Armenians describe violence

Press, 10 March 1988, Page 8

Armenians describe violence

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Armenian witnesses to ethnic rioting in Transcaucasia have related grim stories of murders, beatings, rapes and robberies in the first public account in Moscow of the communal violence. The witnesses, who addressed a crowd of about 300 people outside an Armenian Orthodox Church in Moscow yesterday, did not say how many people died in the clashes between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the southern Soviet Union. They indicated, however, that the violence had been much more widespread than Soviet authorities have acknowledged. The Kremlin has announced 33 deaths in Azerbaijan — 31 in riots on February 28 in the city of Sumgait and two others earlier near the town of Agdam. “In our village they killed four people. I don't know how we got out of there,” one elderly Armenian told the crowd, without naming the village. The witnesses spoke of the presence of troops in Kirovabad, a town 275 km west of Sumgait, and said the militia had to protect Armenians living in several cities and towns in Azerbaijan. Kremlin authorities announced a curfew in Sumgait but have not mentioned any special police measures in other cities. “We appealed to the militia and they took us to the town hall,” the elderly Armenian said. “They put

a guard on it J “On February 28, they were killing and raping. They killed a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old. They killed people out in the open, in public.” Another man 3aid two groups of 30 [or 40 Azerbaijanis armed with sticks and stones! attacked and beat, Armenians on his street in Kirovabad. “They rani down the street i breaking windows..;they broke into the first house on the corner and took everything of value they could find. The police didn't dp much to stop them," he said. “The situation is normal now because[ there are lots of soldiers." A third man said that a bus bringing people from the Armenian capital of Yerevan to I Stepanakert, in Azerbaijan, had been attacked in | Azerbaijani territory and people on board were beaten. He said j Azerbaijanis are now telephoning Armenians in | Stepanakert and threatening them. None of the witnesses gave names to the crowd, which appeared to be largely Armenian. Some people wept' as the witnesses spoke. Stepanakert is the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, the predominantly Armenian region of Azerbaijan at the centre of the ethnic unrest. The Transcaucasian disturbances [started last month after the local parliament in Stepanakert voted for I reunification with Armenia. The region has been administered by Azerbaijan since 1923-