Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
July 5 2005

Official calls on EU to resume aid to refugees

Baku, July 4, AssA-Irada

Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of the State Committee on Refugees
Ali Hasanov has called on the European Union (EU) to resume its
assistance to Azerbaijani refugees.
Hasanov said at the seminar, `Population displacement in the Southern
Caucasus’, held in Baku on Monday that the Azerbaijani government is
concerned over the fact that EU has suspended its aid to refugees and
internally displaced persons in 2001.
Hasanov regarded the suspension of assistance as an unfair step taken
under the pretext of the stalling resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict over Upper Garabagh. He termed the move as a mistake that
should be rectified.
`The government hopes that the organization will change its approach
to the issue after the seminar.’
Hasanov also said that only four major organizations of the world have
expressed their attitude towards the problem. He also voiced
disappointment with the unsettled status of the Garabagh conflict.
Chair of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
subcommittee on refugees Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold said he has looked
into the living conditions of refugees settled in five districts of
Azerbaijan. The longer the Upper Garabagh conflict remains unsettled
the more difficult it will be to return refugees home, he said.
Mangold said donor organizations have suspended financial aid to
refugees and international organizations should assist in solving the
problem.
The participants discussed joint assistance to refugees by
intergovernmental and international organizations, return of refugees’
property, as well as de-mining and fighting human trafficking.
The seminar, organized by the PACE subcommittee, jointly with the
Milli Majlis (parliament), was attended by officials and various
countries’ representatives at PACE, those of the Georgian Ministry of
Refugees and Settlement Affairs and the International Committee of the
Red Cross, as well as local and international NGO representatives.*