International group for POWs not to tell media about its work

Turan news agency
14 Jun 04

Baku, 14 June: A news conference of the co-chairmen of the
international working group to release POWs and hostages and to
trace missing persons in the zone of the Karabakh conflict, Svetlana
Gannushkina (Russia) and Bernhard Clasen (Germany), was held at the
Press Club today.

Gannushkina said that the issue of the international working group’s
coordinator for Azerbaijan, Avaz Hasanov, had been raised during
a meeting of the state commission for POWs, hostages and missing
persons today. The state commission pledged to continue cooperation
with Avaz Hasanov.

It became known that the persecution of Avaz Hasanov in Azerbaijan
began after the group’s visit to Karabakh in early June. He received
threats due to his alleged unpatriotic statements.

Gannushkina said the working group declares a moratorium on the
release of information to the press before the end of this year. From
now onwards, she said, the group will work without publicity.

Gannushkina also touched on the results of the group’s work in Nagornyy
Karabakh and in Armenia, namely, the verification of reports suggesting
that Azerbaijani children were being trained at kamikaze camps in
Lacin [Lachin]. She said the report was not confirmed. As for Avaz
Hasanov’s failure to go to Lacin, the Armenian side explained it by
Baku’s refusal earlier to allow an Armenian representative of the
international group to come to Baku.

Gannushkina added that 15,000 Armenian refugees were currently settled
in Lacin. She said this could be one of the reasons for the Armenian
side’s refusal to allow Avaz Hasanov to visit this district.

Gannushkina said that since the creation of the group in 1997 it
helped free some 25 Azerbaijani prisoners and return the bodies of
four Azerbaijanis to their families.