From: dbd@urartu.sdpa.org (David Davidian)
Subject: Helsinki Watch Report: Russian & Azeri Human Rights Violations
Summary: Human Rights violations in Nagorno-Karabakh 
Keywords: Russian Interior Ministry and Azeri OMON Armed Forces 
Organization: S.D.P.A. Center for Regional Studies
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 16:01:40 GMT


The following is a Helsinki Watch report on the Russian Interior Ministry
forces and the Azeri OMON Military Forces during the late spring and summer of
1991. This aggression resulted in the forced deportation of nearly 15,000 
Armenians from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave, separated 
from Armenia by Stalin, and "given" to Azerbaijan in 1923.


From:			_BLOODSHED IN THE CAUCASUS_

	Escalation of the Armed Conflict in Nagorno Karabakh

			September 1992

			Helsinki Watch

		A Division of Human Rights Watch


TESTIMONY ON HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES COMMITTED DURING OPERATION RING [1]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

			INTRODUCTION

Operation Ring took place in the spring and summer of 1991, while the USSR 
still existed, however tenuously, as a state and hence a subject of 
international law. Azerbaijan was, at the time, a constituent unit of this 
state. The USSR was then a party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Protocol 
II, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the
International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Accordingly, the conduct of troops of the 
23rd regiment of the Soviet Army and of the USSR Internal Ministry, and the 
conduct of the Azerbaijani OMON must be judged against the normative rules in 
these instruments.

Villagers interviewed by Helsinki Watch in June 1991 described the arrival of 
Soviet Army troops and the Azerbaijani OMON, which usually took place in the 
morning. Derenik Tokhian, a bus driver born in 1931, told Helsinki Watch that
when the operation began in Chaikent (Getashen) on April 30,

	My family sat at home. All of a sudden, we saw . . . tanks at one spot 
	in our village. Around the village I counted at least 120 tanks. My 
	house is the last in the village by the river. The Soviet army and the 
	Azerbaijani OMON started to shoot at 8:00 A.M. They hit my 
	refrigerator. A special Soviet tank with chains and without license 
	plates shot at houses and they soon caught fire.

According to another resident of Chaikent, Emma Akopian, who worked as a 
deputy brigadier and was interviewed by Helsinki Watch, "OMON guys were inside 
their tanks. The tanks surrounded our town. Soldiers and OMON came to our town 
from the state farm across the hill." Ms. Akopian stayed in Chaikent until May 
6, 1991, when a helicopter evacuated her.

Nina Yatsenko, a thirty-seven-year-old resident of Martunashen (in the Khanlar 
District), claimed that more than one hundred tanks surrounded Martunashen
that morning, along with two trucks carrying personnel. "Forty or fifty people 
got out of the bus, their faces were painted green," she told Helsinki Watch.

-----

[1] See above, under "Background," for a general descripiion of the Operation 
Ring campaign.

				---------

				VIOLATIONS

			Summary Executions [2]

Lena Zakharian, a fifty-five year old nurse from the village of Bertadzor (in 
the Shusha District) reported to Helsinki Watch that

	We heard the OMON killed Anushavan Grigorian, by shooting him in the
	mouth. His wife was pregnant and he defended her. We asked the 
	soldiers if we could help carry the corpse. One officer, a Russian, 
	took a photo while the OMON were killing Grigorian. Although the 
	Russian said how horrible the killing was, he did nothing to stop 
	them. He also helped carry the corpse.

An Armenian man who asked Helsinki Watch to refer to him as H.M. claimed he
witnessed the murder of Mr. Grigorian from a bus, onto which he had been 
rounded up on May 15. H.M. told Helsinki Watch:

	I was on the bus. I was sitting there--there were forty of us. It was 
	light already. [Grigorian] wanted to protect his pregnant wife. They 
	were saying, give us your money, give us your money." The OMON told 
	Anushavan to open the door to the basement. Anushavan asked his sister 
	to get the key. When the sister was late coming back with the key, the 
	OMON thought the basement had guns. After she was gone about three 
	minutes they fired a magazine into his mouth.[3]

Nina Yatsenko, who described the seizure of a respected 70-year-old teacher,[4]
told Helsinki Watch that "they shot the teacher. Three other neighbors were 
also taken to the edge of the village. Their dead bodies were left on the 
road. Soviet trucks drove over the corpses, making them into mush."

		Displacement of Civilian Population

Armenians allege that Azerbaijani OMON forced villagers to sign statements
saying they were voluntarily leaving their villages. By effectively forcing 
the civilian population to evacuate their villages, the Azerbaijani OMON 
violated Article 12 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, which guarantees freedom to choose one's residence. Such action was

-----

[2] SOS Torture, a publication of the World Organization Against Torture, 
reported that in carrying out Operation Ring Azerbaijani OMON and forces 
committed two summary executions in the villages of Karachinar and Erkech.

