ICRC says hasn’t received request from Ukraine to seek missing persons in DPR

Donetsk, Dec 19 – DAN. The International Committee of the Red Cross only operates within its mandate which does not cover requests from political bodies, the ICRC press service told the Donetsk News Agency on Thursday.

On December 16, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko told the UNIAN news agency that after the “Normandy Four” meeting on December 9 the parties agreed to let ICRC representatives visit persons held in the Donetsk People’s Republic prisons in connection with the Donbass conflict. Ukraine asked the ICRC to take part in the search for the persons that went missing in the territory of the Donbass Republics, according to Pristaiko.

“The ICRC has not received any enquiries and will not act upon a request of any entity except the families of the persons who were detained or went missing in connection with the conflict,” the organisation’s press service said.

The Committee initiates its humanitarian activity strictly on the basis of its mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions and the Charter of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Under this mandate, the ICRC acts upon requests of the families of missing persons.

Minsk is the venue of the talks over the mechanisms of search for the missing persons. The Office of the DPR ombudswoman Darya Morozova discussed these problems with ICRC representatives in Donetsk in June 2019. The parties considered the issues of setting up a coordinating centre by the DPR, the LPR and Ukraine, creating a single database and exchanging biological material for identification.*jk

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