Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 19 2004

PACE Monitoring Group In Baku

Members of the `Ago’ monitoring group of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) arrived in Baku from Yerevan on
Thursday as part of their tour of the South Caucasus region.

The goal of the visit is to monitor the fulfillment of Azerbaijan’s
commitments to PACE, in particular, freedom of speech and human
rights, the Foreign Ministry said.

During the three-visit the discussions will cover a peace settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict as well.
The PACE delegation is scheduled to meet with President Ilham Aliyev,
government officials, leaders of opposition parties, representatives
of non-governmental and international organizations in the country.

The group members are also expected to visit penitentiaries and meet
with the convicted opposition representatives.

The monitoring group led by the German ambassador to the CE Roland
Vegener includes ambassadors of other CE member states, who oversee
certain commitments of Azerbaijan to the organization.

The `Ago’ group members will then leave Baku for Tbilisi, prepare and
submit at the next PACE session a report on results of the visit to
South Caucasus.

The `Ago’ group was established in January 2001 and is chaired by
Italy’s Ambassador Pietro Ercole Ago.