Azerbaijani human rights activists prepare video message to performers at "Eurovision-2012"

Today, members of the public campaign "Sing for Democracy", which is held to draw attention to the problems of human rights in Azerbaijan on the eve of the song contest "Eurovision-2012", has adopted a video message to the performers of the international contest.

The appeal to the participants of the song contest "Eurovision" was prepared in the form of a three-minute video on the topic of human rights in Azerbaijan, accompanied by the written text of the message.

"Our appeal is addressed not only to the musicians, who will participate in the song contest, but also to all other foreign visitors, who are going to arrive in Baku to watch the song contest 'Eurovision-2012'," said Rasul Djafarov, the coordinator of the campaign "Sing for Democracy", the head of the Human Rights Club, at the presentation of the video during a roundtable.

Starting from April 20, the video, together with the petition on behalf of the public campaign, will be sent to the email addresses of all participants. Furthermore, it will be posted on the campaign website and on YouTube. According to Rasul Djafarov, the human rights activists also plan to disseminate the appeal in the social networks Facebook and Twitter.

The video shows photos of killed Azerbaijani journalists Elmar Guseinov (the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Monitor", who was killed in March of 2005) and Rafiq Tagi (the publicist, who was killed in November of 2011), six journalists, who are currently kept in prisons, and journalists Natiq Adilov and Khididji Ismailova.

Besides, the video shows eviction of citizens from their houses, which are being destroyed under the pretext of urban development. In particular, the video shows the demolition of the office of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, and the destruction of houses in the territory adjacent to the concert complex "Crystal Hall", which is to be constructed specifically for the song contest "Eurovision".

The video presents photos of 14 prisoners of conscience, who had been sentenced for their participation in the rallies, held last spring, and calls on to release 70 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Besides, the video shows violent dispersals of peaceful protest actions held in Baku.

The video is accompanied by the song "Sing for Democracy", which lyrics and music were written by Azer Mamedov, who is at present in forced emigration. The song calls on Europeans, who visit Azerbaijan, not only to watch the song contest, but also to look into another side of life and to pay attention to people's problems.

Emin Guseinov, another activist of the campaign "Sing for Democracy", Director of the IRFS, reported that on May 2, at its headquarters in Geneva, the European Broadcasting Union will hold a roundtable on the theme "Media Freedom in Azerbaijan". Representatives of official institutions of Azerbaijan, civil society and international human rights organizations are invited to attend the meeting. Besides, the meeting will be attended by the activists of the human rights organizations "Amnesty International" (AI), "Human Rights Watch" (HRW), "Article 19" and other organizations.