Azeris criticised on human rights

Jun 27, 2007
BBC News, UK
By Matthew Collin
BBC Caucasus correspondent

The guns are silent, but the territory's future is unresolved
Human rights body Amnesty International has criticised Azerbaijan for its treatment of thousands of people from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Many of those displaced by the fighting between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces in the 1990s face discrimination and poverty, Amnesty says in a report.

It estimates more than 600,000 Azeris remain isolated despite a ceasefire.

The energy-rich former Soviet republic has one of the world's worst problems with internally-displaced people.

More than 600,000 Azeris have not been able to return to their homes since the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994, the report says.


They remain a cause of huge concern for a relatively poor country with a population of only eight million, despite its booming oil economy.

Some still live in run-down collective housing or refugee camps, others in newly-built settlements in remote locations where work is hard to find.

Amnesty International says this has caused them to become isolated and segregated, and to suffer more from poverty and illness.

Long-term impact

Earlier this year, the UN praised the Azeri government's efforts to address some of these problems by closing some of the worst tent camps but it also said more should be done to improve living conditions.

Azerbaijan effectively lost the war with Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azeri government insists it will eventually regain control over the territory, although little progress has been made in peace negotiations in more than a decade.

The long-term impact of the conflict also continues to affect neighbouring Armenia.

Some 400,000 Armenians fled their homes during the war. Many of them still live in desperate conditions, just like their counterparts in Azerbaijan.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Refugee Day: Armenia hosts some 300,000 displaced

Jun 20, 2007
ArmeniaNow.com, Armenia
By Siranouish Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

The latest data published by the United Nations show that the number of refugees across the globe reached 10 million in 2006, growing by 14 percent on the previous year, and including more than 300,000 in Armenia. The Iraqi crisis is cited as the main reason for the increase. Since 2001, June 20 has been marked as the International Day of Refugees.

According to Head of the Department for Migration and Refugee Affairs Gagik Yeganyan, the precise figure of refugees staying in Armenia today will become clear very soon.

The UNHCR Yerevan Office jointly with the Migration Agency is currently taking a census of refugees and its findings are expected to be published within a month’s time.

About 400,000 people took refugee in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh because of the Karabakh conflict that broke out in 1988. Ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan says that a majority of refugees – some 360,000 – came to Armenia from Azerbaijan, and the other 40,000 came from other republics of the former USSR. Later, according to the ethnographer, many of the refugees abandoned Armenia because of heavy social conditions.

“In collaboration with the local authorities and the Danish Refugee Council, the [UNHCR] Office will help draft a new asylum law in accordance with international standards,” says the UNHCR Global Appeal reviewing the refugee situation in 2006.

The report also suggests that the conflict in the Middle East in 2006 saw about 600 mostly ethnic Armenians from Lebanon, Syria and Israel flee to Armenia and “250 of them have applied for asylum.”

The figure sharply differs from that of the Head of the Department for Migration and Refugee Affairs Gagik Yeganyan. He says some 1,000 citizens from the Middle East have applied for asylum in Armenia.

Housing is considered to be the biggest problem for refugees in Armenia today. According to the data of the “Ahazang” Non Governmental Organization attending to refugee problems, 4,500 refugee families are still in need of housing in Armenia today.

“Nascent national welfare structures, a tight UNHCR budget and the appreciation of the local currency against the U.S. dollar are the biggest constraints for durable solutions,” the U.N. report says.

In 2006, the United Nations allocated $1.5 million to Armenia for the needs of refugees. About the same amount of money will be allocated for the purpose this year.

The “Refugees and International Law” civil society network that embraces eight NGOs attending to refugee problems disseminated a statement yesterday, June 19, accusing Armenia’s authorities and international organizations of concealing refugee problems existing in the country.

“Don’t believe the upbeat statements that the problem of refugees has been mainly solved in Armenia. The problem of refugees does exist in Armenia and still awaits its solution,” the authors of the statement charge.

They, in particular, call regrettable what they describe as the irresponsibility of United Nations officials.

“They do everything not to deal with real problems,” the Network’s statement alleges.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

PROBLEM OF REFUGEES IN ARMENIA EXISTS AND IT MUST BE SOLVED

Jun 20, 2007
DeFacto Agency, Armenia

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day celebrated June 20 a Network of Civil Society "Refugees and International Law" has circulated a statement. The statement’s full text is provided below:

"The World Refugee Day is to be celebrated in the whole world June 20. It has been 19 years since hundreds of thousands of people were ousted from Azerbaijani SSR after atrocities, murders and pogroms committed by Azeri authorities and criminals against Soumgait’s Armenian population. Over half a million Armenians lost their families, personal and immovable property, were deprived of their right to Motherland. The losses they sustained are irreplaceable; however, today we want to draw our public’s attention to a circumstance, which is quite important in our opinion – for the last years corresponding officials did their best to prove their own nation and the whole world that the problem of refugees does not exist in Armenia, while for the same period the quantity of refugees and IDPs incomprehensibly doubled in Azerbaijan by the authorities’ efforts and currently the refugees in Azerbaijan "numbers" to a million. In both cases the targets have been "achieved" with the active participation of U. N., OSCE and some NGOs’ local officials. It should be noted that irresponsibility of U. N. officials in RA arouses regret. They do everything to avoid real problems. At the same time main responsibility for failed policy on refugees in Armenia rests with corresponding state structures.

Do not believe high-sounding statements that the problem of refugees has been mainly solved in Armenia. The problem of refugees in Armenia exists and it must be resolved".

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.