The 13th meeting of the Coordination Mechanism, chaired by the International Committee of the Red Cross, was held in Istanbul, which aims to determine the fate and location of missing people during the 1992-1993 conflict in Abkhazia.

According to the Committee, the Georgian and Abkhazian participants of the mechanism assembled in Istanbul to discuss the search, exhumation and identification issues.

The plans for 2019 were also discussed at the meeting.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, after the creation of the mechanism (2010), significant steps were taken to inform families about missing relatives and the search for the remains – a total of 431 remains were found, of which 163 have been identified and handed over to families.

The meeting participants agreed to speed up the process.

“2,200 people are still missing, it is necessary to speed up the work. As part of the plans, participants agreed that this year they will study more than 30 alleged burials and will strengthen joint efforts to identify unidentified remains”, – Lina Milner, coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross stated.