At its second session, which it held in Geneva in May 1972, the Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts (Commission I) prepared draft articles on medical air transport and an annex relating to their signalling and identification, which were to be embodied in a future legal instrument. The Commission also recommended that a closer study be made of medical transport at sea and on land. If these suggestions were to lead to a draft instrument, it would be imperative to have a general plan which, in the case of signalling, would extend to all medical personnel and material, whether civilian or military.

The XXth International Conference of the Red Cross, meeting in Vienna in October 1965, in its XXIst Resolution, entitled “Implementation and Dissemination of the Geneva Conventions”, expressed the wish that Governments and National Societies submit periodic reports to the International Committee of the Red Cross on the steps taken by them in that sphere.

Indian civilians in Pakistan.—The Government of Pakistan has informed the ICRC delegation at Islamabad of the measures it proposes to adopt with regard to Indian civilians within its territory. The Indian civilian internees arrested at the Indo-Pakistan border during the hostilities last December, of whom there are approximately 270, are to be repatriated. Some 6,500 Indian civilians, who entered Pakistan lawfully to visit their families before the beginning of hostilities, shall be permitted to return to India. Finally, any Indian civilians who entered Pakistan unlawfully before December 1971 will be conducted to the frontier.

Following the second session of the Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, which was held in Geneva from 3 May to 3 June 1972, the ICRC drew up an official report on the work, which has just left the press.

During the first half of 1972, the radiocommunication service of the ICRC was very active.

Radio communications with the Middle East, consisting in Geneva-Amman link with an internal network serving Beirut and Damascus, were extended to a new station in Jerusalem. On the other hand, in the Yemen Arab Republic, the last message from the ICRC delegation's station at Sana'a was transmitted in February, and the station was closed down after having been in operation for eight years.