TREND Information, Azerbaijan
July 28, 2006
In 2 years Azerbaijan not to need int’l humanitarian assistance to
refugees – UNWFP Exective Director
Source: Trend
Author: S.Agayeva
28.07.2006
In two years the Azerbaijani government will not need international
humanitarian assistance rendered to refugees and infernally displaced
people, James Morris, the UN World Food Program (UNWFP), told a news
conference in Baku on 28 July.
Morris said that the leadership of WFP is satisfied with the
cooperation with the Azerbaijani government. `We appreciate the fact
that the government has undertaken a commitment to remove the refugee
camps by the end of next year,’ he stressed.
Since 1994 humanization assistance has been rendered to over 500,000
refugees and internally displaced people from Azerbaijan and it was
decided to prolong the program for 2 years more. `In this period we
will render food assistance to 33,000 people of this category. It is
a long-term activities of the organization,’ he noted.
So far, the Azerbaijani government has received around $120m in
humanitarian assistance. However, the number of natural disasters
rose and the military conflict and therefore the WFP should attach
more attention to the humanitarian assistance namely in hot-points of
the Earth.
The UNWFP Executive Director expressed his hope that the cooperation
with the Azerbaijani government will bear fruits and social problems
of refugees and internally replaced people will be partially
resolved.
Addressing the news conference the Vice Premier, also the chairman of
the State Committee on Refugees and internally Displaced People, Ali
Hasanov, thanked the organization for the assistance in the
resolution of the problem, the UNWFP is the organization which has
been involved in rendering assistance to this category. He also
hailed the decision by the organization the extension of the term of
program, noting that for the time being the government was in no
condition to resolve the problem of refugees and internally displaced
people by itself.
`Until full resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the refugees and
internally displaced people will not return to their native lands, he
underlined.