ICRC Rep. Has No Comment on State of Armenian Soldiers in Azeri captivity
Apr 13th, 2010 | Category: Social
YEREVAN (PanARMENIAN.Net), April 13- -Currently, one Azerbaijani POW and one civilian are kept in Armenia while there are six Armenian captives and an Armenian family in Azerbaijan, ICRC Communication Coordinator in Armenia Ashot Astabatyan revealed in a press conference in Yerevan.
According to Astabatyan, the ICRC representatives in Azerbaijan visited the Armenian captives, who are provided with the opportunity to contact their family members.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross does not deal with the destiny of the Armenian family, who crossed the border, as neither their relatives nor state bodies have addressed the ICRC with this problem,” he said.
He also refrained from answering the question whether the Azerbaijani side violates the Armenian captives’ rights as envisaged by the Geneva Convention.
Commenting on the situation with missing persons, Astabatyan noted that the Red Cross has been dealing with problems of missing persons since its foundation in Armenia in 1992.
“We have dealt with the issue through three stages in 1995, 1997 and 2004. We have submitted information about the missing persons to the Armenian leadership during each stage,” he said.
He added that the total number of missing persons makes 4,565, including 401 people from Armenia, 457 from Karabakh, 3,657 from Azerbaijan and 10 foreigners.
“ICRC in Armenia has a database of 323 persons who are missing from Armenia. It contains photos and personal data about these people. Similar work is carried out in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan,” he said.