The Red Cross keeps in close contact with families on all sides whose relatives are detained, missing or have died, and we share their anxiety and sorrow. It is always very sad to have to bring bad news or repatriate a body, said Melany Vonrospach, an ICRC delegate in Yerevan.

In his turn, Pascale Meige Wagner, ICRC’s head of operations for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, stated that the Red Cross welcomes the declaration adopted at the latest round of talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Astrakhan in October 2010, which mentions an exchange of prisoners of war and human remains, and the assistance the ICRC could provide in this regard.

The body of an Armenian citizen who died in Baku, Azerbaijan, in October 2010, was today repatriated to Armenia under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). On the same day, the ICRC also repatriated an Azerbaijani citizen who had been interned in Armenia.

In accordance with its mandate, the ICRC visits prisoners of war and civilian internees detained in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Acting as a neutral intermediary, it also facilitates their repatriation and the repatriation of bodies, with the agreement of the parties concerned. Last April, the ICRC repatriated an Azerbaijani soldier and the remains of two Azerbaijani citizens.