Searching for missing persons in connection with 1990s and August 2008 conflicts
Ergneti (ICRC) – A meeting seeking to find out the whereabouts of 163 missing people took place today in Ergneti.
This meeting is part of a coordination mechanism established under the auspices and technical expertise of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2010. The mechanism brings together Georgian, South Ossetian and Russian participants seeking to shed light on the fate of unaccounted people during the conflicts of the 1990s, August 2008 and their aftermath.
“The continued joint engagement showcased by the participants is key to hopefully bringing long-awaited answers about these 163 people who are still missing,” said Mr Nicolas Fleury, the ICRC operations coordinator for Europe and Central Asia, who chaired the event, representing the ICRC in its role of a neutral intermediary.
The discussions included an update on the progress made since the last meeting in February 2018 related to the search for information, the location of possible burial places and the identification process of a number of exhumed human remains. It was decided to focus on the future assessments of potential gravesites, and on the information to be still collected or processed by the coordination mechanism.
The participants agreed on practical steps to work on other potential burial places in 2019 and collect additional information in their effort to find out what happened to those still missing.
“The participants reiterated their strong commitment to support and maintain this process in its strictly humanitarian character,” added Mr Fleury. “This is critical for the process to move forward and to provide the families of these people with answers that will finally relieve them from their incertitude.”
According to the international humanitarian law, the families of those have gone missing have the right to know what happened to them.
For further information, please contact:
Maia Kardava, ICRC Tbilisi, tel.: +995 5 99 55 88 18
Marina Tedeti, ICRC Tskhinval/I, tel.: +7 929 8098765