Halo Trust continues mine clearance in occupied Azerbaijani lands despite official Baku protest

Nazim Ismayilov, director of the Azerbaijan National Agency of Mine Action (ANAMA) told.

"The Halo Trust continues illegal de-mining in the occupied Azerbaijani lands. We protested against it to international organizations, donors and the British government. I made remarks to the organization's president in an event in Switzerland not long ago. They called their mine clearance humanitarian actions," the ANAMA director underlined.

Mr.Ismayilov also said the Halo Trust presents Azerbaijani province of Nagorno Karabakh as an independent state. Great majority of its de-mining teams working in Nagorno Karabakh are former militants and reconnoiters, APA reports.

"The Netherlands supports this organization's illegal actions most of all. They are involved in other illegal activities under the name of humanitarian mission," Ismayilov underlined.

The ANAMA director stressed there is a mine-risk in the 60mn sq. meters of area administered by the Azerbaijani government.

"We are planning to clear these areas by the end of 2008. The results of the monitoring of international organizations, Halo Trust show that there is mine problem in 4 percent or some 500mn sq. meters of area in the occupied territories," he said.

According to the ANAMA prediction there exist 50-100 thousand mines in the occupied Azerbaijani lands which can take 12 years to clear.