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www.justiceforkhojaly.org
Azerbaijan charged yesterday that Armenian mil-
itants massacred men, women and children after
forcing them from a town in Nagorno-Karabagh
last week.
Azerbaijani officials said 1000 Azeris had been
killed in town of Khojaly and that Armenian fight-
ers then slaughtered men, women and children flee-
ing across snow-covered mountain passes.
Armenian officials disputed the death toll and de-
nied the massacre report.
Journalists on the scene said it was difficult to say
exactly how many people had been killed in sur-
rounding areas. But a Reuters photographer said he
saw two trucks filled with Azeri corpses, and a Rus-
sian journalist reported massacre sites elsewhere in
the area.
Azeri officials and journalists who flew briefly to
the region by helicopter recovered the bodies of
three dead children who had been shot in the head,
Reuters said, but Armenians prevented them from
retrieving more bodies.
There were growing signs that many civilians were
killed during the capture of Khojaly.
Footage shot by Azerbaijan Television Sunday
showed about 10 dead bodies, including several
women and children, in an improvised morgue in
Aghdam. An editor at the main television station
in Baku said 180 bodies had been recovered so far.
A helicopter flying over the vicinity is reported to
have seen other corpses, while the BBC quoted a
French photographer who said that he had counted
31 dead, including women and children, some who
appeared as though they were shot in the head at
close range.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Khojaly, Elmar Mamedov,
said at a news conference in Baku that 1000 people
had died in the attack, 200 more were missing, 300
had been taken hostage, and 200 were injured. Ar-
mored personnel carriers of the 366th spearheaded
the attack, Mamedov charged, and cleared the way
for Armenian irregulars.
By Paul Quinn-Judge, Baku, Azerbaijan
The Boston Globe, 3 March 1992