Baku (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani authorities are redoubling their efforts to collect data on people still missing in connection with the Nagorny-Karabakh conflict.
"A new phase has been launched in a nationwide endeavour initiated by the ICRC in 2008 to help the authorities fulfil their obligation to obtain information on people who remain unaccounted for," said Toon Vandenhove , head of the ICRC delegation in Azerbaijan. "The families have a right to know what happened to their loved ones."
Thirty-eight Azerbaijani Red Crescent volunteers who attended a training workshop in Baku from 1 to 11 December are expected to play a major role in the collection of data. In 35 towns and districts they are already visiting the families of missing persons to discuss with those who are willing to do so the circumstances in which their relatives disappeared and the physical characteristics of those who went missing.
Over 2,000 detailed questionnaires have already been collected in 21 Azerbaijani towns and districts. The information obtained will soon be handed over to a government agency that centralizes all such data to facilitate future clarifications of the fate of the missing persons.
For further information, please contact:
Gulnaz Guliyeva, ICRC Baku, tel: +994 12 465 63 34 or +994 12 465 64 52