3. SPECIFIC VIOLATIONS OF CIVILIANS’ RIGHTS, EXECUTIONS, DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIAN PROPERTY, PILLAGE; FORCED EXPATRIATION Of CIVILIAN POPULATION

3.1. Positioning of the Militia

3.2. Firing on Civilians

3.3. Death Toll

3.4. Malybeyli and Gushchular

3.5. Kerkijahan

3.6. Djemili

3.7. Akholu

3.8. Kosalar

4. INDISCRIMINATE ATTACKS, TARGETING CIVILIAN STRUCTURES

4.1. Shusha

4.2. Malybeyli

4.3. Khojaly

4.4. Aghdam

4.5. Abu Gulabli

4.6. Papravend

4.7. Gushchular

3. SPECIFIC VIOLATIONS OF CIVILIANS’ RIGHTS, EXECUTIONS, DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIAN PROPERTY, PILLAGE; FORCED EXPATRIATION Of CIVILIAN POPULATION

By the winter of 1991-1992 a pattern of attacks on villages and abuses of civilians emerged. These abuses flagrantly violate customary law rules codified in Article 3 Common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the Second Additional Protocol of1977', and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2444. Armenian forces captured villages populated by Azerbaijanis, allegedly seeking to end missile attacks on Armenian locations. In the process, they killed unarmed civilians who either remained in the village or who were attempting to flee, looted and sometimes burnt their homes or essentially prevented them from returning to their homes.

On the night of February 25-26 Armenian forces seized the Azerbaijani town Khojaly located about four miles from Hankendi («Stepanakert»). As some of its residents, accompanied by retreating Azerbaijani militia and self-defense forces, fled Khojaly seeking to cross the border to reach Aghdam, they approached Armenian military posts and were fired upon. The Azerbaijani government is currently conducting two investigations of the events, one carried out by a special parliamentary commission and another by the Procuracy. In addition, the Human Rights Center of Memorial, a prominent Russian nongovernmental organization, conducted an independent investigation of the incident in March 1992. According to Azerbaijani Procuracy officials, precise population is unknown since some residents may have fled earlier having presentiment of the massacre. In1988 Khojaly had only 2,000 residents and had the status of a village; its numbers grew as Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia were resettled there. The Azerbaijani government had also settled in Khojaly several hundred Mesheti Turks fleeing persecution in Central Asia. Finally, Azerbaijanis flocked there from other parts of Upper Garabagh, notably from Hankendi («Stepanakert»), and continued to do so after the Armenian forces overran their villages in the winter of 1991-92.

The only airport in Upper Garabagh is located in Khojaly. Since at least1990, an Azerbaijani militia unit was deployed in Khojaly, mainly with the purpose of defending the town and the airport. The exact number of militia deployed is unknown. Aidyn Rasulov, who lead the Azerbaijani Procuracy investigation of Khojaly tragedy puts the number at twenty-two, although displaced persons said that as many as forty militia men fled with the town's population. In addition, Khojaly had a self-defense group of about 200 men.

Armenians claim they sent an ultimatum to the Azerbaijani forces in Khojaly warning that unless missile attacks from that town on Hankendi («Stepanakert») are ceased, Armenian forces would attack. According to A.H., an Azerbaijani woman interviewed by Helsinki Watch in Baku, after Armenians seized Malybeyli, they made an ultimatum to Khojaly... that Khojaly people had better leave with a white flag. Alif Gajiev [the head of the militia in Khojaly] told us this on February 15, but this frightened neither me nor other people. We never believed they could occupy Khojaly.

