Xarigi Metbut

[apazisiya]

Xarigi metbuatlarda derg olunnanar...

P.S. Hami Ilham Eliyevi pisleyir ve Sechkilerin demokratik standartlara uygun OLMAMASINI geyd ediller

[apazisiya]

.

a

[apazisiya]

The NewYork Times

Pools of Blood Taint Azerbaijan Election, Many Hurt

Original: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/internation...9ab9ba9e0c35e7f

By REUTERS

Published: October 16, 2003

BAKU (Reuters) - A young boy lies limp in the hands of a black-clad special forces officer, his hand dangling as the masked man struggles to remove his coat.

Mouth-to-mouth is given. Elite soldiers raise their metal shields to close off the scene.

The boy, no older than five or six, was among thousands of Azeris who took to the streets on Thursday to protest against the victory of Ilham Aliyev, son of veteran leader Haydar, as president in an election the opposition said was stolen.

An hour later, he ended up like at least five other people, lying in pools of blood, immobile. Their fate was unknown although at two people were later reported killed.

Some were dragged by police out of swarming crowds of officers, guard dogs and the protesters they were pursuing. Others were carried by comrades to shops to try to enlist help.

Some protesters smashed cars and bus windows on the way to the demonstration in Freedom Square outside government headquarters on the Caspian seafront.

They wielded sticks, hurled broken pavement slabs at security forces and skidded a truck into a crowd of riot police and there were reports of several police injuries, maybe deaths. No numbers could be confirmed.

MOST PROTESTERS PEACEFUL

But most of the protesters, who gathered to denounce the election outcome which secured the first dynastic succession in the former Soviet world, were peaceful.

Their protest, called by supporters of Ilham Aliyev's rival Isa Gambar, was shortlived. About 40 minutes after they gathered in the square, the police moved in.

Officers stormed the crowd from both sides, firing tear gas and blanks, their rubber truncheons flailing. They said they were provoked and the demonstration was unauthorized.

Most demonstrators fled. Those unable to outrun helmeted police were pursued by groups of five, sustaining blows and curses against their mothers and sisters. Police dogs tore at protesters' clothes.

``They beat me like a dog. This is no longer my country,'' Balakhuseyn Huseynov murmured, trying to speak through bloodied lips as pharmacy assistants injected a sedative into his arm.

His cheek was split, exposing bone. His eye was closed under a red swelling, blood encrusted around his mouth, eyes, ears and matted hair.

He shivered while the assistants tried to force whisky into his mouth. Their chemist shop was now a refuge, and they refused to give him up to officers banging on the door.

``They want to destroy this land. Help me leave please, please,'' the middle-aged Huseynov pleaded, bursting into tears as he spat on his identity card.

Cheering their victory over the protesters, soldiers banged their truncheons against their shields. Many combed nearby streets and pushed their way into shops to round up demonstrators who had eluded them.

``We tried to explain to them that the protest was illegal,'' said Yashar Aliyev, deputy head of the Baku police force. ``Some understood us. But the others just did not want to understand.''

[apazisiya]

An Azeri police officer pursuing a man today in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan, during a demonstration called by supporters of an opposition presidential candidate, Isa Gambar.

In Wake of Azerbaijan Election, Violence Erupts in Streets

Original: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/16/internat...bdd1ee62c9bc92a

By SETH MYDANS

Published: October 16, 2003

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 16 — The battle to subdue Azerbaijan's political opposition moved into the streets today and it was as intense, harsh and definitive as the dynastic victory in a presidential election that was held Wednes-

Once again the chief weapon was the big stick as thousands of well-drilled soldiers, police and special security units charged through the streets, banging on their metal shields and clubbing both protesters and bystanders.

According to various reports, at least one person was killed and dozens were injured among both protesters and security forces, some of whom charged the crowds with white gauze bandages on their heads.

The central election commission announced preliminary results today that gave Ilham Aliev, 42, about 80 percent of the vote to succeed his ailing father, the country's longtime strongman, Heydar Aliev, 80.

The commission said the chief opposition candidate, Isa Gambarov, had won about 12 percent of the vote in an election that observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe primly said "fell short of international standards."

The observers listed violence; excessive use of force; intimidation of opposition supporters, journalists and others; prohibitive restrictions on political rallies and meetings; severely imbalanced media coverage; and manipulation of the voting, counting and tabulation processes.

Despite the overwhelming official numbers, it was hard to find a supporter of Mr. Aliev on the streets of Baku to-

"You see what's going on!" saiновостной порталoung man standing not far from the scene of today's violence, who declined to give his name because "if they find out, they'll fix me."

