THE ISSUE OF MISSING PERSONS IN ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN AND GEORGIA IS HUMANITARIAN, NOT POLITICAL
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[07:49 pm] 24 May, 2007
The PACE Standing Committee, meeting in Belgrade today, deplored that,
twelve years since the end of hostilities, the issue of the missing
persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia remained unsolved.
According to a report by Leo Platvoet (Netherlands, UEL), the number
of missing persons as a result of the conflicts over the regions of
Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia can be calculated at 7
538 persons.
For the Standing Committee, the issue of missing persons is a
humanitarian problem with human rights and international humanitarian
law implications. It should "not be as a political issue" and
consequently should "not be dependent on the political settlements
of the disputes in the region".
In a resolution adopted today, the Standing Committee addresses to
the three countries a number of proposals to agree consolidated lists
of the missing, establish a multilateral mechanism for co-operation
between commissions for missing persons and work together on tracing,
mapping, identification and management of human remains. It also
recalls that the families of the missing need social, material and
psychological support, and that the memory of the missing needs to
be respected.