HEAD OF ICRC’S YEREVAN DELEGATION: IT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PRISONER AND HIS FAMILY TO BE RECOVERED AND MAINTAINED
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Sept 27 2007
ArmInfo. It is very important for the communication between a prisoner
and his family to be recovered and maintained, Head of the Yerevan
delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross James Reynolds
told ArmInfo.
The ICRC facilitates communication between prisoners and their
families. This is done through Red Cross Messages – short letters
that contain family news only, and that are written on a special
pre-printed form. They are offered to the detaining authority for
censorship and our staff check them as well, removing any ‘political’
comments or comments regarding the conditions of detention. Finally,
the ICRC delivers the Red Cross Message to the addressee, i.e. the
prisoner or his family. In short, it is not possible that such a
letter emanated from the ICRC.
Asked about the periodical publications of the Armenian war prisoners’
letters in the Azerbaijani press, in particular, the letter of a
soldier Ambartsum Asaturyan, which contains political assessments
of Armenia’s authorities, J. Reynolds said: "Concerning the letter,
you are talking about, there is no probability that it was published
under assistance of ICRC". At the same time, he said that the Red
Cross’s messages are sometimes published. "So, the main concern is
for a letter’s content to be correct", he added. James Reynolds also
recalled that the Geneva Conventions require that prisoners of war
and civilian internees be protected from ‘public curiosity’, so I
will not comment on the individual cases to which you refer.