In South Ossetia, about 150 people are considered missing, the Commissioner for Human Rights under the President of South Ossetia David Sanakoev told IA RES in connection with the International Day of the victims of forced disappearances. According to Sanakoev, this number includes the missing since 1989 and 2008. "Since 1989, more than 140 people are considered missing, and since 2008, we know nothing on the whereabouts of seven people", he explained. Sanakoev said that currently the issue of the missing persons is under consideration of three different formats.
"We are discussing this issue in the Geneva discussions, the CoE High Commissioner for Human Rights Tomas Hammarberg is directly engaged in resolving the issue. The ICRC is also actively working on the problem”, he said. He noted that in the near future, the report of the independent experts of the Council of Europe engaged by Tomas Hammarberg to monitor the investigation on the cases of missing South Ossetians is also expected. "In addition, there are other initiatives of various international organizations to find missing persons. To date, we still know nothing about the fate of the citizens of South Ossetia reported missing. We hope that the work on this problem will help us to clarify their fate ", concluded Sanakoev. It should be noted that in 2006, the 61-th session of UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearance. It prohibits the existence of secret prisons and obliges to inform families about the fate of their detained relatives. The Convention stresses that under certain circumstances, forced disappearances could be recognized as a crime against humanity. As such, they fall and under the international criminal jurisdiction.
