Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend K.Ramazanova / Azerbaijanis with a mental disease should be released from the captivity, said the Council of Europe's Rapporteur for Missing People in South Caucasus countries, Leo Platvoet, in his interview with Trend.
"Generally spoken, people with a mental disease should not be in prison but in a special hospital," he said.
Two Azerbaijanis with mental diseases are in Armenian captivity: Anar Aliyev, who was taken prisoner at the beginning of August and Ashraf Jafarov, who was taken prisoner at the beginning of July. Both prisoners are civil citizens.
"If Armenia and Azerbaijan will both participate in the European structures and NATO, then they should stop taking each other soliders to prison," Platvoet stressed.
Five people are in captivity in both countries. The Azerbaijani captive in Armenia is a soldier of the National Army of Azerbaijan, Samir Mammadov (taken prisoner in December 2006). The Armenian captives kept in Azerbaijan are Armenian soldiers, Ambartsum Asaturyan (taken prisoner at the beginning of August) and civil citizen Valerie Suleymanyan (taken prisoner in May).
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories have been under the occupation of Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.