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BAKU: Red Cross Continuing Work On Database Of Karabakh Missing

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  • BAKU: Red Cross Continuing Work On Database Of Karabakh Missing

    RED CROSS CONTINUING WORK ON DATABASE OF KARABAKH MISSING

    news.am
    Aug 24, 2011
    Armenia

    The International Committee of the Red Cross has registered 4,575
    people who went missing during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
    over Karabakh.

    The ICRC's protection coordinator for Azerbaijan, Sylvie Graenicher,
    told Trend news agency that the number of missing people might change.

    The ICRC has collected information about them from their family members
    in an ante-mortem database. This work has been done in collaboration
    with the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan. Information about 3,631
    missing people has been accumulated so far.

    Graenicher said ante-mortem information about several other people
    was being gathered at the moment.

    "A licence agreement between the ICRC and Azerbaijan's State
    Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing People was
    signed in January. In line with this agreement, a special database
    of missing people, created by the ICRC, will be handed to the State
    Commission. In future months, the first 150 questionnaires will be
    submitted to the State Commission for inclusion in the database. The
    entire information on 3,631 missing people will be handed to the
    State Commission for phased inclusion in the database," she said.

    The database is designed to bring together all the information about
    the missing in order to help clear up their fate in future.

    Graenicher said differences remained between the lists of the ICRC
    and the State Commission.

    "A few years ago, these lists were very different. The difference is
    that the ICRC gathers information only with the help of the families of
    the missing, while the State Commission is able to collect information
    from other sources. Then these lists are compared and differences are
    removed. Now this gap has diminished and I hope it will disappear or
    be reduced to a minimum in a couple of years," she said.

    No request for return of POWs

    The ICRC has not received any requests from any of the conflicting
    parties for the return home of prisoners of war or civilians held in
    Armenian and Azerbaijani captivity, Sylvie Graenicher said.

    The ICRC does not intervene in talks on the return of prisoners,
    assisting only when there is a request from the conflicting parties
    and with their consent, she said.

    "If the conflicting sides ask us about the return of prisoners of
    war and civilians in captivity, we assist in carrying out this process.

    The repatriation of detainees is carried out only if they agree to
    return home. As of now, the ICRC has received no request from the
    conflicting parties on the return home of military servicemen and
    civilians in captivity," Graenicher continued.

    Armenian armed forces captured Azerbaijani Army Junior Sergeant Roman
    Huseynov on 27 August 2010.

    Azerbaijan currently holds three Armenians POWs and five members of
    one Armenian family in captivity.

    Earlier, three Armenian servicemen in Azerbaijani captivity were sent
    to a third country at their own request.




    From: A. Papazian
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