Kevin Sullivan: In terms of the scale of the missing persons issue in Ukraine, this will be a very significant and challenging legacy of the war

Kevin Sullivan — the author of the book «A Country of Missing People» and a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons team in The Hague, speaks about Ukraine and the consequences of war due to conversation with the host Andriy Kulykov for Ukraine Calling, the English-language podcast from Hromadske Radio in Kyiv.

He also tells us more about the book.

«The title is a quotation. One of the people who was describing the situation in the south of the country told a reporter that when the territory is returned to Ukraine, it will be found to be a country of missing people. This followed documentary evidence of abductions, kidnapping and unlawful arrests of citizens. In terms of the scale of the missing persons issue in Ukraine, the evidence suggests that this will be a very significant and challenging legacy of the conflict (the war — ed.)».

Mr. Sullivan adds that there are things that can be done to address the problem:

«However, I would add to this the fact that there now exist ways of addressing such a major problem. We can look around the world, and we see countries like Vietnam, which are still struggling with a legacy of possibly millions of missing persons. Iraq too has between 250,000 and 1 million missing persons, and even countries that are not at war, like Colombia and Mexico, have tens of thousands of missing persons cases. There are other countries that are addressing the issue on this scale. It’s important to emphasize that the scale in Ukraine is very large and very serious. It’s equally important to emphasize that there are things that can be done to address this problem».

You may also read and listen to the full conversation: «A Country of Missing People»: The Book of Numbers and Fates