Azeri NGOs ask for international aid in releasing captured soldiers

Assa-Irada
28 Apr 05

BAKU

“In violation of international legal norms and the Geneva Convention,
the Armenian side has not taken any specific step to release the three
Azerbaijani soldiers taken hostage. The time has come to launch a
large-scale campaign in connection with the problem,” the chairman of
the national NGO Forum, Azay Quliyev, said at today’s news conference
on the problem of the three Azerbaijani soldiers taken hostage by the
Armenian army on 15 February [2005].

He said that all the efforts which Azerbaijan had taken up to now had
yielded no results and stressed that the time had come to raise the
alarm about the problem.

He went on to say that the state bodies had established that over
5,000 Azerbaijanis were taken hostage or went missing and there was
precise information and witnesses’ testimony about 800 of them.

The presidium of the national NGO Forum took a decision to appeal to
OSCE Chairman Dimitrij Rupel and send copies of the letter to Council
of Europe Secretary-General Terry Davis, head of the ICRC delegation
in Azerbaijan Mary Werntz and the presidents of the OSCE [Minsk Group]
co-chairs, the USA, France and Russia, Quliyev said.

It is said in the letter that efforts to have the Azerbaijani soldiers
released have yielded no results and that the Armenian side does not
give any explanation for keeping the hostages. It is also said that
thousands of Azerbaijani civilians and servicemen are kept hostage and
that nothing is known about their fate. The national NGO Forum, which
has over 400 member organizations, asks the international
organizations to render assistance in releasing the Azerbaijani
soldiers.