In a village in the country of Haddar, members of the army meet a soldier running toward them saying that a bloody battle just took place in a nearby field. They walk to the spot and find that the battle is over, but there are many victims. Four wounded soldiers are lying on the ground: two of them are “enemies” and the other two are “friends”. The friends don’t seem to be badly injured. I play the role of one of the enemies; I am badly injured, while the other enemy is dead. I am wearing an armband that shows that I belong to the Deldar army. A paper explaining the seriousness of my injuries is put on me. A hospital has been set up in one corner of the battlefield, indicated by a big Red Cross flag. The participants and first-aiders receive no instructions and are free to react. To test how carefully they transport me, I have on my stomach a bowl filled to the brim with water. The goal is to get me to the hospital without overturning the bowl, yet without going too slowly. I am completely soaked by the end of the afternoon.
After playing the game, I take part in the debriefing. The team leader asks the participants to explain and justify the actions they decided to take. I was a wounded soldier, I was defenceless! I was no longer fighting and I was completely at the enemy’s mercy. Under these circumstances, I was no longer an enemy, but a victim. Attacking or abandoning a defenceless person is a cruel and cowardly act contrary to all humanitarian values. Thus, the wounded and the sick must be protected.
The players understood that only urgent medical reasons may justify an order of priority in the care provided. The wounded and the sick, whoever they are, cannot be attacked, killed, or finished off, and unless they keep fighting they must be protected. Whenever circumstances permit, and especially after a battle, all possible measures must be taken to search for, collect and take care of the wounded. The wounded and the sick must be evacuated from the combat zone and cared for in an impartial manner. They may not be left without medical assistance. The wounded may not be subjected to medical experiments or exposed to the risks of contagion or infection; they must be protected from pillage and ill treatment.
I reflect on the battle of Solferino… Not so long ago, at the end of a battle between two armies, the wounded would be left without assistance on the battlefield, weltering in their own blood. Abandoned without care in this way, many of them died of thirst, hunger or loss of blood. At best, people provided care only for wounded soldiers of their own side. Enemy soldiers however, were often abandoned or even finished off. In some cases, even the horses received more care and attention than men, owing to their military value.
Thanks to the visionary idea of Henry Dunant, influenced by the horrors of the blood-stained battlefields that rang with the cries of the dying wounded, in 1864 some states decided to protect the wounded in war time. The various armies of the world accordingly undertook not only not to mistreat or kill the wounded, but also to collect and care for them, making no distinction between friend and enemy. They also decided that the people in charge of caring for and assisting them should also be protected. Medical personnel should no longer be attacked or obstructed. In order to be recognized, health services would display a clearly visible symbol of neutrality: a Red Cross on a white ground on their clothing, ambulances or hospitals. Later, the Red Crescent was added, and recently the Red Crystal became an additional official symbol of the Movement. During the debriefing, I realize that I was not as aware of IHL as I had thought. Thanks to this activity, I have learnt much more about it and I would like to organize Raid Cross in my own country, be trained as an activity leader in order to train others.
“Raid Cross” is a role-play that aims at making the youth aged from 12 to 18 aware of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and humanitarian values, however, for the first time, in Solferino it was also played with adults. It consists of different posts located in the imaginary country of Haddar. In the course of the activity, participants successively play the roles of prisoners, civilians, soldiers and humanitarian workers, and in doing so, discover what the difficulties of life in conflict situations are really like, as well as the humanitarian challenges and the rules that govern these extreme situations.
The activity leaders tell us that the Raid Cross was born from an initiative of the French Red Cross and the Belgium Red Cross (Francophone Community). Later it turned into a global partnership between the French Red Cross, the Belgium Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the World Organization of the Scouts Movement (WOSM). Over the course of the whole weekend, over 300 people of various nationalities were able to discover the game and some of them have downloaded it already to set it up in their country!
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| Young people playing Raid Cross at the Fiaccolata camp in Solferino, June 2007 / French Red Cross |
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| A wounded soldier lies on the ground - a paper explains the severity of his injuries / French Red Cross |
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| “Raid Cross” is a role-play where participants successively play the roles of prisoners, civilians, soldiers and humanitarian workers / French Red Cross |
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| Wounded soldiers must be transported quickly but carefully to the first aid post, marked by a Red Cross flag / French Red Cross |
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