Geneva  - Conflict is devastatingly impacting civilians, causing displacement and death, a new poll released Tuesday showed, while corruption and black markets were keeping aid from reaching those in need.

The International Committee of the Red Cross surveyed people in eight conflict zones.

Either personally or due to wider consequences, 66 per cent of adults polled in Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia and the Philippines said that they were affected by armed conflicts.

In Afghanistan, Haiti, Lebanon and Liberia, at least 96 per cent of those surveyed were affected in some way by the violence. In Liberia, 96 per cent were directly impacted.

The survey showed "what most people in the field already know, that the impact of a conflict is wide-spread," said Keith Krause, who teaches security studies at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland.

Commenting on a figure that showed the majority of people in six of the surveyed countries felt corruption is a barrier to receiving aid, Krause noted that conflicts had a tendency to benefit a special few.

"Dismantling a war economy is more difficult than ending the fighting," he said, calling for greater efforts to improve development work in the post-conflict period.

Gilles Carbonnier warned that "many former combatants are not socially and economically reintegrated" after wars end, increasing the chances they will once again pick up arms.

As violence spreads within a country, militant groups attract people seeking protection, those looking for social inclusion and the poor who are trying to earn a living, said Carbonnier, a professor of international development at the Geneva Institute.

Only in Lebanon was corruption not considered a major obstacle to aid, according to respondents. The black market was cited as a problem, especially in Liberia.

The ICRC survey found that most people wanted justice to be handled at a national level and less so by international institutions, and they first turn to local organizations for help when in need.

"If there are any heroes in the humanitarian sector they are the local actors," said the ICRC director of operations Pierre Krahenbuhl, referring to nurses, doctors and water specialists in conflict zones.

Only a tiny percentage of respondents supported economic sanctions on their own countries. Peacekeepers and humanitarian aid were largely considered to be the most important contributions the international community could make, along with arranging peace talks.

In Liberia, 90 per cent of those affected by the conflict had to flee there homes, while in Afghanistan 76 per cent answered similarly. Moreover, 86 per cent of Liberians lost contact with at least one close relative, just as 61 per cent of Afghans and 47 per cent of people in DR Congo.

Many found themselves cut off from basic services, like water, electricity and health care, during conflict.

Krahenbuhl railed against using the term "victim" to describe civilians in conflict, noting that the survey showed they were generally optimistic and seeking solutions to the issues that caused their woes.

The survey was meant to help the Geneva-based ICRC evaluate its humanitarian work. (dpa)