[3] This interview took place in Yevevan on May 3, 1992.

[4] See below.

				--------

also utterly inconsistent with Article 17 of Protocol II which generally 
prohibits the forced displacement of civilians.[5]

In interviews with Helsinki Watch in June 1091, Azerbaijani officials referred 
to these forced deportations as "voluntary relocations." Telman Khaliogli, 
First Deputy Chairman of The Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet, referring 
specifically to the events in Chaikent, said that "peasants wrote voluntary 
statements asking to be resettled in Armenia."

According to the accounts of villagers interviewed by Helsinki Watch, the 
signing of these documents, and the villagers' relocation, was anything but 
voluntary. Nina Yatsenko described one such incident in Martunashen. As soon 
as the OMON arrived in her village,

	They went to the first house, where they called the husband to come 
	out. The OMON surrounded this seventy-year-old-man, a well-respected 
	teacher, and asked him to sign a statement that he would leave the 
	village. He was taken away, and his wife asked where he was being 
	taken.

Emma Akopian reported to Helsinki Watch that in Chaikent the chairman of rhe
Khanlar district soviet forced Armenians to sign statements that they were 
leaving voluntarily.

	Samvel Asrian, the seventy-eight-year-old Armenian man from Kirov said 
	that

	On May 17 the [district soviet] chairman, Yozalov, and the district 
	procurator, Aliskerov, and the OMON with weapons and the district 
	militia by force of arms forced us to sign statements that we wanted 
	to resettle and leave our village. They had also done this with people 
	on the bus [who had already gone through the passport check] who were 
	forced to sign such statements under force of bayonets. We were given 
	three days to complete our resettlement.

	On May 18, at 6:00 A.M., USSR MVD troops, the Azerbaijani OMON and the
	Azerbaijani militia by force of arms forced us to take what we could 
	and get on buses. "Otherwise," they said, "we will kill you."

According to Suren Davtutian, who was the chairman of the village soviet in 
Kirov, the chairman of the Shusha district soviet also applied pressure on 
Kirov villagers to leave.

	[He] advised us to sign statements that we were voluntarily leaving 
	our homes. Under machine gun and knife--under threat of death--I 
	signed a statement that I had voluntarily sold my car for 7,000 
	rubles. I wrote in my statement that

-----

[5] Article 17 allows for the displacement of civilian populations for reasons 
related to the conflict only if their own security is involved or if 
"imperative military reasons so demand." The level of conflict experienced by 
spring 1991 could not have warranted the invocation of civilian's security as 
a sufficient cause for evacuation. The military aim of Operation Ring was to 
ferret out fighters, and not to prepare for a more conventional military 
engagement. Such an aim cannot be said to fall under Article 17's standard of 
"imperative military reasons."

				--------

	I could no longer live under such conditions, and therefore was forced 
	to sell my car to leave.

		Theft of and Damage to Civilian Property

Some witnesses reported that as part of the siege of their villages, 
Azerbaijani OMON and Soviet MVD troops looted and burned houses and robbed 
residents.

	Ms. Akopian claimed that the Azerbaijani OMON looted her home:

	As soon as the OMON came into my house, I had ten carpets stolen. 
	Everything of value disappeared. Cloths were cut up with scissors. All
	of our money was taken. The Soviet Army and the OMON acted together in 
	destroying everything.

Nina Yatsenko reported that in Martunashen "One neighbor, a woman, was forced
to hand over all her jewelry, since the soldiers said that they would cut off 
her ears. When she handed over the jewelry, the soldiers undressed her."

Samvel Asrian said that when the villagers of Kirov were forced onto buses on 
May l8,

	We were only allowed to take a few things--the OMON said that the rest 
	was for them. They also robbed us of our things while we were in the 
	car. They stole all our farm animals (412 heads) and all the household 
	animals as well. And all our possessions from the kolkhoz and our 
	chickens.

	Mr. Davtutian reported that after he was beaten (see below), 
	Azerbaijani OMON

	stole the 1,060 rubles in my pocket--my pay, and that of my wife and 
	son. They entered my house and broke glass and china. I had an old 
	locked trunk. . . I had hidden some money in there (14,000 rubles were 
	hidden in various places). I had a feeling there might be 
	deportations. I also had forty-five heads of sheep and goats.

