Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 27 2007

OSCE mission concludes dry and hot weather caused fire in contact
line

[ 27 Mar 2007 18:55 ]

`The fires occurred along the contact line around Nagorno Karabakh
and other regions from June till September of 2006. Heavy rainfalls
in winter followed by dry and hot weather caused fires.

Fires caused economic-ecological damage and posed threat to people’s
safety and health. Sometimes lack of corresponding equipment and
practice on fire fighting did not allow local people and fire
fighting services’ localizing fires. Subterranean mines and
unexploded ordnances as well as length of the contact line caused
difficulties,’ reads the report drawn up by the OSCE mission,
coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities Bernard
Snoy told the APA.
The mission’s mandate was determined on the consensus of Azerbaijan
and Armenia on September 25, 2006 was approved after the letter
exchange between the Foreign Minister of the two countries and OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Karel de Gucht. The mission is to estimate
long-term and short-term ecological consequences of fires, prepare
recommendations on preventing negative results of fires and on
carrying out ecological operation envisaged in the UN General
Assembly’s resolution # 60/285. The UN resolution stresses the
importance of carrying out extraordinary ecological operation for
extinguishing fires and removing heavy consequences. The Assembly
called on the relevant bodies and programs of the UN to assist OSCE
in this sphere. The resolution says that OSCE Chairman-in-Office is
to submit a report on this problem by April 30, 2007. /APA/