According to nearly all of the twenty-two Azerbaijani witnesses of Khojaly events interviewed by Helsinki Watch, the village had been shelled almost on a daily basis during the winter of 1991-92, and people had got accustomed to spending nights in basements. The attack on Khojaly began about 11:00 P.M. on February 25, with heavy shelling and artillery fire. Hassan Alahierov, a construction worker, told Helsinki Watch, we were used to [hearing] shooting, but usually with machine guns. I was sleeping on the balcony and my son came to me and said that this was a different noise. I stood up and... saw BMPs [armed personnel carriers] and tanks shooting from all directions… When I went out I saw bombs falling everywhere. Several refugees reported that they saw houses burning during the attack on Khojaly or while they were fleeing the village. Zuleiha Dunemalieva (whose sister died of exposure during their flight from Khojaly) said that at about midnight or 1:00 am she saw the neighboring Mesheti Turks’ houses in fire: "Meshetis lived in our neighborhood in finnish-styled cottages. When their houses burnt off we got out right away». Most Khojaly residents remained in the town till about 3:00 am, some staying in basements in private houses. In addition, about 300 residents reportedly took shelter in the basement of a school. Some reported that they decided to leave at 3:00 am because the self-defense forces were running through the streets shouting instructions to people to run away. Residents fled the town in separate groups, amid chaos and panic, most of them without any belongings or clothes in cold weather. As a result, hundreds of people suffered - and some died - from severefrostbite. The majority of Khojaly residents went along a route that took them across a shallow river, through the mountains, and, by about dawn, towards an open field near the village of Nakhichevanik, controlled then by Armenians. The great deal of massacre took place here. Other people fled along different routes that took them directly by Shelli, an Azerbaijani village near Aghdam. A number of Khojaly survivors wandered through the forest for several days before finding their way to Aghdam environs.

3.1. Positioning of the Militia

Among one of these fleeing groups was the Azerbaijani OMON, led by Alif Gajiev, on retreat from the airport. According to several Helsinki Watch interviews, Alif directed the group seeking shelter in the school basement to leave the village. At Nakhichevanik Armenians and troops of Russian-possessed CIS 366th regiment opened fire on the retreating OMON militia and the fleeing residents. All Azerbaijanis interviewed who were in this group reported that the militia, still in uniform, and some still carrying their guns, were interspersed with the masses of civilians. For example, Hijran Alekpera, a twenty-three-year-old former bakery worker, described a mass of civilians who moved along surrounded by a ring of defenders. They tried to defend us. They had guns and they would try to shoot back".

According to a twenty-one-year-old Azerbaijani woman whose toes had to beamputated because of frostbite damage, The leaders of our group were men. TheArmenians opened fire as we approached the village [of Nakhichevanik]. They surrounded us firing heavily. There was shooting between Armenian soldiers and ours. S.A., a member of the militia unit, told Helsinki Watch "The retreat was not organized. We were all mixed together". Another young Azerbaijani woman who suffered frostbite on her legs also described the crossfire: "When Armenians saw us they began to shoot. We hid. At the same time Azerbaijanis shot back. They were Azerbaijani militia. Some of them were with us when we fled”.

3.2. Firing on Civilians

Witnesses to and victims of the shooting at Nakhichevanik told HelsinkiWatch of varying numbers of people who fell under fire, and described how they were wounded. Thirty-three-year-old Nigar Azizova who worked in a vegetable store, told Helsinki Watch that when the crowd started falling over bodies, they turned backand fled in different directions. The crowd was about sixty meters long. I was in the middle, and people in the front were mostly killed. At Nakhichevanik we saw people in front falling. They fell shouting. I recognized their faces. I could see their faces as we stepped over them. We covered the children's eyes so they do not see.

Mrs. Azizova listed eight people whose bodies she had to step over, and claimed that they had no guns: Elshan Abushov, Hassan Abushov, Zelif Alekhpeliev, Habib Abushov, Tevagul Alekhpelieva, Sakhvet Alekhpeliev (who reportedly was nine years old), Elmar Abdullaev and Etibar Aushev.

A young Azerbaijani woman who was eventually taken hostage told Helsinki Watch, "It was a cultivated field. We approached it and saw that they began to shoot. I had seen sixty people dead in the field. Those who were running away with me fell and died".

Hassan Alahierov said: "First we ran to Nakhichevanik, but when they began shooting people we ran to the other side. There was a BMP standing on the road – I didn't see it, I just saw the shells". Alahierov's eighteen-year-old daughter, who got separated from her father, said she saw the tank: "When the tank began to shoot we ran in all directions. I saw corpses scattered, and saw all the people surrounding them falling".