	Just then an Azerbaijani major entered my house. He told the soldiers 
	to hand over the 4,445 rubles they had found in my trunk to the 
	investigator. The soldiers kept all my money, but on May 15 the 4,445 
	rubles which had been given to the investigator were returned to me.

		Indiscriminate Attacks against Civilians

Nina Yatsenko described the gunfire on Martunashen as "bullets like hail. 
[They] fell on our house in the middle of the village. We hid in the 
basement." She further asserted that when people gathered in the cemetery to 
"honor our new dead . . . the Soviet tanks fired on us as we were standing 
there."

				-------

		Beatings of Villagers and Prisoners
	
According to victims and eyewitnesses, Azerbaijani OMON carrying out Operation 
Ring beat many villagers, especially men. Armenian men who were rounded up 
were subjected to regular and fierce beatings once they were detained in 
Azerbaijani jails and lock-ups.[6] Because Helsinki Watch was deeply disturbed 
about reports of this ill-treatment, a representative went to the Shuveliansk 
prison near Baky in April 1992 to seek access specifically to Armenians
detained in connection with Operation Ring. Azerbaijani Parliament and 
Interior Ministry offlcials fully cooperated with the request to visit 
Armenian prisoners. When Helsinki Watch reached the prison, however, Jabiv 
Kasimov, the head of Shuveliansk, told us that all the Armenian detainees had 
been exchanged the previous week, and presented us with the particulars and 
case histories of the most recently released Armenian detainees.

Following are some of the accounts of Armenians describing the beatings they 
witnessed or suffered.

Karen Grigorian, a twenty-three-year-old Armenian man, was rounded up in 
Getashen. He gave Helsinki Watch [7] details of the beatings he  received and 
witnessed during his detention in Azerbaijan. His experience began when 
Russian soldiers came to his house in Getashen on April 30, 1991, demanding to 
see his identification.

	I showed my birth certificate, and they said "We don't believe you, 
	it's not you." Then I showed my father's passport, but they said they 
	didn't believe me, that I was a fighter sent from Armenia. Right there 
	I was given to the Azerbaijani OMON. They had machine guns and they 
	beat me in my ribs. One of the OMON, Elshan Makhmedov, stabbed me 
	twice in the leg when I was being taken.

	I was taken with two other Armenians to Achkent and . . . to Kamo. We 
	were beaten again brutally for ten minutes. Five minutes, then a 
	break, then they started again. They didn't question me at that time. 
	They asked us to sign a letter saying that we left the village freely. 
	They kept us in Kamo for five or six hours, then took us back to 
	Achkent. There were many Armenian detainees, about thirty-four. The 
	Azerbaijanis had a list of detainees and read out seven names. I was 
	with six other [Armenians] sent by bus to Khanlar. We were beaten 
	until morning.

	Then we were sent to Ganja, to jail. There was no charge, we didn't 
	sign anything. When they opened up the jail there was a row of 
	Azerbaijanis and I was beaten as I went through them. There were about 
	seven of them. There were three other Armenians already there. One of 
	them was Jakob Melikhagopikhian.

-----

[6] According to a report by Pax Christi Netherlands, forty-seven inhabitants
of Chaikent were tortured in the Ganja prison in Azerbaijan in May and June 
1991.

[7] Interview with Helsinki Watch in Yerevan, May 2, 1992.

				--------

	They told me to take off all my clothes, but I refused, and they beat 
	me. After the beating they poured cold water on me. I was bleeding. My 
	fingers were beaten and they ordered me to sign."

Mr. Grigorian's fingers showed clear signs of disfigurement, and one of his 
left side ribs was broken as a result of the beatings.

Samvel Asrian from Kirov reported that "from our three villages, 111 people 
were taken to a militia station in Lachin. They were forced to lie on the 
floor and were beaten with heavy sticks. People were badly hurt." He was not
among this group, however.

"One guy in civilian clothes carrying a knife came in with four armed OMON
men, said Suren Davtutian, also of the village of Kirov. "Three times they 
checked for my passport. I would not leave my house. 'Where are you, bad guy?'
he asked. All four men began to beat me for two minutes. They held a knife to 
my stomach. They told me not to move."

	Davtutian also described the treatment detainees received in Lachin:

	We were all taken to Lachin. There were sixty-four people in sixteen 
	square meters. There was no air and water was very expensive. We were 
	held there until 2:00 A.M. I think we were called by listed names and 
	then interrogated. I was not summoned. There seemed to be three 
	categories. We were called and put in separate buses according to our 
	categories. We were sent two or three kilometers from Stepanakert to a 
	gas station. The buses stopped. We were beaten worse than cattle. They 
	swore at us. I cannot tell you everything they did. They forced us to 
	lie on the floor of the bus. This went on until 7:00 A.M. One 
	seventy-year-old war veteran, Major Petrossian, was beaten very badly.


