AZERBAIJANI NGO DEMANDS PUBLIC TRIBUNAL ON KHOJALI

TREND Information
23.09.08 13:29
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 23 September / Trend News corr. N.Abdullayeva /
The Refugees and IDP (internally displaced persons) Rights Protection
Centre of Azerbaijan demands the public tribunal on Khojali.

"We should achieve a tribunal on Khojali," Tatyana Chaladze,
the chairman of the Refugees and IDP Rights Protection Centre of
Azerbaijan, said at a news conference on 22 September.

Bloody tragedy was committed in Khojali, a city of Nagorno-Karabakh,
Azerbaijan, on 26 February 1992 by the Armenian Armed Forces. As a
result, 613 unarmed Azerbaijani citizens, including 106 women and 83
children, were brutally killed, 487 people, including 76 juveniles
were physically disabled and 1,275 people were taken prisoner. Despite
release of most of the prisoners of war, the fate of 150 people is
still unknown.

The Centre developed a project on Independent Public Tribunal
on Khojali to hold juridical procedure on responsible people for
realization of the Khojali tragedy and to shoot a documental film on
results of the tribunal.

A list of the accused people at the juridical procedure, which is
scheduled for 26 February, will include names of Armenian President
Serzh Sargisyan, Armenian ex-presidents Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Robert
Kocharyan, ex-president of the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Arkadi Gukasyan and other persons, who have ingenuous relations to mass
annihilation of civil residents of Khojali city. Official notification
will be sent to the people mentioned in the list on holding the
Independent Public Tribunal on Khojali. Invitations will be sent to
them to participate or send their authorized representatives, who
will protect their interest in the legal hearings with this purpose,
Chaladze said.

About 12 juridical specialists of different countries, who will assess
the procedure, will be invited to the juridical meeting.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the United States) are currently holding
fruitless peaceful negotiations.
From: Baghdasarian