ICRC helped contact families of prisoners

Naira Hayrumyan
25-08-2007 12:32:20 – KarabakhOpen

There are no prisoners of war in Karabakh. There are two interned
civilians persons from Azerbaijan. The State Commission of Hostages and
POWs deals with their fate, said the head of the ICRC office in
Stepanakert Jacques Burberrys in an interview with Karabakh-Open.com.

According to Jacques Burberrys, the representatives of the ICRC visit
the interns to monitor the conditions they are kept in and the
treatment of the personnel. If they observe something, they offer
recommendations to the administration, Jacques Burberrys said.
According to him, the problem the prisoners most often encounter is
contact with their families. They have such an opportunity. Some may
reject and others may use this opportunity. These persons can write a
letter on an open blank paper and provide only family information. The
head of the ICRC office to Stepanakert said both prisoners could
contact their families.

With regard to the pre-conditions for the exchange or release of
prisoners, Jacques Burberrys said the international humanitarian law
bars exchange of prisoners. As to releasing, he said they do not know
when it will happen. The release of a prisoner requires the consent of
the prisoner, the government of the country where he is kept and the
consent of the country to receive him where he wants to go. The ICRC
may participate in releasing only if these conditions are provided,
Jacques Burberrys said.
By the way, two Armenian prisoners are kept in Azerbaijan, another two
in Karabakh and one in Armenia. The head of the Karabakh office of the
ICRC says personal data of the prisoners is published in the media,
which is a violation of the right for privacy.

The ICRC founded in 1863 works in Karabakh since 1991. The Karabakh
office of the ICRC currently deals with the monitoring of prisoners,
contacts with their families, the missing people, the program of first
aid, food aid to the underprivileged, dissemination of the
international humanitarian law. In the framework of these programs in
2006 40 messages were sent and 42 were received from members of
families who were divided by the conflict. Besides, the office provided
medicine to 66 village medical stations and food aid to 350 families.

Jacques Burberrys said next year the ICRC will focus on the problem of
the missing people. As of the end of the past year, 4200 names of
missing people were included on the ICRC’s list. The ICRC will be
gathering more detailed information and create a database for
identification in case of finding remains.