The Decline and Fall (cont’d.): 6 Red Cross Aid Workers Are Slain in Congo. The accelerating phenomenon of murders by combatants of humanitarian aid workers represents to me the height of barbarity and evidence that the thin shreds of humanity left in the world are fraying further. “The attack, which apparently occurred early Thursday
afternoon, claimed the greatest number of the neutral
organization’s workers since a December 1996 massacre in
which six hospital staff were brutally slain in Chechnya. Three
Red Cross workers were murdered in the central African country
of Burundi the same year…

The latest incident, Geneva officials said, may well be linked to
the proliferation of undisciplined military forces that do not
respect the traditional Red Cross role. In 1996 fighting in the
former Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
soldiers ignored the protective sign and looted humanitarian
supplies, according to Red Cross officials.” Twenty-seven expatriates working under the Red Cross have been killed in the course of their duties since World War II, the majority of them since 1990. International Herald Tribune