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BAKU: Opp leader complains to European envoy about rights situation

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  • BAKU: Opp leader complains to European envoy about rights situation

    Azeri opposition leader complains to European envoy about rights situation

    Turan news agency
    30 Jun 04


    Baku, 30 June: PACE Secretary-General Bruno Haller, who is paying an
    official visit to Azerbaijan, held a meeting today with party leaders
    represented in parliament.

    The executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, Ali
    Ahmadov, said that useful cooperation has been established between
    Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe. He noted that all parties of
    Azerbaijan are unanimous regarding the Karabakh settlement.

    Haller voiced his hope that the work [former rapporteur of the
    Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the
    Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and Secretary-General of the Council of
    Europe] Terry Davis had started will be continued and a new rapporteur
    for the Karabakh problem will submit to the Parliamentary Assembly a
    report reflecting reality.

    The leader of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party (Reformers), Ali
    Karimli, said that the public had pinned great hopes on Azerbaijan's
    admission to the Council of Europe. We expected Strasbourg to render
    assistance in solving its commitments. However, the public has been
    disappointed with the Council of Europe as most of the 14 obligations,
    which should have been fulfilled in 2002-2004, have not yet been
    kept. The problem of political prisoners should have been resolved in
    the first two years but three and a half years have elapsed and the
    problem still exists. Moreover, seven opposition leaders have been
    imprisoned. Rallies and pickets are banned in a Council of Europe
    member state. Recommendations by the Venice Commission of the Council
    of Europe on the development of election legislation have been
    ignored. No fight against corruption is being carried out and the
    implementation of the law on this issue has been postponed. Karimli
    also complained that there are no independent courts in the country.

    The Council of Europe is not taking any measures to exert pressure on
    the Azerbaijani authorities to make them fulfil its commitments.

    "We supposed that Azerbaijan would come closer to the Council of
    Europe's standards, however, this has not happened and, moreover, the
    Council of Europe is getting adapted to Azerbaijani standards,"
    Karimli said.
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