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Azerbaijan Crushing Dissent Repression, Violence and Azerbaijan's Elections This 61-page report documents hundreds of arbitrary arrests, widespread beatings and torture, and politically motivated job dismissals of members and supporters of the opposition following the October 15 presidential election, which was widely condemned by the international community as fraudulent. Human Rights Watch found that the complete dominance of the presidency was one of the root causes of human rights abuses in Azerbaijan. The report also contains recommendations to the Azerbaijani government and the international community. HRW Index No.: D1601 January 23, 2004 Download PDF, 625 KB, 61 pgs Purchase online Azerbaijan: Child Soldier Global Report 2001 From the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers Although military training and registration for military service under 18 are areas of concern, there are no reports of government recruiting under-18s. Recruitment and use of child soldiers (some as young as 14) by opposition forces in Nagorno-Karabakh have been reported. June 12, 2001 Azerbaijan: Landmine Monitor Report 2000 Key developments since March 1999: As of March 2000, the civilian Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action had developed a National Mine Action Plan, initiated a National Mine Database, prepared for training of deminers, and begun to purchase equipment. Training of national deminers started in March 2000 and demining operations start in July 2000. August 1, 2000 Azerbaijan Impunity for Torture Azerbaijani security forces regularly torture those in custody, and get away with it, according to a this report. The international monitoring group charged that Azerbaijan has failed to enact legal reforms and that corruption is rampant in the criminal justice system. The 57-page report, Azerbaijan describes how the Ministry of Internal Affairs often keeps detainees in a state of isolation from the outside world, including from lawyers and relatives, allowing torture to take place in virtual secrecy. In more than twenty cases investigated by Human Rights Watch, no judge ruled inadmissible confessions or testimony reported to have been gained through torture. The report found that torture and physical abuse of detainees is widespread and systematic for both those detained under suspicion of committing political offenses and those suspected of non-political crimes. HRW Index No.: D1109 August 1, 1999 Purchase online Seven Years of Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh Now the longest-running conflict in the former Soviet Union, the battle for Nagorno-Karabakh has rapidly expanded and intensified since it began in 1988, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 25,000 soldiers and civilians and the displacement of one million others. What began with demonstrations calling for the unification of the Republic of Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh, a largely Armenian region of Azerbaijan, became a full-scale war in 1992. In 1993, the war spilled into other parts of Azerbaijan as Karabakh Armenian forces, often with the support of the Republic of Armenia, conducted massive offensive military operations into the Azeri-populated provinces surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. A frail cease-fire was achieved in May 1994, but large, well-equipped armies still face each other over a deserted, ruined landscape in the Azeri lowlands around Karabakh. In December 1994, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe decided to dispatch a multinational peacekeeping force, the specifics of which have yet to be arranged. During the conflict, the armies of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, have all committed egregious violations of the rules of war. Such offenses include forced displacement, looting and burning of homes, hostage taking and holding, mistreatment and summary executions of prisoners of war, and indiscriminate use of air power against civilian targets. Focusing on 1993-1994, the report concludes that Karabakh Armenian forces with the support of the Republic of Armenia were responsible for the majority of abuses during that period. HRW Index No.: 1428 December 1, 1994 Bloodshed in the Caucasus Indiscriminate Bombing & Shelling by Azerbaijani Forces in Nagorno-karabakh Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are fighting for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory within Azerbaijan in the former Soviet Union. The Armenians are fighting for self-determination and independence from Azerbaijan; the Azerbaijanis fight for the territorial integrity of their country. The conflict has spiraled into ground assaults, shelling and air raids, with the use of heavy artillery, missile systems, bomber planes and other advanced weaponry. Both sides in the conflict are guilty of violations of the laws of war, causing thousands of civilian deaths, maimed and wounded and creating about 400,000 refugees. HRW Index No.: D510 July 1, 1993 Bloodshed in the Caucasus Escalation of the Armed Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh The four-year struggle for control over Nagorno-Karabakh has escalated in recent months to full-scale conflict, leaving in its wake hundreds of civilian casualties. Both parties to this tragic conflict have systematically violated the most basic rules of international humanitarian law. They have engaged in wide-scale hostage-taking, tortured hostages, intentionally targeted, terrorized, and committed other acts of violence against civilians, deliberately shelled civilian objects, forced the civilian population out of villages, and impeded attempts to rescue the wounded. These practices have resulted in the needless deaths of civilians, Azerbaijani and Armenian alike. Helsinki Watch calls on the Armenian Popular Liberation Army of Artsakh, the Azerbaijani National Army, the Azerbaijani militia, and all informal self-defense units to end these practices immediately and, in particular, to return all hostages. HRW Index No.: 0812 September 1, 1992
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