Fernanda
Calado
Fernanda Calado profile's picture
Russia

We remember Fernanda Calado

Fernanda Calado was born on 28 October 1947 in Seville, Spain. Together with her family, she moved to La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 1962. She was drawn to nursing, and began training as a nurse’s assistant. She went on to earn her nurse’s diploma in Lausanne in 1978. Fernanda further honed her skills through additional nurse’s training in surgical and intensive care through the early 1980s.

 

At the start of her career, Fernanda worked and trained in various medical settings in Geneva. Curious about other cultures and ways of life, she also seized opportunities to travel and work in different parts of the world. She gained initial experience in the humanitarian sphere through two short assignments with the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA), in Somalia (1981) and Equatorial Guinea (1983). She joined the ICRC in January 1985.

 

Fernanda’s first four assignments with the ICRC took her to Angola, South Africa, Mozambique and Israel and the occupied territories, as either a health delegate or surgical ward nurse. In the former role, her tasks included assessing the needs of people living in conflict zones, taking part in medical visits, helping to manage nutritional rehabilitation centres and getting involved in public-health issues. Next came two successive assignments to Pakistan, where, as surgical ward nurse and then head nurse, she oversaw post-operative care, trained paramedical staff and helped run the radiography and outpatient units. Subsequently, in Cambodia, Fernanda served as head nurse in charge of medical and surgical care and oversaw a team of expatriate nurses.

 

After several long assignments, Fernanda stepped back from the ICRC in mid-1994, withdrawing to Seville for a few months. She then returned to the ICRC for some shorter assignments. These were to Kenya, Somalia, Ecuador and Rwanda – where she served as health delegate – and Sudan, where she focused on training hospital staff.

 

In October 1996, Fernanda started what would be her final assignment, in Chechnya. She was based in the village of Novye Atagi, some 20 kilometres south-west of the capital Grozny, where the ICRC had opened a field hospital. In the early hours of 17 December 1996, six delegates, including 49-year-old Fernanda, were shot dead by masked gunmen in their rooms in the ICRC residence next to the field hospital. Like Fernanda, four other murdered delegates had been seconded to the ICRC by National Red Cross Societies: Ingebørg Foss, 42, and Gunnhild Myklebust, 50, both nurses with the Norwegian Red Cross; Hans Elkerbout, 47, a construction manager with the Netherlands Red Cross; and Sheryl Thayer, 40, a nurse with the New Zealand Red Cross. The sixth delegate was medical administrator Nancy Malloy, 51, from Canada, who had worked for several years with the ICRC. Another delegate, Christophe Hensch, a Swiss national in charge of the ICRC's Novye Atagi office, was shot and survived.

 

Jean de Courten, the ICRC’s director of operations, called the attack a cowardly, “deliberate assassination”. Following the tragedy, the ICRC evacuated its remaining 14 delegates from Novye Atagi. Local medical staff continued to care for patients at the hospital. Speaking at a memorial ceremony at Saint-Pierre Cathedral, Geneva, just days after the attack, ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga said: “All six were dedicated to the ideal of solidarity with the victims of the Chechen conflict. They were fulfilling with exemplary enthusiasm the original mission of the Red Cross – to care for wounded – and they were doing it in the same spirit as the women of Solferino: ‘Tutti fratelli’ [We are all brothers].”

 

Fernanda’s slight physical stature belied an imposing presence. She could tactfully solve problems in complex circumstances while energetically attending to everyone around her – patients, expatriate colleagues and local staff. This combination of passion and composure was reminiscent of tango, the dance that she loved.

The ICRC in
Russia, 1996

For the ICRC, as for other international humanitarian organizations working in the northern Caucasus, the year 1996 was fraught with security problems. However, nothing could prepare the ICRC for the tragedy that was to strike four months after the Russian and the Chechen sides agreed a ceasefire: the cold-blooded murder of six delegates, including Fernanda, at the Novye Atagi field hospital during the night of 16/17 December.

 

The year began with renewed fighting in the Republic of Chechnya between Russian federal troops and Chechen separatists. This caused successive waves of civilians to leave for neighbouring republics. Those who did not flee remained trapped in their homes for weeks at a time by constant shelling. In May, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, representatives of the federal government, the Chechen government and the separatists met in Moscow and signed a preliminary ceasefire accord. Tension soon mounted again and resulted in a large-scale federal offensive in July. For three weeks, villages in southern Chechnya sustained heavy attacks, while military and civilian targets in Grozny came under almost constant fire. On 6 August separatist forces launched an offensive on Grozny and took control of the city after two weeks of bitter fighting. Federal forces delivered an ultimatum announcing their intention to storm the capital unless the separatists withdrew. Around 200,000 civilians fled the city.

 

The conflict had disastrous effects on public utilities in many localities, leaving the population without drinking water, electricity and proper sanitation for prolonged periods. As in the previous year, people in some parts of Grozny relied entirely on the ICRC to provide water. All the city’s hospitals were destroyed or badly damaged during the fighting, leading to our decision to open a field hospital in Novye Atagi.

 

Thanks in part to the diplomatic efforts of the international community, negotiations resumed, resulting in a ceasefire concluded in Novye Atagi on 22 August. On 31 August the parties signed an agreement in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, providing for the withdrawal of federal troops; settlement of the status of the Republic of Chechnya within five years; and the establishment of a joint commission to put the agreement into effect. Although differences persisted, there was no more fighting. In November the Russian president decreed the withdrawal of all federal troops, paving the way for elections to be held in the Republic of Chechnya early the following year.

Throughout the year, security was a major concern for the ICRC. The hazardous conditions led to staff reductions and tightened security measures. In July, after yet another security incident, the ICRC delegate general, accompanied by the head of our Moscow delegation and the head of our mission in the northern Caucasus, met the Russian minister of internal affairs in Moscow. The aim was to secure his support in avoiding further incidents. In October our new delegate general met the president of the Republic of Chechnya in Novye Atagi. Security problems were again discussed. More incidents involving ICRC staff and those working for other organizations ensued in November, mostly the result of banditry. Additional security measures were put in place, but to no avail. The murders of 17 December forced the ICRC to suspend all programmes requiring the presence of international staff within Chechnya; only a limited number of activities continued, carried out by the local Red Cross committees and the ministry of health.

 

It was a particularly tragic year for the ICRC. Earlier in 1996, three delegates – Cédric Martin, Reto Neuenschwander and Juan Ruffino – were brutally killed in Mugina, Burundi.

Memories

Fernanda in Novye Atagi in December 1996
4 December 2021
ICRC Archive

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