‘It’s imperative to enable ICRC to conduct its humanitarian mission on all sides’ –Armenia Ombudsman

The investigations carried out by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia since September 27 reveal that the huge number of military attacks by Azerbaijan against Artsakh and Armenia are indiscriminate and do not differentiate between military objects and civilian settlements, in many cases the attacks deliberately target the civilian population, Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said in a statement.

“Peaceful citizens are being killed or receive life threatening injuries from prohibited weaponry. As the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh regularly informs me, there are cases, when those injured are in different cities and towns of Artsakh, but due to continous violent attacks, medical personnel are not able to fully reach those places and provide necessary medical treatment. According to my colleague, in Artsakh the Azerbaijani military forces have attacked a medical emergency ambulance and a hospital. According to official data, there were also civilians in the hospital. It is regularly announced about deaths among military personnel.

Yesterday, I had emergency consultations with the relevant authorities of Armenia, and the same was done by my counterpart in Artsakh. In both cases, in Armenia and Artsakh, we received firm assurances as to the readiness to exchange the bodies and captives. The authorities made it clear that the absence of such a humanitarian opportunity is utterly impermissible. Monitoring shows that this readiness has been repeatedly expressed publicly in Arm...