“Repatriation Flight” exhibits a history of humanitarian services of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war termination. This war started in 1980 and lasted for eight years, one of the longest International Armed Conflicts of the 20th century. During this war – and up until 1990 – the ICRC was involved in various humanitarian operations, including detention visits, exchange of Red Cross Messages (RCM), and the repatriation of Prisoners of War (PoW) and human remains. The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) was also involved in some humanitarian operations in this regard.

On this occasion, and in order to commemorate a small but significant part of the 150-year-long history of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s humanitarian activities, the IRCS and the ICRC held an exhibition of photos of some of the Iran-Iraq PoW repatriation operations and conceptual pieces of art entitled ‘Repatriation Flight’. The aim was to commemorate the humanitarian activities of the IRCS and the ICRC, and to underscore the indispensable principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence as the fundamentals of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

The opening ceremony for the Repatriation Flight exhibition took place on 7 October 2018 in the presence of high-level officials of the IRCS, including: the Secretary General of the IRCS, Mohammadi Nasab, the Representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRCS, Hojatoleslam Moezi, the Commander of the Search and Recovery Committee of Islamic Republic of Iran HQ of Armed Forces, General Bagherzadeh as well as ICRC Tehran’s Deputy Head of Delegation, Marc Achermann.

Secretary General of the IRCS, Mohammadi Nasab [center-right] and Representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRCS, Hojatoleslam Moezi [center-left] at the opening ceremony

During the opening ceremony, Mohammadi Nasab stated that the joint exhibition included photos from the archives of the ICRC and the IRCS, some of which are displayed for the first time.

General Bagherzadeh, who attended the opening ceremony, also praised the exhibition, calling for it to be held in other places in Iran.

Meanwhile, the ICRC’s Marc Achermann, in his interview with an Iranian news agency, stated that the materials used in the exhibition were publicly available. But it is the first time they are being seen together in one exhibition with a touch of conceptual arts.

Iranian young artists’ drawing workshop during the exhibition

Since the start of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980 until its end in 1988, the ICRC, accompanied by its Movement partners, was involved in 17 phases of repatriation of Iraqi PoWs and 18 phases of repatriation of Iranian PoWs, where a total of 717 Iraqi PoWs and 718 Iranian PoWs were repatriated. During the war, the ICRC was only invited by the parties to the conflict to be involved in repatriation of seriously wounded as well as seriously sick prisoners, and of civilians. The first operation of this kind took place on 16 June 1981. An ICRC archive documentary on this first repatriation operation was played for the first time during the opening ceremony of this exhibition.

‘Repatriation Flight’ took place at the Peace Gallery of the IRCS’s National Museum and Archive in Tehran from 7 to 22 October 2018. It will then circulate to other cities in Iran.