Human rights advocates disprove kamikaze children report

Below is a press release of the International Working Group for the Search of Missing People and Hostages and Release of Prisoners in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Area (Arbeitsgruppe zur Freilassung von Gefangenen und Geiseln und Suche von Vermissten des Karabach-Konfliktes).

"Mirror newspaper based in Azerbaijan published an article by Lala Nuri, a journalist, on May 20, 2004. The article titled Lachin: a 'Buchenwald' for Azeri Children emerged after Paata Zakareishvili, a co-chair of the International Working Group, had called a myth the report of two renegades from Armenia, Roman Tarian and Arthur Apresian, who maintained that Azeri children in Armenian captivity were trained as kamikaze.

The article said a certain businessman, Asaf Alimardanov, had called the editorial office of the newspaper and said that he had worked with 'an American engineer, Terry Cagle, who met Azeri children kept by Armenians during his visit to occupied Lachin in the 1990s.' As requested by Mirror newspaper, Mr. Alimardanov contacted Mr. Cagle once again and, as the journalist said, obtained information that was more detained and confirmed the fact that Azeri children were kept in a special camp in Lachin. The newspaper said the editorial staff had Mr. Cagle's telephone number at work. Ms. Nuri suggested that the International Working Group should find and return the Azeri children to their homeland.

Since one of the forms of our work is exactly to check such reports, we started immediately to fulfill the task of the editorial staff of Mirror newspaper. Unlike journalist Lala Nuri, obtaining Terry Cagle's telephone number from the editorial staff we phoned him ourselves and told him about the article published in Mirror where his name was mentioned. Mr. Cagle was very surprised and asked to send him a translation of the article. Bernhard Clasen, a co-chair of the International Working Group, satisfied his request. Mr. Cagle's reply is below. In this reply he resolutely denies the facts related in the article and suggests that we should phone two people -David Goehring, a pastor, and Stan Brown, a volunteer, who visited Lachin several times with a humanitarian mission as part of the Agape Project. Bernhard Clasen had two conversations with both Agape Project officers and found out in greater detail that they had provided aid to a children's establishment in Lachin where Armenian children were brought up. The International Working Group did not think possible to make this information public without seeing this establishment and talking to Agape Project officers first-hand.

International Working Group co-chairs Bernhard Clasen and Svetlana Gannushkina have presently visited Lachin and attended the boarding school. Twenty-eight children from problem and incomplete families are being brought up there currently. Eighteen children are half-orphans. The boarding school has had just four children without both parents since it went into operation. The children are five to eighteen years old. These are mostly children from refugee families. They are taken good care of, the girls are taught needlework and the boys are busy with farming.

The Agape Project has been in operation in this region since 1994. It helps to provide hospitals with medical equipment and carries out educational programs. Its officers were also very surprised at the assumption that Azeri children might be kept at the boarding school as hostages.

The International Working Group is absolutely confident and glad to say that the information about camps for Azeri kamikaze children, proceeding both from Messrs. Tarian and Apresian and from Mr. Alimardanov, does not meet reality. We hope this will gladden the editorial staff of Mirror newspaper, in particular Ms. Lala Nuri."

Svetlana Gannushkina
Bernhard Clasen
Paata Zakareishvili

The reply of Mr. Terry Cagle to the article from Mirror newspaper forwarded to him

"I did visit Lachin in October 1996 as a guest of the Agape Project which was sponsored by the Methodist Church in North Carolina, US. We shipped medical equipment to the amount of $300,000 to Armenia and trained local doctors to operate it for a long time. Our group consisted of two doctors, three nurses and me. I coordinated the trip and was responsible for the equipment. We spent most of our time in the operating room, but we sometimes went out of town to see the High Mountain (Mount Ararat - trans.) and other local sights. We attended hospitals and orphan's homes established and serviced by the Methodist Church group working in Armenia. The orphan's home in Lachin is at the top of a mountain. We brought presents for the children and I can tell you that the children were very happy and well-groomed. I positively had no feeling they were hostages. Some pictures of some of those children were taken, but I don't know where they are now. I am absolutely sure the Methodist Church continues to fund the Agape Project because last fall I was asked to come back to Armenia as a member of a working group, but I rejected that offer because I already had some other obligations. I would advise that you contact the Methodist Church headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, to obtain detailed information about the project. The main contact we had working in Armenia was Reverend Charles Davis who has already retired and is living in Tarboro, North Carolina (I think so). He could tell you everything you need. I've just had a talk with a priest of the Methodist Church which I attend, he has been to Armenia four times and he will be glad to talk to you. His name is David Goehring and he can be contacted by phone."

Editors note: See also the article "Politicization hampers search for the missing in Karabakh conflict zone".