OSCE mission concludes dry and hot weather caused fire in contact line

27 Mar 2007
APA

“The fires occurred along the contact line around Nagorno Karabakh and other regions from June till September of 2006. Heavy rainfalls in winter followed by dry and hot weather caused fires.

Fires caused economic-ecological damage and posed threat to people’s safety and health. Sometimes lack of corresponding equipment and practice on fire fighting did not allow local people and fire fighting services’ localizing fires. Subterranean mines and unexploded ordnances as well as length of the contact line caused difficulties,��? reads the report drawn up by the OSCE mission, coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities Bernard Snoy told the APA.

The mission’s mandate was determined on the consensus of Azerbaijan and Armenia on September 25, 2006 was approved after the letter exchange between the Foreign Minister of the two countries and OSCE Chairman-in-Office Karel de Gucht. The mission is to estimate long-term and short-term ecological consequences of fires, prepare recommendations on preventing negative results of fires and on carrying out ecological operation envisaged in the UN General Assembly’s resolution # 60/285. The UN resolution stresses the importance of carrying out extraordinary ecological operation for extinguishing fires and removing heavy consequences. The Assembly called on the relevant bodies and programs of the UN to assist OSCE in this sphere. The resolution says that OSCE Chairman-in-Office is to submit a report on this problem by April 30, 2007.

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