"There's no justice in this republic," he said. "There's no democracy, no rights. Get this government off our backs. This clan, this mafia, they're just crushing us, all so they can live well."

Another man who did give his name, Huseyinli Israfil, 41, said that he had been an election official and that the official results were "lies, absolute lies."

"Now the country is in the hands of one clan, Aliev," he said. "The people don't want that clan."

Following earlier opinion polls, he said, large numbers of opposition supporters had been removed from voter lists and had been turned away from polling places. In addition, he said, some government offices had required workers to cast marked ballots and to bring back the official unmarked ballots.

"This is a small country," he said. "Everyone knows what went on."

The anger on the streets was explosive. Crowds of men supporting the opposition charged the police and soldiers hurling volleys of stones and swinging their own batons.

As in the election itself, the government forces were far better organized — deployed and commanded as if on a battlefield.

Particularly impressive was a special unit of interior forces dressed in black body armor that ran down the streets in formation chanting, "Intigam, intigam!" — "Revenge, revenge!"

Having cleared one intersection that was littered with stones and an overturned police car, one senior lieutenant of the interior forces named Zaur raised the visor of his black helmet and said: "Everything went fine. We did O.K."

[Tete]

Sag ol gardash melumatlara gore minnetdarig sene.

[LIBERTINE]

A stolen election and oil stability

Peter Bouckaert

International Herald Tribune

Monday, October 20, 2003

Last week's presidential election in Azerbaijan ensured that the current government would maintain its control over the country's significant oil reserves. In the former Soviet bloc's first dynastic succession, Ilham Aliyev, son of the ailing Communist-era holdover Heydar Aliyev, has now become president.

Many in Western policy circles viewed this transition as critical to the stability of billions of dollars of investments in the country's energy sector. The violent events of the past few days should make them think otherwise.

International and domestic monitors reported widespread irregularities in the Oct. 15 election. I saw it myself at a polling station where the election chief kicked out local observers and made off with the votes, claiming she had to take a nap.

The government clearly stole the election, and then brutally beat hundreds of people who poured out in the streets in protest. The day after the election, I watched from the roof of a hotel in Baku as thousands of riot police beat protesters unconscious. Afterward the riot police raised their shields to the sky and turned their batons into drumsticks, celebrating the victory of intimidation.

Now hundreds have been arrested, while Isa Gambar, the opposition leader, is effectively under house arrest and activists from his Musavat party are being beaten and detained all over the country. Everyone I speak to is scared.

The violence surrounding the election was shocking yet predictable, as the government for years has shut the opposition out of the political process. In the months leading up to the poll, Azerbaijani authorities blatantly manipulated the electoral process to ensure that Ilham Aliyev would inherit his father's presidency. The opposition had nowhere to go but the streets.

More astonishing, however, were the public assessments of the election made by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe. Their election-monitoring missions in Azerbaijan took due note of the violence and election irregularities, but their overall appraisals were alarmingly upbeat. The OSCE mission chief, Giovanni Kessler, said the election showed "an increased vitality of political life and serious efforts in Azerbaijan towards democracy and international standards.” Meanwhile, the head of the Council of Europe's parliamentary delegation, Guillermo Martнinez Casan, said he hoped the election could "mark the beginning of a new era in Azerbaijan in which progress could be achieved through cooperation of all democratic forces in the country."

The Aliyev government has a terrible human rights record, and a long history of imprisoning its opponents, rigging elections and breaking up public protests with excessive violence. International and local observers have charged that the country's last national election, the parliamentary election of 2000, was blatantly fraudulent. .The international community is well aware of this sorry history, but it seems to want to wish it away so it can get on with business with the oil-rich country's government. Europe's foremost human rights body, the Council of Europe, admitted Azerbaijan in 2000 despite the country's disastrous parliamentary election. The Council of Europe did establish a body that monitors the country's democratic development and requires the government to report back on charges of election fraud. But this measure did little to restrain the government from repeating election fraud last week.

This time, the international community must not passively accept a violently stolen election. Azerbaijanis are justifiably tired of the corruption and arbitrariness of years of rule under the current government. They are growing increasingly suspicious of the West and its unwillingness to be tough on the Aliyev clan. Moreover, letting the Azerbaijani government steal its election will embolden other governments to do the same. In the long run, this will contribute to more public discontent and destabilize this oil-rich region.

The writer observed the Azerbaijan election for Human Rights Watch.