Azerbaijan human rights activist inform of new wave of persecution

Below is the text of a statement by Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy Leila Yunus:

The regular campaigns of persecution of independent human rights activists in Azerbaijan implemented by the representatives of authorities and NGOs and Mass Media close to them have became a rule. Probably some of you remember the attacks of "grief of patriots" organized by the authorities on the offices of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan and the Institute of Peace and Democracy in the spring of 2003. The raiders did not limit themselves to smashing windows and doors. Relatives of the human rights activists, in particular 85-year-old Isa Tairov, the father of Zaliha Tairova (who is one of the chairpersons of the Human Rights Center, head of the Azeri department of Amnesty International, and the wife of Eldar Zeynalov, director of the Human Rights Center), were also exposed to the attacks.

The start of the next campaign of persecution was given by the submission of the list of 11 political prisoners by Mr Malcolm Bruce, the reporter of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the problem of political prisoners, to the Pardon Commission on 11 May 2004. If last year the human rights activists supporting popular diplomacy as one of the ways of peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict were accused of betraying interests of the Motherland, then this year the pro-governmental Mass Media and NGOs stated that we included terrorists and separatists in the lists of political prisoners. Newspapers began to publish the photo of Eldar Zeynalov against the background of exploded subway carriages pointing out that he protected terrorists who blew up hundreds of civilians. The ATV TV Channel broadcast in the evening news the shots of the last year's pogrom of the office of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan with threats to repeat it.

It could have been possible not to focus on these details of the next persecution campaign if it had not had tragic consequences. The heart of 86-year-old Isa Tairov, the father of Zaliha Tairova and the father-in-law of Eldar Zeynalov, was not able to stand the threats to repeat the last year's pogrom heard from the TV, and the old man died from a heart attack the same night of May 16. Last year, Isa Tairov sustained even the physical attack on him, however the threat of repetition took his life.

Seminars are regularly held for journalists to teach them professionalism and ethics, and constant calls for national consensus and reconciliation are made here. However society remains divided into "ours" and "enemies" with whom uncompromising struggle is led.

I am often asked whether the authorities make pressure on us and what kind of difficulties we face in our work. The most difficult is to see the pain of our close people (particularly parents and children) whom we are unable to protect.

Editors note: See also the article "Azerbaijan rights activist: political prisoners' evidence tortured out, untrustworthy".