Fifty-one-year-old Balaoglan Allakhiarov said:

“We got to Nakhichevanik at 8:00 am and were in the middle of the field when they began to fire. They were shooting only from one direction - the forest. Then we ran off the field toward a canyon, where my wife and daughter-in-law were shot. They were shot from about twenty meters. My daughter-in-law had three shots - through the skull, in her stomach and in her leg. My wife was hit from behind. [The Armenians] took off their rings”.

At about 8:00 A.M. Nazile Khetemova received a gunshot wound in her left leg:

We were all crawling. Whoever stood up got wounded. I stood up to rest my legs and was wounded. I saw many people get shot, and we had to leave them as we crawled along. After I was wounded I didn't see many people pass me; they hid in the forest. I stayed in the snow until 7:00 pm. Members of the Popular Front came and helped me escape.

      Beginning February 27, Azerbaijani helicopters brought in personnel who attempted to collect bodies and assist the wounded. Some of the rescue team was wearing camouflage clothing, and they were constantly shot at by Armenian forces. Members of the first rescue group, who were accompanied by a French journalist, reported that some of the corpses had been scalped or otherwise mutilated. One member of the group videotaped the mission.

3.3. Death Toll

There are still no definitive figures on the number of civilians who were shot while fleeing Khojaly. According to Aiden Rasulov, more than 300 bodies showing evidence of a violent death were submitted for forensic examination. At the time of Helsinki Watch's visit to Baku, the results of these examinations had not been completed, and the investigative team was in the process of tracking down the corpses of Khojaly victims that had been removed from Aghdam by family members in the first days after the tragedy. Earlier figures made available by Azerbaijan and published by the Memorial group put the number of deaths resulting from gunshot, shrapnel, or other wounds at 181, (130 men and fifty-one women, including thirteen children). In addition, an undetermined number died of frostbite.

…

Upper Garabagh officials and fighters clearly expected the inhabitants of Khojaly to flee since they claim to have informed the town population that a corridor would be left open to allow for their safe passage. No witnesses interviewed by Helsinki Watch, however, said that they knew beforehand of such a corridor. In addition, although witnesses and victims gave varying testimony on the precise time the shooting began at Nakhichevanik, they all indicated that there was sufficient light to allow for reasonable visibility and thus, for the attackers to distinguish unarmed civilians from those who were armed and/or using weapons. Further, despite contradictory testimony about the direction from which the fire was coming, the evidence suggests that the attackers indiscriminately directed their fire at all fleeing persons. Under these circumstances, the killing of fleeing combatants could not justify the foreseeable large number of civilian casualties.

3.4. Malybeyli and Gushchular

This pair of Azerbaijani villages is separated by a low hill and shared the same village administration. They are located a few kilometers from Hankendi («Stepanakert»), and together, had a population of 4,000 men. Malybeyli and Gushchular had a joint self-defense unit of about eighty. According to a member of Gushchular self-defense forces, seventeen militia men served there, and a small unit of National Army was deployed in Gushchular in January for about twenty days. Azerbaijani forces reportedly shelled Armenian villages from this area.

By October 1991 residents of Malybeyli and Gushchular were basically confined to their villages, as traveling elsewhere was possible only by helicopter.

The majority of women and children were evacuated on December 12, according to a Helsinki Watch interview with a member of Gushchular self-defense forces, but many still remained. According to witnesses’ accounts, Armenian forces began heavy shooting and shelling of these two villages in December 1991. A report in the newspaper Express Chronics asserted that on February 5 a helicopter distributed leaflets warning villagers that they had two days to leave before "the settlement would cease to exist", but no interviewees confirmed this report. Armenian forces attacked these villages with heavy artillery and armed personnel carriers on the night of February 9-10, with the alleged aim of ending the shelling of Armenian villages. Malybeyli was attacked first, and most of its villagers reportedly fled to neighboring Gushchular. The entire attack lasted two days. Residents of Malybeyli and Gushchular reported that as they fled they saw, from top at kilometer away, houses in fire. They cannot return to their villages, which are now in Armenian hands. Eight people were reportedly killed as a result of Malybeyli asault, some of whom were women and children. Residents of Gushchular fled to Aghdam about 9:00 am on February 1l. An Azerbaijani who worked as a tractor mechanic on the local collective farm told Helsinki Watch, at 7:00 am Armenians surrounded the village from all sides and fired everywhere. At 8:00 am [our] soldiers told us we had to leave the village. Some of us were killed on the road while fleeing. According to the reports of several eyewitnesses, the militia and self-defense forces, which still had their guns, were mixed with civilians as they were fleeing. According to twenty-seven-year-old Gulbenes Zenalova, a woman from Gushchular:

On February 11, shooting started, and we could see that Malybeyli wasburning. We fled to Aghdam on the Abu Gulabli road, the only way out. While we fled they attacked us at Garov, Piramali, and Demirli villages where Armenians had posts. Everyone left together, at 9 or so. The militia defended us while we were retreating. My 5 years old niece was injured; I saw blood on her head. Bullets were flying whining everywhere. We would hurry along, and when they would shoot we would hide behind the trees. I saw three people fall from being shot. They weren't armed: Ali Allakhverdov, fifty-five to sixty years old, with seven sons and a daughter; Akhmedov Gunduz, eighteen years old; and a nineteen-year-old boy Elshan. Rafael Guliev, who described himself as Malybeyli representative, alleged that the self-defense forces and Armenian fighters exchanged fire. Guliev told Helsinki Watch: “We met Armenian fighters in the forest around noon. We shouted at them to let the women and kids go and we men will stay here. The Armenians said "give us your weapons and we will let the women and kids through".

There were soldiers in our village, Russians and Ukrainians who fled from their divisions in Hankendi («Stepanakert»). Three of them holding white handkerchiefs approached the Armenians but they opened fire. Then they shot at us, and the self-defense groups… returned fire. We had to take women out through the forest to Abu Gulably village. During the eight hours on the way sometimes we had to fight. The men were fighting and people fled as best they could.

I don't know what's happened to my house, but I saw [houses] in the villageburning There was a mountain on the way when we left, in the village of Garokh. They were Finnish houses, and they had a stone foundation and the rest was made ofpine. [One of them belonged to] a man Vagif, an electrician. Masahir Bairanov, who said he moved to Malybeyli in 1989 because "Armenians were pressuring us" in his home village of Hasanabad, also was an eyewitness to the exchange between Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Russian soldiers described above by Mr. Guliev. A member of the self-defense forces, Bairanov told Helsinki Watch:

“We told the Russian soldiers, you're Christians - perhaps they won't kill you. The Russians just went. They didn't object. When Russians went up to them with white flags they had no arms. I had my hunting gun. All three of them were killed”.

A thirty-six-year-old member of the self-defense forces of that village wounded retreating from Gushchular told Helsinki Watch: "I saw my house on fire. From the mountain ridge I saw how the village was burning… they entered the houses, and when they went out, the houses were on fire".

Among the eight civilians reported killed in the seizure of Malybeyli and Gushchular was Nubar Zenalova. Her son, a sixty-four-year-old retired collective farm worker stayed in his house with Zenalova, who was alleged to be 110 years old. Mr. Zenalov told Helsinki Watch:

We lived well and had a good house.... On February 11 Armenians assaulted the village.... I didn't flee because my mother is very old and couldn't leave. I was at home when they [Armenians] came into my house and pointed a gun on my head. They killed my mother, Nubar Zenalova. There were three other women in my house, and they were taken hostage… They took [at least three] people from the village, and all were my relatives. One was eighty-four, Yunis Guliev - he's in the hospital; Kerim Kerimov, sixty-six years old (he's also in the hospital); and Gafar Zuneilov, who's sixty-one.

The same man told Helsinki Watch that he had heard that his house was burnt, although he did not see it burn itself. He was eventually taken hostage; while his captors held him briefly in Malybeyli the man allegedly saw about twelve cars hauling things away from the houses, including carpets.

