Interview ofAvez Hassanov, chief of the Azerbaijani representative office of the Int work group on captives, missing people and war prisoners.
Q: The structure you previously represented was active and its leader Bernard Clausen paid frequent visits to the region. But we haven’t heard of its activity for ages. How can you explain it?
A: Unfortunately, the work group suspended its activity in this sphere in Azerbaijan and Armenia. It is possible to say that we can only observe now. Also we have the results of observations of people who have previously cooperated with us in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. But we have no serious programs of activity. The problem is that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan cooperate in this sphere at all.
Q: Why did your structure suspend activity?
A: We are an international organization and our business can not advance if parties are not interested. When we present reports to the Azerbaijani or Armenian sides, we should see cooperation. But we haven’t seen it recently. Therefore, we were obliged to suspend the activity as the unilateral information of the parties is impossible and both parties should be interested. Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides had definite claims and misunderstanding towards people who returned from captivity who were sentenced to over 14 years in prison. We had some claims about it. The sides did not take it into account; therefore, we were obliged to reduce our activity in the region to minimum. Our structure is preserved, there are employees, there is a basis that is equipped not worse that the basis of the International Committee of the Red Cross but no serious work is held.
Q: Do you take any practical measures to resume cooperation and continue this work?
A: We are constantly appealing to the government stating our readiness to resume our activity in full anytime. Only the International Committee of the Red Cross is dealing with this activity along with us. But it is not so open for public as our structure. We were acting as the International work group which also combined most famous human rights activists. Considering this, we again suggest the governments of the two countries viewing this issue of reanimating the activity of the work group if they are interested. Our last action was a meeting with participation of the leaders of Azerbaijani and Armenian state commissions on captives, missing people and war prisoners in Tbilisi. The leaders of the commissions signed a document envisioning cooperation in search of captives. But the activity did not go far and no work has been held within the framework of this document. But we have many possibilities for cooperation and we wanted to inform the governments of the two countries about it.
Q: What, do you think, is the reason of the absence of interest of the states in taking actions in this sphere?
A: I think there is a dependence on the negotiation process on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. The negotiations have recently intensified but they are held in narrow frames. I think the sides wanted to avoid mutual accusations and reproaches on issues of captives, missing people and hostages in order not to complicate the negotiation process.
Q: How many captives are held in Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to your estimates?
A: We rely on the information presented by the State Commission on captives, missing people and war prisoners. By this information, Armenian side holds 783 Azerbaijani citizens. On the whole, Azerbaijani side has about 4,000 missing persons, by official statistics. We conducted searches relying on this information. Meanwhile, Armenia says Azerbaijan holds up to 300 Armenian citizens.
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