietnam; question of number of economic migrants amongst refugees; isolated location of camp; relations with refugees; accommodation; contrast of life in Hong Kong and working in detention camp; camp leadership; relations with Vietnamese interpreters; hearing of refugee stories of journey on boats; atmosphere working for British Red Cross; pay; decision to leave Hong Kong after six months and desire to go to Bosnia. REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of period as nurse with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Bosnia, 5/1993-12/1994: description of briefings prior to deployment to Bosnia, 5/1993; question of importance of neutrality of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); duties as field nurse visiting hospitals and organising medical supplies; initial deployment to Knin and Bihac areas; effect of shelling in Bihac; question of shelling of hospitals; relations between different ethnic groups; move to Banja Luka; strength of nationalist Serb presence in Banja Luka; evidence of ethnic cleansing in Banja Luka; attitude towards inability of organisation to protect civilians; duties attending to women who had been raped and beaten; unwillingness of injured to go to Serb run hospitals. REEL 5 Continues: story of intimidation and attack on farming family resulting in death of husband and rape of wife; attitude towards not being able to speak of atrocities; difficulties faced by relief organisations; psychological impact of rape; opinion of interpreter Sasha Gajic; story of attempt to visit girl who had raped in ethnically cleansed village; plight of elderly people living in ‘pink zones’ in Bihac area; discovery of elderly woman murdered and dumped in well; question of life of civilians in pre-war Yugoslavia; background to move to Sarajevo after leave in GB, 3/1994; description of flying into Sarajevo including sight of devastation. REEL 6 Continues: rules regarding use of camera; impressions during initial drive into city from airport; method of civilians’ supplementing food supplies; food supplies; description of tunnel dug to connect central Sarajevo with Bosnian Muslim hinterland; character of interpreter Boris; area of responsibility; ethnic divisions amongst medical profession; occasion when she narrowly escaped being shot by Serbian; importance of carrying Red Cross flag; work of Swiss Red Cross delegates; work with Serbian prisoners held in Bosnian Muslim camps; question of food supply to prisoners; medical examination of prisoners; story of three students who ended up fighting on different sides; nature of detention camps. REEL 7 Continues: case of elderly Serbian woman detaining elderly Bosnian Muslim woman in home; evidence of beating of prisoners; lack of co-ordination between relief agencies; attitude towards work of United Nations Commission for Refugees (UNHCR); attitude towards air strikes; opinion of international policy towards Bosnia; desire to return to Bosnia; periods spent in Sarajevo and leave in Croatia; adapting to living in war zone; reaction to witnessing man shot by sniper; attitude towards media and journalists; learning of Rwandan massacres in Sarajevo; opinion of situation in Bosnia and genocide. Recollections of period as nurse with Tearfund in Lamasi Camp, Ngara, Tanzania, 1995: background to establishment of refugee camps after Rwandan Civil War. REEL 8 Continues: organisation of relief aid in Tanzania; Rwandan Hutu refugee population in camps; attitude of Tanzanian Government towards Rwandan refugees; food supplies; unwillingness of Rwandan Hutus to return to Rwanda; involvement of Hutu refugees in massacre of Tutsis; dangers for relief workers in camp at night and presence of militias; opinion that Rwandan Civil War would restart if refugees returned to Rwanda; question of nature of killings during Rwandan Civil War; attitude towards time spent in Rwanda and Bosnia; contrast in treatment of refugees in Zaire and Tanzania; belief in need for reconciliation and forgiveness. Reflections on aid work: plans to continue humanitarian work and start post-graduate study on conflict; personal impact of aid work.