Bilik Dunyasi news agency, Baku, in Russian
11 Mar 04

Over 1m dollars amassed in Azeri help-the-army fund

BAKU

The amount of funds amassed so far in the help-the-army fund of the
Azerbaijani armed forces totals 6.72bn manats [1.37m dollars]. A total
of 14,000 dollars have been transferred into the fund in foreign
currency, the press service of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry has
told Bilik Dunyasi news agency.

The ministry spokesman, Ramiz Malikov, said that these donations
would not be spent on Azerbaijani officer Sr Lt Ramil Safarov who is
being charged with killing an Armenian officer in Budapest.

“The Azerbaijani president and commander-in-chief, Ilham Aliyev,
keeps the fund’s spending under his personal control,” Col Malikov
said.