Lena Zakharian, a fifty-five year old nurse from Bertadzor told Helsinki Watch 
that "on May 15, the Azerbaijani OMON and Soviet soldiers attacked.... First 
the soldiers took my son (born in 1962), then they took my husband. They tied 
their hands behind their heads and they beat them."

N.G., an Armenian man of about thirty, was picked up in Bertadzor. He was 
taken to a lock-up in Lachin, then to a jail in Shusha. He told Helsinki 
Watch, "They treated us real nice. They beat us with billy clubs and metal 
rods. The supervisor did it. In Shusha they beat us every day, too. I stayed 
there for two months...."

N.G. was transferred to the Shuveliansk prison in Baky on July 13, where he 
said prison guards beat him "only once every three days or so." He was 
exchanged for Azerbaijani hostages in mid-December, 1991.

A fifty-seven-year-old teacher and his son from the town of Aterk (in the 
Martakert district) was taken from his bed early in the morning. The man, who 
requested anonymity because his son was still in prison, told Helsinki Watch[8]
that they were taken

-----

[8] Interview with Helsinki Watch in Yerevan on May 2, 1992.

				--------

	by Russians and OMON. They were rough with us. They beat my son. I had
	a 1915 gun, but I didn't have a permit for it. They took my son, too. 
	They said, "You knew your father had a gun but you didn't say 
	anything."

	We were taken first to Mir-Bashir, then to Agdam, Sharbularm, Shusha, 
	and then to Baky. They beat us everywhere, every day, but it was a 
	little better once we got to Baky. I had black and blue marks all over 
	my body. They beat us only with billy clubs. I would ask them, "Why 
	are you beating me?" They would say, "Because you're Armenian and in 
	Azerbaijan all Armenians are [making trouble]."

The man also noted that beatings lessened whenever commissions visited to 
inspect the prisons and the conditions of prisoners.

Identification checks aimed at rounding up suspected arms smugglers and 
terrorists also took place at the airport at Khojaly, near Stepanakert (the 
capital of Nagorno-Karabakh). Gabriel Gaiamian was picked up there on July 3, 
1991, and taken to Shusha, where he claimed he was beaten. According to Mr. 
Gaiamian, who is fifty-one years old and works as a carpenter in Yerevan, he 
was detained for breaking the passport regime and taken to the procurator's
building in Shusha, where, during his questioning, he was beaten by different 
persons.

	Mr. Gaiamian told Helsinki Watch:[9]

	I was on my way to Ashan and was told by Azerbaijanis that my village
	had attacked Azerbaijanis, and they asked me the names of the
	villagers. They accused me of going to the village to assist the 
	attackers. They tortured me there for two days, and then took me to 
	the Shusha jail.

	I spent six months in the Shusha jail. I was treated terribly there to 
	make me confess to having killed an Azerbaijani during an attack. On 
	January 1, 1992, I was transferred to Baky but I wasn't officially
	 charged with a crime. Then I was exchanged on March 27, 1992.

Helsinki Watch interviewed A.G., a twenty-six-year-old Armenian from the 
village of Ashan (in the Martuni district), who was also taken at the Khojaly 
airport. According to his account, A.G. was kept in Shusha for six months, 
then transferred to Baky, and then in March was exchanged for Azerbaijani 
hostages. A.G. told Helsinki Watch:

	We were taken on July 3. They took us to Shusha and kept us there for 
	a month. Then they accused us of a murder in a far-away village of 
	Karadigly. Three of us from the same village were taken, including the 
	kolhhoz chairman. They cut his legs to make him confess. We were 
	beaten every day in Shusha. There was one room for interrogations, and 
	in the other rooms they would beat us.

-----

[9] Interview with Helsinki Watch in Yerevan on May 2, 1992.

				---------

A.G. said police officials tortured him with electric shocks in order to make 
him confess. He sketched a picture of an apparatus that consisted of a 
generator with one cord in the back, which was plugged into the wall, and two 
cords in the front. He continued, "They gave me electric shocks. They tied my 
legs together and put one probe on my toe and the other in other places. There 
was a generator that would run. I lost consciousness. I had no other choice--
I had to confess."

-- 
David Davidian dbd@urartu.sdpa.org "It has been ever thus in all things, son, 
SDPA Center for Regional Studies    Whatever we thrash we give to the wind, 
P.O. Box 382761                     We too have been blown by the world's wind
Cambridge, MA 02238                 The chaff is gone but the grain remains."