Interfax, Russia
February 26, 2009 Thursday 5:40 PM MSK
N.-Karabakh: OSCE team halts monitoring after Azeri fire
STEPANAKERT Feb 26
A team of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was
forced on Thursday to cut short a regular monitoring mission along the
separation line between Azeri and Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces
because of alleged fire toward the inspectors from the Azeri side, the
Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry said.
"At the very start of the monitoring session, there was the sound of
an individual shot fired from the Azeri side toward the coordinator of
the OSCE office, a field assistant to a personal representative of the
OSCE chairman, and officials of the Foreign Ministry and Defense
Ministry of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh who were conducting a
monitoring mission on the positions of the Defense Army of the
Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh," the ministry told Interfax.
After this came "a burst of assault rifle fire from the Azeri side,"
the ministry said. The bullets "passed to the left of the monitoring
team, after which one more shot was fired toward the mission."
Andrzej Kasprzyk, a personal representative of the OSCE chairman-
in-office who was coordinating the mission from Azeri territory,
ordered the inspection to be ended, the ministry said.
The site of the monitoring was the vicinity of Horadiz, a village in
Fizuli district.
February 26, 2009 Thursday 6:05 PM MSK
N.-Karabakh: OSCE team halts monitoring after Azeri fire (Part 2)
STEPANAKERT Feb 26
A team of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was
forced on Thursday to cut short a regular monitoring mission along the
separation line between Azeri and Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces
because of alleged fire toward the inspectors from the Azeri side, the
Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry said.
"At the very start of the monitoring session, there was the sound of
an individual shot fired from the Azeri side toward the coordinator of
the OSCE office, a field assistant to a personal representative of the
OSCE chairman, and officials of the Foreign Ministry and Defense
Ministry of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh who were conducting a
monitoring mission on the positions of the Defense Army of the
Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh," the ministry told Interfax.
After this came "a burst of assault rifle fire from the Azeri side,"
the ministry said. The bullets "passed to the left of the monitoring
team, after which one more shot was fired toward the mission."
Andrzej Kasprzyk, a personal representative of the OSCE chairman-
in-office who was coordinating the mission from Azeri territory,
ordered the inspection to be ended, the ministry said.
The site of the monitoring was the vicinity of Horadiz, a village in
Fizuli district.
The Azeri Defense Ministry confirmed there had been outbreaks of fire
during the mission but claimed they had come from the Nagorno-
Karabakh side and said Kasprzyk had ordered an investigation into the
incident.
"There was the sound of two individual shots [from the Nagorno-
Karabakh side] that developed into a burst of fire," the ministry said
in a press release. "Later on, there was the sound of one more
shot. No more assault rifle fire was heard after that."
Kasprzyk ordered the mission to be halted and the incident to be
investigated, the release said.