The twentieth meeting of the Coordination Mechanism to clarify the fate and whereabouts of persons missing in connection with the 1990s and August 2008 armed conflicts took place on Friday, 27 September 2024, in Ergnet. This was reported by the press service of the ICRC mission in South Ossetia.
The Coordination Mechanism, which unites the Georgian, South Ossetian and Russian participants, was established with the assistance and technical support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2010, as an exclusively humanitarian platform.
In addition to reviewing the progress made since the previous meeting of the Coordination Mechanism in March 2024, the discussions underlined the need to continue the efforts to establish what happened to the 118 persons who remain missing in connection with the armed conflict.
"The humanitarian dialogue between the participants, with the assistance of the Coordination Mechanism, is critically important for responding to the families of the missing living in suffering," Agnes Cotou, the ICRC Representative for Missing Persons in the Caucasus, said, who chairs the meeting of the Mechanism.
“In addition to the dialogue, in line with the work priorities we set out at the twentieth meeting, it is essential to achieve greater involvement of the different participants involved in the search and identification process, and to provide more effective and sustainable support to the families of the missing persons,” she has added.
In accordance with international humanitarian law, the families of missing persons have the right to know what happened to their loved ones.
Reliable information about the missing persons is necessary to clarify their fate and whereabouts.
For further information, please contact: Marina Tedety, the ICRC Tskhinval, tel: +7 929 809 87 65
