On a meeting of representatives of the Coordination Mechanism on search for missing persons: more than 30 possible burial sites will be investigated this year

The 13th meeting of representatives of the Coordination Mechanism on search for missing people in the War of Abkhazia was held in Istanbul.

Sukhum. April 16. Apsnypress. Under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Istanbul hosted the 13th meeting of representatives of the Coordination Mechanism on search for missing people in the War of Abkhazia and subsequent events.
 
 The Abkhaz and Georgian participants of the meeting discussed issues related to the process of search, extraction and identification of the remains within the framework of the Mechanism. As well, issues of the development of situation since the last meeting in December 2018, including in terms of strengthening the capacity of local structures, which is designed to ensure stability and continuity of work on finding missing persons and meeting the needs of their relatives. In addition, the meeting also discussed plans for 2019.
 
 Since the creation of the Mechanism in 2010, it has been possible to achieve significant progress in realizing the right of relatives to know about the fate of their missing relatives and ensuring decent treatment of their remains. During this time, the remains of 431 people were recovered. Ownership of 163 sets of remains was established, and they were handed over to families.
 
 However, during the discussion, participants agreed that much remains to be done to speed up the process.
 
 At the same time, the ICRC program coordinator for missing persons and their families, Lina Milner said: “Given that over 2,200 people are still missing after more than 20 years after the conflict, it was decided to accelerate the pace of work . Planning further actions, the participants agreed to investigate more than 30 possible burial sites this year and join forces to speed up the process of identifying the remains that have already been recovered, but have not yet been identified. ”