THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF AZERBAIJAN OBJECTS TO THE REPORT OF PACE

Source: Voenno-Promyshlennuy Kuryer ¹ 15, 19 April, 2006, p. 12

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
April 24, 2006 Monday

About The Deaths Of Servicemen And Morale In The Army Of Azerbaijan;

Speaking with the journalists, Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan
General-Colonel Safar Abiev called the information in the report,
which was read out during the spring session of Parliamentary Assembly
of Council of Europe (PACE) concerning the existence in the army of
Azerbaijan hazing and duck-out, to be preconceived and malevolent. He
supports his words with the statistics concerning these matters.

Speaking with the journalists, Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan
General-Colonel Safar Abiev called the information in the report,
which was read out during the spring session of Parliamentary
Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) concerning the existence in
the army of Azerbaijan hazing and duck-out, to be preconceived
and malevolent. The head of the military department confirmed the
mass-media that the answer to this report will be given “on the high
level”. General-Colonel also remarked that the regime of cease-fire
is more often violated now, and the Armenian side “is carrying out
an intensive gunfire of all the positions of the Armed forces of
Azerbaijan in all directions of frontlines. Recently another service
man of ours has been killed”. That’s why, as it is stated by the
General-Colonel, the number of losses is constantly growing.

Answering the question concerning the retaliatory steps of
Azerbaijan, Safar Abiev one more time repeated, “The situation
has become aggravated. The way of further development of processes
and retaliatory steps, which will be taken by Azerbaijan, will be
determined by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief”. The death of a soldier
on the “opposition line” is not a single case. According to the data
of the Center of military research of journalists “Doctrine”, during
the first three months of 2006 the Armed forces of Azerbaijan lost
minimum 20 fighting men, which were killed or injured.

The study of the publications of print and electronic mass media,
which was made by “Doctrine”, showed that as a result of accidents
(car accidents, fires and carelessness) 8 servicemen died, 2 men
committed suicide. 8 servicemen, as it was declared, “died because
of Armenian bullets”. The majority of the men died (12 people) are
soldiers. As a rule, they served in the units of the ministry of
Defense. In the first quarter of the current year due to these or
those reasons 10 servicemen of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan
were injured. Two of them suffered from fire, 4-from “Armenian
bullets”. Another 4 servicemen were injured because of explosions
of shells and bombs. It is worthwhile mentioning that in comparison
with the corresponding period of the previous year, the number of
losses has increased (in the period of January to March of 2005 16
servicemen died, 34 were injured). The experts of “Doctrine” inform,
that taking into account the data of the current year, on the whole,
the losses of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces since the beginning of 2003
has reached 169 men. Among them 84 men are battle losses (Armenian
bullets and explosions), non-battle losses are 85 servicemen. The
number of the fighting men injured in the period of three years and
three months exceeded the number of one hundred. The statistics
shows that the overwhelming majority of injures is the result of
“shots from the enemy positions” (monitoring was based also on the
single reports of the press-service of the Ministry of Defense). (…)

The changes of the reasons of losses during the last years
haven’t escaped the experts. If year after year the number of
non-constitutional relations is constantly decreasing, the dynamics
of suicides is on the same level. And the number of accidents has
a tendency to grow. Some experts think that the real statistics of
losses in the army is much higher. Though, the Ministry of Defense
doesn’t give this information. The press-center of MD declares that
the defense department keeps count of all losses of personnel, but
due to some reasons that can’t be subject to speak about. That’s why,
as it is considered in the defense department, otherwise the fighting
spirit of servicemen would be undermined.

According to the data of Judge Advocate General of the country
General-Lieutenant Khanlara Veliev, in 2005 in the army there was
a decrease of the number of crimes, connected with suicides and
attempts of suicide (almost 30%), murder( 27.3%), and rowdyism as
well (50%). But in 2006 there were registered 12.4% more crimes than
during the same period of the previous year. The entire statistics
of the military crimes was represented by the Judge Advocate General
in percents, which can be explained by a military secret. The Judge
Advocate General remarked that in 2006 the number of crimes connected
with corrupt practices and neglect of official duty doubled. There
was a considerable decrease in the number of military absentees. In
comparison with the beginning of the nineties this number 6-7 times
decreased. In 2005 only three cases of duck-out was registered, and
during the period of three months of the current year-only one case.

In the previous year crime detection reached 99.8%. As a disciplinary
measure 12 members of the military prosecutor’ office were punished
because of the “duty mistakes”, and four members were fired from the
military prosecutor’s office. (…)

Answering the questions of the journalists, the Judge Advocate
General declared that in the army of Azerbaijan there is no “hazing”
in its classical notion. Still he didn’t object to the existence of
non-constitutional relations, which are accompanied by injures. (…)

–Boundary_(ID_hwHKmdraifgtR8j2EkTVrg)–