Ombudsmen says Armenia violates Geneva Conventions

/By Azernews/

By Nazrin Gadimova

Dozens of civilians, including children, women and elderly people were killed and seriously wounded as a result of military attacks provoked by the Armenian side.

Elmira Suleymanova, Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner stated about this in a statement in connection with the aggravation of the situation in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"On the night of April 2, 2016, the frontier positions of Azerbaijani armed forces, residential areas, schools and other social facilities along the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops were subjected to heavy firing from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons and heavy artillery," the statement reads.

As a result of the shelling 32 settlements, six civilians were killed, including two children under 16 years, and 26 residents were wounded.

Great damage was caused to public and private property, civil infrastructure, 232 houses, 99 poles for power transmission lines, three electrical substations, water mains and gas pipelines length in kilometers were seriously damaged or destroyed. Missiles bombed schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure - schools, hospitals, and mosques. The assessment of the damage caused to civilians and to objects.

The ombudsman believes that Armenia has grossly violated the Geneva Conventions and its obligations to other international documents while committing these military crimes.

The statement has been addressed to the UN Secretary General, the UN Security Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, OSCE, the International and European Ombudsman Institutes, the Asian Ombudsman Association, the International Peace Bureau, ombudsmen of a number of countries, Azerbaijan’s diplomatic missions abroad and foreign countries’ diplomatic missions in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani diaspora organizations.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides. However, Armenia has ignored the agreement and started violating the ceasefire again.