Geneva (ICRC) - On Saturday 23 December,
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began, after a slight
delay due to a technical problem of the airplane, repatriating some 700
Eritrean and Ethiopian prisoners of war, starting with the sick and seriously
wounded. The operation, which will continue over the coming weekend, involves
an ICRC-chartered transport aircraft making several trips between the two
capitals, Addis Ababa and Asmara. Ahead of each flight, ICRC delegates
hold private interviews with the POWs to check that they are all returning
voluntarily.
The releases come as a result of the
peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea signed in Algiers on 12 December
and are in line with the Geneva Conventions, which stipulate that prisoners
of war must be repatriated at the end of active hostilities. Article 2
of the Algiers agreement entrusts the ICRC, in its capacity as a neutral
and independent intermediary, with the task of organizing the repatriations.
An ICRC medical team will be present on each flight to provide treatment for the sick and wounded if required.
To date the ICRC has visited some 2,600 Eritrean POWs in Ethiopia and about 1,000 Ethiopian POWs in Eritrea.