Упрощенная HTML-версия
61
KHOJALY GENOCIDE
The exact number of victims is still unclear, but
there can be little doubt that Azeri civilians were
massacred by Armenian Army in the snowy moun-
tains of Nagorno-Karabakh last week.
Refugees from the enclave town of Khojaly, shelter-
ing in the Azeri border town of Aghdam, give large-
ly consistent accounts of how Armenians attacked
their homes on the night of 25 February, chased
those who fled and shot them in the surrounding
forests. Yesterday, I saw 75 freshly dug graves in
one cemetery in addition to four mutilated corps-
es we were shown in the mosque when we arrived
in Aghdam late on Tuesday. I also saw women and
children with bullet wounds in a makeshift hospital
in a string of railway carriages.
Khojaly, an Azeri settlement in the enclave mostly
populated by Armenians, had a population of about
6000. Mr. Rashid Mamedov, Commander of Po-
lice in Aghdam, said only about 500 escaped to his
town. “So where are the rest?” Some might have
taken prisoner, he said, or fled. Many bodies were
still lying in the mountains because the Azeris were
short of helicopters to retrieve them. He believed
more than 1000 had perished, some of cold in tem-
peratures as low as minus 10 degrees.
When Azeris saw the Armenians with a convoy
of armoured personnel carriers, they realized they
could not hope to defend themselves, and fled into
the forests. In the small hours, the massacre started.
Mr. Nasiru, who believes his wife and two children
were taken prisoner, repeated what many other ref-
ugees have said - that troops of the former Soviet
army helped the Armenians to attack Khojaly. “It is
not my opinion, I saw it with my own eyes”.
By Helen Womack, Aghdam, Azerbaijan
The Age, 6 March 1992