Kurt
Lustenberger
Kurt Lustenberger profile's picture
Somalia

We remember Kurt Lustenberger

Kurt Lustenberger was born on 9 August 1961 in Sursee, midway between Zurich and Bern, where he attended primary and lower secondary school. He completed his secondary studies in 1978 at the Institut Catholique in nearby Neuchâtel, with a focus on both business studies and French – his French diploma was co-issued by the Paris-based Alliance Française. Kurt then enrolled in a vocational training programme, spending three years, from 1978 to 1981, as an apprentice in a bank back in Sursee.


Having completed his training, Kurt took on a three-month temp position with Orell Füssli AG, in Zurich. He then travelled to Asia for seven months, visiting South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. When he returned to Switzerland, he accepted a position as an accountant with EniChemicals SA in Kilchberg, near Zurich. He worked there for two years, from November 1982 to October 1984, after which he enrolled in a three-year marketing programme at the ESCEA business school in Fribourg. In 1987, marketing diploma in hand, Kurt was employed briefly at Firestone before being hired as a project manager at DemoSCOPE SA, a social and market research institute, in Adligenswil, near Lucerne. Four years later, Kurt felt the need to move on.


When he applied to the ICRC in August 1992, Kurt was ready to sign on the dotted line. He saw in the organization an opportunity to orient his career towards helping others as part of a team. At his job interview in October, where the ICRC already recognized his leadership potential, he expressed an interest in becoming an administrator, a position with a wide range of tasks. He was subsequently invited to, and completed, the ICRC delegate training course in November.


Kurt’s first assignment was in Bardere, in south-western Somalia, a country caught up in a civil war. He was given the position of administrator – as he’d hoped – and he carried out his role with skill and sensitivity. He found the work satisfying, and his warm-hearted nature endeared him to those around him. In a letter he wrote in January 1993, not long after arriving in Somalia, Kurt said he felt the work he was doing made a difference.


On the evening of 14 January 1993, several weeks into his assignment, Kurt was having dinner with four other ICRC international staff members at their residence when three armed men broke in, demanding money from the safe. Kurt was retrieving the key to the safe when one of the men shot him in the head. Kurt was quickly transferred by helicopter to Mogadishu, but died en route to hospital. He was 31 years old.


Kurt made a conscious decision to set aside a comfortable career in Switzerland in order to help those suffering as a result of armed conflict. In a message to Kurt’s parents, his colleagues at the Mogadishu delegation wrote: "Your understanding of Kurt's choice for our work gives us the strength to turn our frustration and despair over his death into renewed perseverance and purpose.” Kurt was posthumously awarded the Henry Dunant medal.


The ICRC in
Somalia, 1993

Somalia gained its independence from Britain in 1960. Nearly a decade later, Major General Siad Barre came to power in the wake of a coup d’état. The military junta he led was initially aligned with the Soviet Union in the Cold War. This allegiance changed in the late 1970s after the country lost the Ogaden War against Ethiopia, which was backed by the Soviet Union. Somalia’s defeat in that conflict helped spur a rise in clan pressures against the government, resulting in ongoing unrest throughout the 1980s. In early 1991, the Barre government was overthrown by armed groups. The subsequent scramble for power sparked a civil war among factions linked to the country’s many clans. The conflict’s heavy toll in grain-growing areas of the country triggered a famine, adding to the war’s impact on civilians. The ICRC responded to the crisis by launching its biggest relief operation since the Second World War, although even that was not enough to meet the Somali people’s massive needs. Our work was greatly complicated by the total breakdown of law and order. That meant, for example, that our Somali delegation had to work out of our offices in Nairobi, Kenya. Those of our staff members able to work in Somalia were subject to numerous threats and assaults; 14 local ICRC employees were killed over the course of the year. Despite these challenges, we carried out our work to the best of our abilities, thanks to the tireless efforts of employees like Kurt Lustenberger. In 1992, we brought 20,000 tonnes of food into the country each month, drawing on various forms of transport – including ships and barges for the first time. We teamed up with the Somali Red Crescent Society and with local groups – known as community kitchens – to distribute the food. As part of our medical programme, we set up mobile clinics, created health posts in camps for displaced people, delivered medical supplies to hospitals and shored up existing infrastructure. We also introduced a “flying” surgical team in April. It worked so well that we brought in a second one in September. We had teams involved in other programmes – water and sanitation, agricultural and veterinary support, detention and protection work, awareness-raising, and missing persons tracing service – as part of our broader effort to help offset the impact of the prevailing lawlessness in the country.


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