US DEPARTMENT OF STATE REACTS TO CEASEFIRE VIOLATION

Azeri Press Agency
March 6 2008
Azerbaijan

Washington. Husniyya Hasanova – APA. Spokesman of US Department of
State Tom Casey reacted to the last violation of ceasefire in the
contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces.

APA US Bureau reports, Tom Casey spokes about Washington’s regret on
this fact:" We regret that there was a violation of ceasefire along
the dividing line in Nagorno Karabakh. US Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew J. Bryza voiced
his concern about this issue to local officials in Baku as well as to
Armenian Foreign Minister through a phone call. We think it’s important
that there should be no further violations and it just points out the
need for the two parties to work together with the Minsk Group to be
able to come up with a diplomatic resolution of the situation". Tom
Casey informed about Matthew Bryza’s move form Baku to Armenia:" He
will be having meetings there tomorrow. The primary focus of that and
the intention of his visit there was first and foremost to see what
he could do to help encourage and facilitate a dialogue between the
government and the opposition there in light of some of the violence
that we’ve seen in the post-electoral period.

One of his core messages to Armenian Government that now that the
situation has calmed down, it’s very important for us to see the state
of emergency lifted there. We are also concerned about the limitations
and restrictions that have been placed on the media, including Radio
Liberty and Radio Free Europe and we’d like to see those lifted as
well. It’s much more important not only for us, but for the people
of Armenia in this period to have access to open information".