He told Helsinki Watch:

I didn't see [my house] burn, but I heard when they were taking us to Hankendi («Stepanakert») the commander ordering them to burn the house after they robbed it. I was in basement when Armenians came. They said they were ordered not to burn the house as long as they were robbing it.... I saw the school and the club burning in the village.

3.5. Kerkijahan

Kerkijahan is a village inhabited entirely by Azerbaijanis, consisting of 400 houses on a hill overlooking Hankendi («Stepanakert»). It was attacked twice by Armenian forces - on December 5-6 and on December 28 - seeking to seize its missile launchers. During these attacks many civilian houses were reportedly burnt. Most of Kerkijahan women and children left after the first attack in early December.

Rahila Hiziyeva, a young Azerbaijani woman who fled on December 5-6 told Helsinki Watch that "…two houses were burning in our neighborhood, and then at midnight soldiers came to take out the women and children. Forty or fifty people fled that night to Shusha".

An elderly Azerbaijani woman who stayed in Kerkijahan until December 28 reported that her nephew had returned to the village and discovered that her house had been burnt. ‘All houses had collapsed and their walls were blackened’, she told Helsinki Watch. According to Helsinki Watch a woman who had worked as a seller in Hankendi («Stepanakert») until 1988, Gariba Iliasly attempted to return to Kerkijahan to get her documents and money she had left there. On her way out of the village, she was killed as well as her husband, and their bodies were mutilated.

3.6. Djemili

Djemili is an Azerbaijani village of about 220 houses surrounded by three Armenian villages (Balodjo, Khannazek, and Mekhtkend) with which it shared a state farm. According to Helsinki Watch the village was frequently fired from nearby foothills and in January it was shelled. Houses in Djemili were made of stone and located very closely to each other. Sevender Kerimov:

‘During the shelling in January we were staying in a basement, and someone from the self-defense troops came and said my house had been struck by a BMP shell. We could see the house from a distance. It was destroyed, but not burnt. Our house was on the top of the canyon. There were ten [Azerbaijani] policemen in our village who mainly lived in our houses. One of them lived in my house. There was no police station at all. My house was not near any of self-defense posts.

I saw the tanks shelling us from a distance. I saw four, but there must have been more’.

3.7. Akholu

Located in the Gadrut district this Azerbaijani village had consisted of about 200 houses and 850 inhabitants. The village was fired and shelled daily. Shamma Gulieva, an Azerbaijani woman from Akholu who worked as a doctor's assistant told Helsinki Watch:

“We couldn't even get water. We had to go out of our house through the window because our door faced the Armenian side and if they saw us they would fire at us. During the last month we had to live at our relatives'.

Gulieva and her husband left with the other villagers on January 9 because the shelling (Armenians used “Alazani missiles”, grenades and other weapons) became so bad that it was impossible to stay. Next morning we crept through the bushes and cemetery and saw houses in our village burning. We did not go back to the village after that. Armenians had posts – next morning our men tried to see the village but they saw us and opened fire. No one was injured from that incident, however.

3.8. Kosalar

Kosalar consists of five separate clusters of sixty or seventy houses each, with a total population of 2500 people. Assaults reportedly began on December 25, around February 25 the village's women and children left, leaving the men to fight. On February 9 the home of M.D., interviewed by Helsinki Watch in Yevlakh, was hit with a rocket, destroying one of its walls. M.D. was in the cellar located several meters from the house itself. No self-defense posts w ere in that area:

"They shot right in the middle and we had to leave», she told Helsinki Watch.

Zemfira Gulieva told Helsinki Watch that she left February 26 because the village was fired every day including shelling. Some houses were burnt, and so were the roofs of others. The rockets went off around all five sub-villages and in the center. In one of the sub-villages I saw two houses - one was totally destroyed and the other was burnt. Kosalar was later seized by Armenian forces on May 10.

4. INDISCRIMINATE ATTACKS, TARGETING CIVILIAN STRUCTURES

Armenian forces actively shelled and sniped towns and villages. The shelling itself damaged and destroyed hospitals, houses and other objects that are not legitimate military targets under applicable humanitarian law rules. These attacks killed and crippled hundreds of civilians, and generally were aimed at civilian population.

