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ICRC to hold events about International Day of the Disappeared in Azerbaijan

28 August 2010 11:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Families of people missing in connection with the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, together with representatives of local authorities, the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), will gather in Baku, Sumgayit, Sabirabad, Ganja, Mingachevir and Lankaran to commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared, on August 30.

"Although 16 years have passed since the ceasefire agreement, the fate of over 4,500 missing persons is still unclear," said Martin Agure Oguya, an ICRC tracing delegate based in Azerbaijan. "The suffering is enormous for the wives, mothers and children â€“ indeed for all those left behind â€“ many of whom live in a state of permanent anxiety, constantly longing for news of their loved ones."

The ICRC is working together with the Azerbaijani authorities to set up mechanisms to help determine what befell the people who went missing. The ICRC’s role, based on the mandate conferred on it by the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, is purely humanitarian: to help the families find out what happened to their missing loved ones. In Azerbaijan, the ICRC and the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan are continuing a nationwide effort to collect data on people still missing in connection with the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. The information gathered will be handed over in mid-2011 to a government agency that centralizes all such data. After that, the ICRC’s continuing support for the authorities’ efforts will focus on providing expertise when requested and on addressing needs of the families of missing people.