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  • Refugee aid breeds resentment in Azerbaijan

    Agence France Presse -- English
    April 16, 2005 Saturday 3:03 AM GMT

    Refugee aid breeds resentment in Azerbaijan

    by Simon Ostrovsky

    KURDAMIR, Azerbaijan April 16


    Already too dark indoors, a few old men sat outside a ramshackle
    teahouse to catch the last rays of the afternoon sun as they played
    dominoes in this dusty town in central Azerbaijan.

    "There hasn't been any electricity in the whole neighborhood for
    seven hours," complained one, "nowhere except there," he added,
    gesturing at a rickety apartment block inhabited by refugees from the
    Nagorny-Karabakh war.

    Hundreds of thousands of Azeri refugees from a conflict that erupted
    in last days of the Soviet Union still live in destitute housing and
    camps scattered around the republic.

    But the regular aid that they receive both from the government and
    foreign aid agencies has stoked resentment in the poor communities to
    which they have been resettled.

    "They get a lot of help and we get nothing," said 75-year-old Gara,
    who said his 24 US dollars a month pension was only enough to cover
    energy and water costs, but left little for food.

    A regular supply of free electricity is just one of the benefits that
    ordinary residents in Kurdamir wish they could share.

    In an area where jobs are scarce and pensions low, they say the food
    aid refugees receive, as well as tax benefits and a clean water
    supply mean life is easier for those who fled their homes more than a
    decade ago.

    Azerbaijan will spend 60 million US dollars on aid to refugees this
    year and foreign aid groups are expected to pitch in an additional 30
    million US dollars according to the government.

    And though billions of US dollars have been invested into the Caspian
    nation as a BP-led consortium prepares to launch a massive pipeline
    to deliver oil from here to Western markets, nearly half of the
    country lives below the poverty line.

    Azerbaijan and its rival Armenia fought a bloody war for Karabakh, a
    predominantly Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan's internationally
    recognized borders until a ceasefire was signed in 1994.

    Pro-Armenian forces won control of Karabakh and seven surrounding
    regions at the cost of about 25,000 dead from both sides. About a
    million people on both sides, 750,000 of them Azeris, were driven
    from their homes.

    And though conditions in the camps remain poor, aid groups have begun
    to indicate that in poverty-stricken Azerbaijan, there is more
    suffering outside the camps than inside.

    More than 90 percent of refugees consume acceptable amounts of food,
    but according to a recent study by the World Food Program (WFP) up to
    600,000 ordinary people in rural areas are "food insecure" causing
    malnutrition mainly among children.

    "It is an issue which needs to be addressed. Twenty four percent of
    children in some areas are stunted and suffer from malnutrition,"
    said Rahman Chowdhury, WFP director in Azerbaijan.

    Meanwhile the aid refugees receive, which is sometimes in excess of
    their needs, is sold on to local residents, according to a Peace
    Corps volunteer who works with refugee and local children in
    Kurdamir.

    As she sat by candlelight because of a power cut, Lisa Min said there
    was "less resentment than you would expect," between the two
    communities, but goods like vegetable oil given to refugees in large
    quantities often find their way onto the market.

    Instead of taking steps to integrate refugees into communities and
    invest money into developing towns, Azerbaijan's government has done
    everything to make sure refugees stay in camps, against the advice of
    aid agencies.

    "We want them to live in concentration so that when the occupied
    territories are liberated it will be easier to move them back in,"
    Azerbaijan's Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov told AFP.

    The high level of government support that they receive is designed to
    create incentives for the refugees to stay put, Hasanov said, but it
    has also given grounds for jealousy from their impoverished
    neighbors.

    With Armenia and Azerbaijan no closer to reaching a lasting
    settlement than they were when the tense ceasefire was reached,
    humanitarian organizations have pushed the government to look at
    other options.

    According to the WFP's Chowdhury, "living in the camps is not ideal,
    not for a long time, they do not have opportunities to work outside
    and this causes grievances and tensions," with the local communities.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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