Associated Press Worldstream
December 15, 2004 Wednesday

U.N. food program to halt food aid for Azeri refugees displaced by
war with Armenia

AIDA SULTANOVA; Associated Press Writer

BAKU, Azerbaijan

The World Food Program said Wednesday that it will halt food aid to
nearly 140,000 Azeri refugees displaced by the 1990s conflict with
Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave by January if the
U.N. agency does not receive more assistance.

WFP country director Rahman Chowdhury said the agency had halved
rations for refugees last month in an effort to stretch food stocks.
The WFP faces a US$10 million ([euro]7.5 million) shortfall this
year, he said, in part due to higher retail prices and rising
gasoline and natural gas prices.

He said only the food aid for 5,300 primary children would continue,
though on a limited basis.

“Most of the displaced are so poor they don’t have the means to buy
food,” Chowdhury said in a statement. “It’s a dreadful situation,
especially in the winter.”

Refugee rights activists said the decision was horrible. Vugar
Gadirov, who heads an Azeri organization looking after the needs of
refugees, said the WFP decision would be a “humanitarian
catastrophe.”

“Ending the aid is a harsh blow for these people, many of whom live
in the very worst conditions in tent camps, camps that don’t have any
amenities for living,” Gadirov said.

Government officials declined to comment on the WFP decision.

Most of the displaced live in western regions of Azerbaijan, not far
from Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which ethnic Armenian forces seized
after several years of war in the early 1990s.

A cease-fire was signed in 1994, after 30,000 people were killed and
about 1 million were left homeless.

No agreement has been reached on the territory’s final status, and
the two countries have tense relations.