UN official visiting Azerbaijan to inquire about refugees’ problems

ANS TV, Baku
25 Nov 04

[Presenter] Azerbaijan’s internally displaced persons have asked UN
High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers to mediate the settlement
of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. The UN official who is on a visit
to Baku has started his first meeting with refugees in Barda [central
Azerbaijan].

[Correspondent over a group of people and Lubbers] UN High Commissioner
for Refugees Ruud Lubbers visited the refugees in Barda’s Arab-1
refugee camp. As the guest flew to Azerbaijan via Georgia, he missed
the planned meetings, and therefore, he managed to visit only one
family. Although he said that he was visiting Azerbaijan to learn
about the living conditions of the internally displaced persons and
refugees, the high commissioner could have only brief conversations
with some refugees.

In turn, the refugees urged Lubbers and the UN to specify their
positions on the return of the occupied territories.

[An unidentified refugee] The UN Security Council has passed four
resolutions, i.e. the Armenian aggressors must liberate the occupied
Azerbaijani lands. None of these resolutions have been fulfilled.

[Correspondent] Ruud Lubbers’s meeting in the tent camp lasted only
for 10 minutes. The guest hastily left Barda for Bilasuvar. The
high commissioner’s meeting in Bilasuvar lasted for less than 10
minutes. He visited a school in a settlement where refugees from
Cabrayil are settled.

Speaking to the refugees, he said that he was in Azerbaijan to meet
and help them.

Etibar Ibrahimov, Sahin Rzayev and Aladdin Azimov for ANS.