Leyla Yunus: "People suspect that their projects are simply stolen in the Azerbaijani affiliate of Soros Foundation"

- Few time is left to the day of presidential elections in Azerbaijan. The US embassy has already declared that $ 3 mln will be allocated for monitoring of these elections. Were the funds allocated to local NGOs for monitoring of elections used effectively?

- I want to say that you were in time to raise this problem for if we accept the same "monitoring" of elections, as during the 2003 presidential elections this year, we will have to blame no one except for ourselves. I would remind that when the coalition of NGOs "For free and transparent elections", financed by Open Society Institute, commonly known as Soros Foundation, was created in 2003, it has a grandeur PR campaign. The members of the coalition, especially its coordinators managed to widely inform the community about the composition of the coalition, goals and tasks. Almost all working in the civil society, as well as ordinary citizens, reading newspaper, were aware of the arrangements, planned by the coalition and believed in the effectiveness of its work. I remember well the meeting with the then ambassador Mr. Rino Harnish in the US embassy before the presidential elections. It was attended by human rights organizations-members of the federation and monitoring group.

I recall the speech of the coalition representative, specifying the work of the coalition observers at the voting stations and the ways of transferring information to intermediaries, which will further be gathered on the computer and then the alternative Central Election Commission of the coalition will draw the real results of voting of October 15 of 2003. This speech was the same effect, as if he were asked even to repeat. Many questions were asked and got detailed answers. Thus, the coalition members took into account that in line with the Azerbaijani legislation NGO representatives will not be able to monitor the elections, but it could be done by members of the political parties, also included into the coalition. Its financing by the Soros Foundation was widely declared, which also raised hope for success.

After this meeting, we have decided to focus on the monitoring of lawless actions of the police and other violations of human rights on October 15 and later and to create a team, considering the fact that the coalition will arrange the voting process monitoring, during the session of the Federation of the human rights organizations. We also planned to suggest to our colleagues to file a claim against a number of election commissions, where falsifications will be more evident after the results of the voting monitoring by the commission are declared. We planned to continue work to create a precedent of punishment for such a crime as falsification of elections. But for this purpose we needed proofs of falsifications, which were to be found by the coalition coordinators.

I want to say in advance that through our federation was not financed for preparation of reports on human rights violations on October 15-16 and later, we have prepared such complete reports with the names of the arrested and dismissed that they formed a basis for the well known report of the Human Rights Watch on the situation in Azerbaijan and an alternative report in the UN Commission within two weeks.

Yet, we did not see any results of the coalition's activity. We did not see them in October of 2003, in November, in December, in January or in February and in March of 2004. I did not see them like most of our colleagues. But I heard that they were released in summer of 2004 (!) and then in October the coalition, speaking too much of itself, released a two-page (!) report saying in general that the elections failed to comply with international standards.

- Have you had a meeting with the leadership of the Open Society Institue following this case?

- Yes, me and Eldar Zeynalov has a meeting with head of the Open Society Institute Farda Asadov in Baku in spring of 2004 and expressed our opinion on one of the main unsuccessful projects of the foundation.

We said it is necessary to immediately present the results of the coalition's activity for public discussion to have an opportunity to take into account the remarks and not to allow the complete failure in the monitoring of municipal elections in December of 2004.

We really believed that Farda Asadov and Fuad Suleymanov working in the foundation are interested in the success of financed projects and requested discussion. We insisted on it in the beginning of 2004 in a hope that our remarks and proposals will be considered while allocating a grant for monitoring of municipal elections in December of 2004.

Yet, the story repeated in 2003, though without such a PR campaign, which is clear, as these were not presidential elections. Yet the results of the monitoring were the same.

- Can the script repeat during the upcoming presidential elections, despite the sharp public criticism.

- No, as this year the Open Society Institute has declared that it will not finance the monitoring of presidential elections

- Can't you say which problems may people face while submitting their projects to the Open Society Institute?

- To answer this question, we should recall the incriminating materials on the activity of the Open Society Institute, which have been already published in a number of local mass media. I remember when the respondents were asked: "Have you faced any problems in consideration of your project?" the respondent answered that he has repeatedly submitted projects to the Foundation, each time when he was said the project is very nice and returned it to him to make some changes, but in the result he got negative response. According to the respondent, the foundation does not give an official letter of rejection, which would fix the reasons his project has not been accepted. However, some time passed and the respondent learned that his project is implemented by an organization, which was created yesterday and has no experience of work on projects, in the result of which, people grow suspicious that their projects have just been stolen.

- I wonder if George Soros is aware of what happens in the Baku office of his foundation.

- I met Mr.Soros at an international conference in South Korea a couple of years ago. The meeting and communication with this extraordinary man impressed me greatly. He really suffer for the people, obliged to live in conditions of authoritarian regime, police impunity. He spends his time working out proposals and projects for democratic development.

In Seoul he proposed an initiative to create an international center which would demand rejection of loans, credits, financing of regimes, suppressing democratic freedoms and human rights. This person alone does so much for development of civil society, preservation of scientific and cultural centers in the whole post-Soviet areas and other regions.

It is really frustrating that his foundation is used like this in Azerbaijan.

/Day.Az/