Human rights activists of Nagorno-Karabakh plan to go on working with former war prisoners

The NGO in Nagorno-Karabakh called "Centre of Civil Initiatives" (CCI) has made its annual report, which notes that the organization will henceforth deal with rehabilitation problems of the families of missing people, prisoners of war and former hostages.

Within the current Project of the CCI "Rehabilitation of former inmates and members of their families", 4 children from the families of former prisoners underwent computer training and received respective certificates. Albert Voskanyan, Director of the CCI, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he hoped that the certificates and obtained skills will help such people to find their niche in the society.

Earlier, the CCI organized a roundtable on the topic "Social aspects of former prisoners of war, hostages and members of their families", where participants were NGOs of Nagorno-Karabakh, media and prisoners of war themselves.

It was noted during the event that in Nagorno-Karabakh, like in any other region, which has lived through a long war, the issues of adaptation, social rehabilitation and reintegration into the society of former prisoners of war, hostages, and members of their families are still actual.

Karabakh has no official data about the number of persons who were in captivity or taken as hostages. It is marked only that in 1993-1994 some 500 persons were released from captivity or exchanged.

Under the Project the CCI held roundtables of the topics "Posttraumatic stressful disorders in former prisoners of war and hostages" and "Legal status of former prisoners of war and hostages in Nagorno-Karabakh". In December, the CCI finalized the courses of group psychological therapy with participation of family members of former prisoners of war and families of the persons who disappeared in the zone of Nagorno-Karabakh armed conflict.

Starting April 2003, the CCI has been engaged, upon the permit of the Republic's authorities, in regular monitoring of penitentiary establishments of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"However, in June 2007 the administration of the Corrective Service informed us that the top managers of the Police Service categorically refused from holding further monitoring," said Director of the CCI. "Nobody explained any particular reasons to us."

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