RADA’S STORY
Eric Beauchemin

Radio Netherlands, Netherlands
Sept 22 2005

Rada Verdiants arrived in the Netherlands over a decade ago. Her
asylum requests have been repeatedly denied but she continues to
submit appeals to remain in this country.

Verdiants was one of the 300,000 to 400,000 Armenians living in the
neighbouring republic of Azerbaijan. In 1988, Armenians in Azerbaijan
started staging strikes and peaceful demonstrations to have the
disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh transferred to Armenian
control. The ethnic conflict eventually exploded into violence.

“In February 1988, the Azeris carried out a genocide in Sumgait,
a city about 30 kilometres from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. For
three days, Azeris murdered innocent Armenians.

“The situation got progressively worse and a curfew was imposed in
Baku. Groups of Azeris patrolled the streets asking everyone for
their identity cards. We were required to carry identity cards all
the time, but if it showed that you were Armenian, they’d beat you
up very badly. People weren’t only getting beaten up, they were also
getting killed. Some people refused to carry their ID cards. If they
were men, then the Azeris would force them to drop their pants. You
see Azeris are Muslim and so they are circumcised, while Armenians are
Christians and they aren’t. Whenever I think about those days in Baku,
I feel very bad.

“Some Azeri friends would take me to work in their car. Not all Azeris
were bad. But these gangs that were harassing Armenians, they had
police support. If you tried to submit a complaint to the police,
they would do nothing. The police would tell us that we had to leave
the country.

Entrance to Rada’s asylum-seekers centre

Break-in “One day, three Azeri hooligans broke into my house. They beat
me up and committed other acts of violence. I tried to call the alarm
number, but it took time for the Russian soldiers to come to save me.

They finally came, but it was a bit late. At least my life was saved.

A lot of women were raped during that time. I remember speaking to a
young girl who was raped. She was deeply shocked by what had happened
and she eventually went crazy.

“When the soldiers came, they didn’t ask me anything. They simply told
me to pick up my things and they took me to the airport. There were
a lot of other Armenians there: many had been beaten. Some had broken
hands and feet. People were shouting and crying. We were all afraid.

Trauma “I’m still traumatised by what happened. I often have
nightmares. I find it hard to concentrate. I get irritated very
quickly. Sometimes I feel like I can’t control myself, that everything
is out of control, even my life.

“I have been receiving psychiatric treatment for the past four years.

They have also prescribed medication for me. I don’t know what I
would have done without that. I was thinking all the time that I
can’t handle this situation any more. I even thought about suicide.

Asylum-seekers centre where Rada is staying

No future “I have lost over 10 years of my life here waiting to
find out whether I can stay or not. I know I can’t go back to
Azerbaijan. But I don’t have any hope of my situation here getting
any better. So I’m just sticking around. When I’m not depressed,
I go the nearby village or go for a stroll. But when I’m depressed,
I just stay in bed. It’s getting better now with the treatment, but
especially in autumn and winter, I get really depressed. Sometimes
I can’t even cook for myself.

“I don’t know what is going to happen to me. I feel like I don’t have
a future.”

Story can be listened to at