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Baku. Shahriyar Alizadeh – APA. Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Delegation to Azerbaijan Denise Duran’s interview with APA

- How do you evaluate activities of the ICRC Delegation for this year? What was done in Azerbaijan this year?

- ICRC is following very carefully the developments on the frontline and whenever that situation deteriorates, we feel it and it affects our work. Our teams are there every week, giving economic support in some to the most exposed and vulnerable villages. We also help the families whose houses are very close to the military positions to redesign their homes so that doors and windows that face the frontline are closed off with bricks. In some cases, we build a small protective wall around a part of their home so that at least one room in the house is safe when shooting starts. The most dangerous thing for them to do is to run out of the house. With ICRC support to redesign their homes, they can take shelter in their safe room and wait for the shooting to stop.

Since last year, we see that the tension is high and we see the effect it is having on the villagers living close by the frontline. If a civilian is wounded because of the shooting, or suffers a mine accident, ICRC field teams visit them and offer support to help. Sometimes that means financial support, sometimes it means discussing their situation with service providers who can help them. The Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society (AzRCS) district branch staff also follow up these victims directly affected by the conflict. In these last months, we and the AzRCS have been very busy with this and I evaluate this as a very important part of our ongoing humanitarian mission.

Also, this year, we kept our work going with the families of the missing and with the State Commission on prisoners of war, hostages and missing persons. As you know, many people lost a loved one from the war and they live in a strange situation where they want to believe their family member is still alive, but after all these years, sadly, it is more likely that their loved one has died and the death was not reported to them. So the family, especially mothers and wives, live in this ambiguous situation of not knowing for sure what happened to their loved one. It is psychologically very difficult for them. ICRC helps them meet with others who suffer from the same grief and we accompany them to find solutions for some of their daily problems. ICRC identifies people, mostly mothers and wives, who have a missing relative and who can really understand and sympathize with this situation, and we train those women to be accompaniers and to offer many different types of needed help, depending on the situation of each family and their needs.

This year, ICRC began collecting biological samples from the relatives of missing people. These samples will be stored by the Ministry of National Security Hospital so that one day it will be possible to make DNA comparisons to try to identify the human remains which may be exhumed and returned to their families. This way, some families might one day know what happened to their loved ones and be able to begin their true grieving process. Collecting all these biological samples will take some years. There are about 3,700 missing Azerbaijanis and we need to collect samples from between 3 and 6 biological family members of each missing person so that a forensic identification might be possible.  It’s a huge task that is done jointly between the ICRC and the State Commission.

Overall, ICRC continues to do a lot in Azerbaijan because the ongoing conflict is still unresolved and people continue to suffer terrible consequences. Part of the reason that we manage to do so much is that the government allows us to be active and to accomplish our humanitarian mission in the country.

- How many prisoners of war were repatriated by Azerbaijan and Armenia last year?

- In 2014, acting as a neutral intermediary at the request of all parties concerned, the ICRC facilitated the hand-over of 1 Azerbaijani and 9 Armenian civilian internees across the frontline. 2 mortal remains (1 Azerbaijani and 1 Armenian) were also transferred over the Line of Contact and the international border. No prisoners of war were handed over.

The word hostage is often misused in the media and ICRC would like to take this opportunity to clarify the correct terminology. People held by the parties involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are not considered hostages under the Geneva Conventions. They are prisoners of war if they are members of the armed forces. They are civilian internees if they are civilians. The Geneva Conventions mention either prisoner of war, civilian internee, and sometimes simply captured or protected person.

- How many persons are being detained in Azerbaijan and Armenia currently?

- Today, there are two military personnel captured and held by the government of Azerbaijan. In Nagorno-Karabakh, two Azerbaijanis are captured and held by the unrecognized authorities there.

ICRC also often hears allegations of hundreds of people kept in hidden detention by both sides. Every time we hear this, we press for concrete information. And when we do, it is always information like "someone said that he knows someone...". So we have never had any indication that these allegations are correct. ICRC sees first-hand how these statements hurt the families because it makes them think that maybe it is their loved one who is alive somewhere and suffering. Sadly, most of the missing must be presumed to be dead and statements like these are very painful for the families. If any serious information is transmitted to the ICRC, we will follow it up very carefully. But so far no one has any strong allegation.

- How many persons are registered as missing by the ICRC?

- ICRC mission in Nagorno-Karabakh and delegations in Azerbaijan and Armenia register missing persons when their families approach the office looking for information about their lost relative. The ICRC's criteria for registration is not the same as that of the State Commissions it works with and therefore ICRC's number are not identical to those of the parties to the conflict. This is normal because we do not have exactly the same criteria. ICRC registered around 4,500 people from all sides.

- Since the beginning of its activities in Azerbaijan, how many persons have been released with the ICRC assistance?

- More than 700 persons from conflicting sides have been released with the assistance of ICRC mission in Nagorno-Karabakh and delegations in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

- What activities are being implemented to return Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov to Azerbaijan?

- ICRC visits them regularly to assess their conditions and treatment in detention and to keep them in contact with their family members. The decision to keep or release detainees belongs to the parties to the conflict and not to the ICRC. Only after a detaining authority has decided to release and return someone, then the ICRC steps in as a neutral intermediary of facilitate the hand over and the border or the Line of Contact. These rules defined in the Geneva Conventions, apply to all parties to the conflict.

This situation is very difficult for their families but in an international conflict, citizens of the opposite side get captured and detained. The Geneva Conventions set forth the minimum standards of treatment and protection which captured citizens of the opposite side must benefit from. The ICRC can only do what it is mandated to do under international law: visit captured people and monitor that the conditions and treatment are in line with the Geneva Conventions. For release and return, the ICRC can only act when the detaining power has decided to return the captured persons.

- Since the beginning of fights in Syria, many AZE citizens participate in fighting. Have you received any requests to clarify the fate of these persons? Do you involve in search/ finding out about their fate by any means?

- The ICRC in Azerbaijan has been approached by few family members who tried to trace their close relatives in Syria. Provided that detailed information is made available by the families with regard to Azerbaijani nationals in Syria, the ICRC Delegation in Baku can open Tracing Requests for them. Unfortunately, in these few cases the requirement of having detailed information was not met. The situation in Syria is precarious and ICRC's tracing activities are confronted with significant obstacles.

- What were the ICRC expenses in Azerbaijan for the last year? What is the Azerbaijani donation for ICRC?

- ICRC's operating budget in Azerbaijan is 8 200 000 Swiss francs (about 8 800 000 AZN). These funds are spent through our offices in Baku, Barda and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The government donates to the ICRC every year. Azerbaijan, like all states, has adhered to the Geneva Conventions and therefore has an interest to facilitate the neutral impartial work of the ICRC in times or conflict all over the world. As a member of the international community, there is solidarity with all the human beings suffering major humanitarian crises in the world today and ICRC is working in the most difficult places where others are unable to work. States are encouraged to be part of that humanitarian commitment by supporting ICRC's work. We have ongoing discussions about Azerbaijan's donations and we hope it will increase!

- V.E.Martirosyan, the head of “National Liberty Movement” who asked for asylum from Azerbaijan, in the press conference conducted on September 18 said that he appealed to the ICRC. According to him, he asked the ICRC to learn/ find out the fate of his relatives left in ARM as they had been disturbed be National Security. What was done in this relation?

- Although the ICRC did not seek to meet him, when we learned that he wished to meet with us, we did it. As usual, we do not disclose the private discussion we have with anyone.

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