Letter to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Geneva:

webmaster@icrc.org 

Yerevan:

Lorenzo Caraffi - Head of delegation

mail: ere_erevan@icrc.org 

Baku:

Ms. Cherine Pollini - Head of Delegation

mail: bak_bakou@icrc.org

To The President of ICRC Mr. Peter Maurer
CC: Director-General Mr. Yves Daccord
BCC:  Head of the IRCR Delegation in Baku Ms Cherine  Pollini, Head of the IRCR Delegation in Yerevan Mr. Lorenzo Caraffi

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned of the faith of Armenian soldier Hakob Injighulyan, who lost his way in the midst of the night on August 8 and wrongly crossed the Nagorno-Karabakh - Azerbaijan border. The fact that private Injighulyan crossed the Line of Contact accidentally was also verified by Shahin Sailov, the Secretary of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of Azerbaijan, who said “…it was clarified that the Armenian got lost and crossed into the territory controlled by Azerbaijani armed forces.” (http://en.trend.az/news/karabakh/2178159.html).

We are shocked that the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have yet not been able to meet the Armenian serviceman in the Azerbaijani captivity within a week. The employees of the ICRC Baku Office requested the Azerbaijani government for a meeting with the captive POW but were rejected because of religious holidays. Till today, the relatives, the State, the ICRC Baku or ICRC Yerevan are not aware on the present and real condition of the captive Armenian soldier, which is a manifest violation of the Third Geneva Conventions, 1949.

Few days after the capture of Indjigulyan, several Azerbaijani news websites revealed a video of him giving "interview" to Azerbaijani ANS TV channel (www.haqqin.az/news/8462), dressed in Azeri military uniform. In this obviously decorated video appearance, private Indjigulyan’s statement, made in Armenian,  is not translated, but rendered into Azerbaijani language with flaws, in a way to create impression that the soldier crossed the border voluntarily..

The «interview» with Hakob Indjigulyan and its wide dissemination in the media and other sources is in flagrant violation of Article 13(2) of the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Treatment of the Prisoners of War, which introduced an international obligation on States to protect POWs of "public curiosity".

Noteworthy, that this unlawful technique is employed by Azerbaijan for the second time in a row with the aim of serving domestic political ends. Previously, on September 11, 2010, an Armenian shepherd Manvel Saribekyan, captured by the Azeri military, was interviewed by the same ANS TV channel several days later under psychological and physical pressure. The inadequate international humanitarian attention to the matter resulted in Saribekyan’s alleged suicide in Azeri prison cell in the night of October 5, 2010.
When the dead body of Saribekyan was transferred to the Armenian side, the examination revealed numerous traces of torture, despite the similar examination in Azerbaijan did not.

Hereby we call on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and all relevant international organisations and agencies, commissioned to serve the values of humankind, to exert pressure on the Government of Azerbaijan for allowing a meeting between Hakob Indjigulyan and ICRC Baku Office representative and a guaranteed communication with his family members, as well as ensure compliance with other relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols – to protect private Indjigulyan from physical abuse and degrading treatment, and to guarantee and ensure his safe return to Armenia.

Signature…