President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mirjana Spolyaric Egger plans to visit Russia. She said this in an interview published on Sunday in the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
"I will go to Moscow", – said Spolyarich Egger, adding that the timing of such a trip has not yet been determined. “It is important that we talk to Russia at all levels,” the president of the humanitarian organization noted.
She explained that we are talking, in particular, about contacts on the ground. “We should be able to get security guarantees on the spot in order to send representatives to visit prisoners, and for this we need contacts on the ground,” she said.
Spolyarich Egger recalled that the organization she heads is conducting a dialogue “with all parties that they must comply with international humanitarian law.”". “This also includes access to prisoners of war and civilian prisoners,” she stressed. “All states should remember that only compliance with international humanitarian law, international agreements and the UN Charter guarantees peace and stability,” stated the head of the ICRC.
In the first half of December 2022, Spolyarich Egger visited Ukraine. During the four-day trip, she met with both officials and relatives of the prisoners.
Swiss diplomat Mirjana Spolyaric Egger was elected President of the ICRC in November 2021 and assumed this position on October 1, 2022. Previously, she worked as an Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, was the Director of the Regional Office of the United Nations Development Program for Europe and the CIS. Since 2000, she has held various positions in the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, including at the Swiss Embassy in Cairo, as well as in Bern and New York.
The ICRC, founded in 1863, works all over the world, helping people affected by conflict and armed violence, as well as spreading knowledge about the laws protecting victims of war.
