Azerbaijani ambassador: Effective work to identify mass grave sites impossible without demining

Azerbaijani Ambassador to the Netherlands Rahman Mustafayev met with members of the Board of Directors of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in The Hague yesterday, Report informs referring to the Azerbaijani embassy in the Netherlands.

During the meeting, the ambassador informed the interlocutors in detail about the post-conflict situation in the region, Azerbaijan's efforts to normalize relations with Armenia, to revive the cities and villages of the Karabakh region liberated from the Armenian occupation, and to clear the liberated territories from mines.

Referring to the recently completed visit of the ICMP assessment mission to Azerbaijan, the ambassador stressed that the families of almost 4,000 missing Azerbaijani citizens are waiting for justice, and that effective work to identify the mass graves of the missing in Azerbaijan is impossible without demining the liberated territories.

"We are holding our meeting on the eve of the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, during which about 8,000 Bosnian civilians were killed," the Azerbaijani diplomat said, adding that the number of Azerbaijani citizens missing during the conflict is almost half the number of victims of the massacre in Srebrenica, however, international attention to this problem, which is very sensitive for the Azerbaijani society, is clearly not enough.

According to him, more active support of the EU and international organizations is needed for Azerbaijan's mine clearance efforts and search for missing persons.

At the same time, he expressed his gratitude to the ICMP Council members and Director General Kathryne Bomberger for supporting Azerbaijan's efforts in solving this humanitarian problem.

For their part, the members of the Board of Directors of the International Commission on Missing Persons expressed their gratitude to the Azerbaijani government for the excellent organization of the visit of the assessment mission to Azerbaijan.