RENE VAN DER LINDEN: MISSING PERSONS IN THE AFTERMATH OF NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT REMAINS UNRESOLVED ISSUE

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug 29 2007

"Solving the issue of missing persons is a humanitarian and human
rights issue," said President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE), Rene van der Linden, "but all too often
the issue is held hostage to political conflicts," he added on the
eve of the International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August.

"The unresolved issue of missing persons continues to wreck the lives
of too many families caught up in the aftermath of recent European
conflicts dating back to Cyprus in the 1970s, the Balkans in the 1990s
and the conflicts in the Northern Caucasus and the Southern Caucasus,
including in the regions of the Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South
Ossetia," Mr.van der Linden stressed.

"The International Day of the Disappeared reminds us of the support
that families of the missing need in their quest for knowledge of the
fate of their loved ones," added Mr van der Linden. "It is the day
to remind States of their human rights and humanitarian obligations
towards the missing and members of their families."