16:12, 16 June 2004

NGO activist receives threats from unknown people

Avaz Hasanov, Azerbaijan's coordinator of the International Working Group to search for missing persons, hostages and prisoners of war, was subjected to insults by a group of unknowns on June 11. Hasanov said to the Turan agency that five young persons came to the office of the Organization for Public Humanitarian Researches led by him and demanded that he should not visit Nagorny Karabakh and Armenia. "Otherwise, they threatened me with death", he added. The "patriots" said that Hasanov should not go to Karabakh through Armenian territory. They believe that Karabakh must be accessed directly from Azerbaijan. Besides, they demanded that he should provide a report on his work in Karabakh and Armenia.

According to Hasanov, he has regularly received phone calls with threats upon his return from Karabakh.

It should be reminded that Azerbaijan media and several public organizations attacked Avaz Hasanov because he intended to continue searching for hostages and prisoners in spite of Ilkham Aliyev's instructions to stop contacts with Armenia.

Source: Emil Adelkhanov