Peter Maurer
Currently, each of the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict finds bodies on the territory under their control. However, it is difficult to find corpses on the line of contact, where battles were fought and mines exploded. The process of finding the remains in an interview with RBC was described by the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer.
He explained that there are ingrained practices in this work that allow the body to be removed with appropriate dignity, identified and passed on to relatives.
According to Maurer, if the exhumation work is delayed, the bodies will decompose by winter, making them difficult to identify. In addition, decomposition of carcasses can contaminate the soil.
The ICRC is currently preparing to increase its presence in Karabakh. “We will quadruple our presence. We had quite a few people there. Now we are planning to send an additional 400-500 people to the region, ”the head of the committee emphasized, adding that funding also increased from $ 11 to $ 49.4 million.
On November 21, it was reported that the bodies of 350 Armenian servicemen and three civilians were found on the territory of the unrecognized republic. The searches themselves have been conducted since November 13 by the peacekeeping mission of the Russian Federation, the ICRC and the State Emergency Service of Karabakh with the assistance of the Karabakh Ministry of Defense.
On November 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the trilateral statement on the end of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh adopted by Moscow, Baku and Yerevan in early November as uncontested. According to the document, the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides remained in the positions they occupied during the hostilities that began on September 27. Three more regions will be transferred under the control of Baku until December 1. Russian peacekeepers are stationed along the line of contact and the corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
