Azerbaijan: Human rights record of the military and police (Ministry of Internal Affairs); reports of abuses associated with the Baku police (1980s-1990s)

Information concerning the activities of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan's police and Ministry of Internal Affairs forces prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union was not found among sources consulted for this response.

However, several reports were found providing information on purported human rights abuses by these organizations after 1991. These include a 1999 Amnesty International report which stated that it has received reports of "alleged torture or ill-treatment by law enforcement officials ... during periods of short term detention or arrest or while people are being detained prior to trial" (Oct. 1999, 4). A 1999 Human Rights Watch report on torture in Azerbaijan, observed the following with reference to torture:

The police and other security forces personnel beat and torture detainees in pretrial custody to punish, humiliate and intimidate, to gather information, to force confessions, and to compel corroborating testimony from witnesses. ... Equally disturbing, in cases that usually do not go to trial, the police arbitrarily detain and beat individuals in custody to extort bribes from them and family members seeking their release. This abuse - at times shocking in its brutality - came to light, ironically, during the period in which Azerbaijan ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).

In cases documented by Human Rights Watch involving those accused of treason or other political offenses, systematic abuse took place primarily in the lock-up of the Baku City Police Department, but also occurred in other holding facilities, including the Presidential Special Department (5 Aug. 1999, 13).

For further information concerning abuses reportedly perpetrated by the Azerbaijani police and security forces, with special emphasis on the Baku police department in the period of 1993-1999, please consult the Human Rights Watch report Impunity for Torture, pages 13-29, available in regional documentation centres. This document is also available online at .

The Azerbaijani national military was accused of human rights abuses during the period in question for this Response and in the context of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Helsinki Watch, in a 1992 report, stated that both sides of the conflict engaged in "wide-scale hostage taking, tortured hostages, intentionally targeted, terrorized, and committed other acts of violence against civilians" and identified the Azerbaijani National Army and militia as two participants therein (Sept. 1992, 1)."

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has both a current manifestation (Office of the President of Azerbaijan 24 Dec. 2001) and one existing when Azerbaijan was a Soviet Socialist Republic (Saroyan 1997; Central Asia Monitor 1993). It was otherwise known as the MVD and had special forces units called OMON (ibid.). Helsinki Watch noted in 1992 that OMON troops were witnessed to have carried out beatings described as "regular and fierce ... once [Armenian villagers] were detained in Azerbaijani jails and lock-ups" (Sept. 1992, 51). The report referred to Shuveliansk prison near Baku as one jail housing detainees in 1992 (ibid.). A second report, in the form of a presentation given by Professor Richard Wilson of Harvard University to the First International Sakharov Conference on Physics in 1991, referred to OMON actions as follows:

Although most, if not all, of the beatings and killings were carried out by the Azerbaijan OMON, the Soviet Army was clearly not passive. They organized the initial surrounding of the village and then stood aside while the OMON terrorized the villagers. The Soviet Army arranged the transport of the villagers who were left on the Armenian side of the border with only the clothes they were wearing (31 May 1991).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Amnesty International. October 1999. "Azerbaijan: Torture and Ill-Treatment: Comments on the Forthcoming Review by the United Nations Committee Against Torture." (AI Index: EUR 55/02/99). [Accessed 11 June 2002]

Central Asia Monitor. 1993. No. 1. Patrick Gorman. "The Emerging Army in Azerbaijan." [Accessed 11 June 2002]

Helsinki Watch. . September 1992. Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Escalation of the Armed Conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch. 5 August 1999. Vol. 11, No. 9. Pamela Gomez. Impunity for Torture. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Office of the President of Azerbaijan. 24 December 2001. "Cabinet Minister Links." [Accessed 11 June 2002]

Saroyan, Mark. 1997. Minorities, Mullahs, and Modernity: Reshaping Community in the Former Soviet Union. Ed. Edward W. Walker. "The 'Karabakh Syndrome' and Azerbaijani Politics." [Accessed 11 June 2002]

Wilson, Richard. 31 May 1991. "On the Visit to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Border, May 25-29, 1991: Presented to the First International Sakharov Conference on Physics, Lebedev Institute, Moscow on May 31, 1991." [Accessed 11 June 2002]

Professor Wilson is identified in this report as being the "Coordinator of the Chernobyl Theme of the First International Andrei Sakharov Memorial Congress 'Peace, Progress and Human Rights'" (Wilson 31 May 1991).

Additional Sources Consulted

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (1993)

IRB Databases

National Conference on Soviet Jewry (1992- 1998)

News from the Helsinki Watch, Azerbaijan and the Soviet Union

NEXIS

Internet sites including:

Azerbaijan Links

Azerbaijan Republic

Country Reports (1996-2002)

Eurasianet.org

European Country of Origin Information Network