INTERNATIONAL WORKING GROUP DISBANDED

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
15-03-2004

>From now on together with the state committee the Center of Civil
Undertakings will deal with the search for missing soldiers and
hostages, as well as work with their families in Karabakh. In the
current year the center organized computer courses for the children of
the missing soldiers and former hostages. The Karabakh
non-governmental organization Center of Civil Undertakings conducts
monitoring of prisons of the republic. According to the director of
the center Albert Voskanian, certain novelties were introduced in this
sphere of the republic. For example, according to the international
standards the wooden blinds of the windows of the dormitories of the
Department of Administration of Criminal Punishment (the former prison
of Shoushi) attached to the NKR Police were dismantled since February
1 of the current year. In autumn of 2003 the parliament of Karabakh
adopted the law about elimination of the capital punishment.
According to the DACP staff, at the beginning of the current year the
sentence of the last of the 15 convicts sentenced to capital
punishment was changed by 15 years imprisonment. According to
A. Voskanian, the Center of Civil Undertakings continues to support
the undertaking of passing the NKR prisons from the Police under the
authority of the Ministry of Justice.

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN.
15-03-2004