Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. К.Zarbaliyeva / The Azerbaijani State Commission on Captured and Missing Persons accuses the Red Cross of double standards in the policy towards captured and missing people.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did not allow the parents of a captured soldier of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Samir Mammadov, to write in their letter 'return home we miss you very much', Shahin Sailov, Secretary General of the State Commission, said.
Samir Mammadov passed his military service in a Military Unit in the district of Gazakh of Azerbaijan bordering with Armenia. He was captured by Armenians at a distance of 15 km from his Military Unit where the Gazakh District of Azerbaijan borders with the Ijevan District of Armenia on December 23, 2006. He was not armed. Up to now, the Azerbaijani soldier has been kept in Yerevan.
ICRC considers that such actions towards him may negatively affect Mammadov and he may decide not to return to his country. "We permit relatives of Armenians who are taken prisoner by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces to write everything they want. ICRC implements a double policy, Sailov said.
Statements that Mammadov refuses to return back to Azerbaijan are false made by Armenians.
Letters sent to the relatives were not written by Mammadov himself. His refusal to return back to the country was stated in a letter written by Mammadov. The letter is written in an alphabet which Mammadov does not know, Sailov said.
ICRC's representative also considers the information that Mammadov was murdered ungrounded.