The Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for Missing People in South Caucasus, Leo Platvoet, informed Trend that the report regarding missing people in Azerbaijan will be confirmed at the next session of the PACE in April 2007, commenting the meeting of the PACE Ad Hoc Committee for Migrants and Refugees held in Paris on December 13, where the report of the Netherlands MP was discussed.
The report says that the missing people in South Caucasus are linked with the territorial conflicts.
Platvoet has mentioned in his report that the Armenian Troops have been placed in Nagorno-Karabakh and its occupied surrounding regions. The local population have evicted from their native lands. The Armenians created their government there. The document says that nearly 5,000 citizens of Azerbaijan and 900 of Armenia became missing people.
Platvoet positively assessed the discussions on December 13. He said that the report will not be discussed in January because the report has been given to the governments of the affected countries and NGOs and they may make their amendments. He said that the report will be returned to the meeting of the PACE Monitoring Committee, which will take place at the end of January in Strasburg and will be confirmed.
Platvoet considers that during the discussions on Nagorno-Karabakh it is very important that the commissions for missing people of Azerbaijan and Armenia are involved in the co-operation.
The commissions have good opportunities and may concentrate their activities in a humanitarian manner and work with the International Committee of the Red Cross to collect necessary information regarding missing people, he said.
In addition, the Rapporteur said that he does not intend to visit the region till the April session because it is not necessary.