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International Red Cross urges head of Belarus branch to step down

"The IFRC confirms that through the Compliance and Mediation Committee we have recommended to the Secretary General of the Belarusian Red Cross to step down while the case is being investigated," IFRC spokesman Tommaso Della Longa said

PARIS, September 9. /TASS/. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has recommended the re-elected General Secretary of the Belarusian Red Cross, Dmitry Shevtsov, to step down during the investigation against him over his July trip to Donbass, IFRC spokesman Tommaso Della Longa told a TASS correspondent.

"The IFRC confirms that through the Compliance and Mediation Committee we have recommended to the Secretary General of the Belarusian Red Cross to step down while the case is being investigated," he said, without specifying when exactly Shevtsov received the recommendation.

The spokesman added that the investigation is expected to be completed in October. "While the committee's investigation is ongoing, it is confidential. The IFRC expects it to be completed in October, after which the results will be made public," he said.

On Thursday, an extraordinary session of the XXVI Congress of the Belarusian Red Cross was held in Minsk, where Shevtsov was unanimously re-elected as secretary-general, despite having previously been criticized by a number of states for his trip to Donetsk and Lugansk in July 2023. The IFRC issued a statement claiming that the circumstances of the visit compromised the organization's founding principles. The Federation contacted the Belarusian Red Cross to express "serious concern and to prevent such activities in the future," and also contacted the IFRC's Compliance and Mediation Committee to investigate the case.

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