A Red Cross survey of eight war-torn countries has found that more than half of the civilians polled were forced to flee their homes — while in Afghanistan and Liberia torture was a common experience.

The opinion poll, released on Tuesday, was conducted for the International Committee of the Red Cross among 4000 people in Afghanistan, Colombia, Congo, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia and the Philippines.

It is part of a campaign to highlight the impact of modern conflicts on civilians.

Nowhere was the sense of direct suffering more acute than in Afghanistan — which has been gripped by conflict for three decades — and in Liberia, where brutal civil wars ravaged the country between 1989 and 2003.

In both nations, more than 40 percent of those polled said they had been tortured.

An average of 56 percent in the eight countries surveyed said they had been forced to flee their home at some point in time.

That figure rose to nine people in 10 in Liberia; and more than three-quarters of Afghans.

"These figures represent millions of people who are struggling to provide for their childen, who have been forced to flee their villages under threat, or who live in constant fear that someone they care for will be killed, assaulted or disappear," said ICRC Director of Operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl.

"That's very disturbing."

Lost relatives, looting, injury, and imprisonment were commonplace experiences in Afghanistan and Liberia — as well as a sense of humiliation that was shared in nearly equal measure by 51 percent of Haitians.

Despite concerns about their own livelihood, the greatest single fear that emerged from the war victims was that of losing a loved one or a relative: on average, that fear was cited by 38 percent.

Corruption emerged as the biggest single barrier to receiving aid for 59 percent of those polled — rising to more than 80 percent in Colombia, Liberia and the Philippines.

The opinion poll was carried out to mark the 150th anniversary this week of the Battle of Solferino, which inspired the Swiss founding father of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant, to set up the movement to help war victims.

"When you look at Solferino, where only one civilian was reportedly killed, and you compare it with modern day conflicts in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Gaza or Somalia, you find that warfare takes a more widespread physical and emotional toll on civilians," said Kraehenbuehl.

The poll was conducted by the polling firm Ipsos among a representative sample of about 500 people in each of the countries, between February and April 2009 — but sometimes only in major cities because of the dangers involved.

The poll had a margin of error of four to five percent.

AFP

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