4.1. Shusha

Shusha was the major Azerbaijani stronghold in Upper Garabagh until it was occupied by Armenian forces on May 12, 1992. It was the launching site formissile attacks on Hankendi («Stepanakert») and neighboring towns, and a target for shelling from Hankendi («Stepanakert»). As Hankendi was situated lower than Shusha Armenians used antiaircraft missiles to shell the town. Azerbaijanis started evacuation of women and children in early February 1992. according to the accounts of former residents, shelling was either indiscriminate or intentionally aimed at civilian targets.

Gulsheli Hasanova, a twenty-two-year-old Azerbaijani woman, told HelsinkiWatch:

“We had to leave the city because it was often bombed and because there was no heat or running water. The shelling had been going on for a long time but lately it had become impossible to live. Our house had been damaged in by shell, but I wasn't there when it happened. Many buildings were destroyed on our Niazi Street, one was destroyed during funeral. The hospital and polyclinic were destroyed long before in 1992. The factory where I worked and most of the municipal buildings were destroyed and this all happened in the latest months”.

Another young woman who left Shusha on February 22, reported that house hit by a shell on February 15, destroying the balcony and its adjoining wall. Her house was located in the town's center, near the market and the city Administration building. Her mother who lived with the young woman, reported that in early March most of the upper part of Shusha had been destroyed, with some damaged one to the mosque. Rahila Hiziyeva who early had fled Kerkijahan in early December to stay with relatives in Shusha, told Helsinki Watch:

“Chiefly they [Armenians] would try to shell military objects and hospital. The hospital operating room was destroyed in February. The wall of one of our bedrooms was destroyed on February 3. The bedroom was destroyed and the corridor was damaged. Its windows faced Shusha Kent, where Armenians lived”.

4.2. Malybeyli

Masahir Bahirov, a former collective farm worker and member of Malybeyli self-defense forces, reported Helsinki Watch about the damage done to his house by Armenian shelling attacks during the winter of 1992:

“I lived in a house with my father and brother. There were three families living in the house.... While my father and brother were out def ending the village the roof was destroyed. A BMP missile hit it and the stones fell in. The shrapnel remained in the house. This was February 5; fortunately the children were in the basement. No one from my family was injured, but our neighbor's child was. He was staying in our basement as well. His name is Niazi Aslanov, he was in the eighth grade, fourteen year sold. He was wounded on the leg and stomach with shrapnel.

4.3. Khojaly

Before it was occupied by Armenian forces, Khojaly had been continuously shelled during the winter months of 1991-1992 (see above). The shelling would occur mostly at night hours. According to reports by Khojaly refugees some of the shelling was done indiscriminately, and some directly aimed at civilian targets which resulted in civilian casualties.

A middle-aged mother of six children told Helsinki Watch that although her house had only been slightly damaged, most of the neighboring houses were either fully destroyed or had holes in their roofs caused by missile shelling. She further provided a brief description of the deaths of two of her neighbors, a young, newly married couple who died in early February when a missile hit their house.

M.Abasova, aged 21:

“We got to Shelli at around 4:00 pm. They opened fire at us so we lay down. There were no soldiers with us. Then we were surrounded. We asked them not to take us, but they said they couldn't release us and had to take us to their commander. They took us to Pirdjamal. When we got there we saw people from another group who had separated from us earlier. I was kept with my family in an old cow-house. Then they separated out the women and children to exchange them. They began beating the men with rifle butts and clubs. There was a wall separating us but it didn't go to the end, so I could see a little. My father was beaten. Next started beating women and stole everything. I was kept three days with my family and two days on my own. We were taken to Hankendi («Stepanakert») with my sisters and other women”.

A twenty-year-old Azeri girl who received a bullet wound in her left leg at Nakhichevanik was reportedly captured along with twelve other people (including five women) by seven or eight Armenian soldiers. According to her account, no members of the self-defense forces were with her. Her captors ordered the group to give up their valuables, mostly rings, chains, and earrings worn by women. The girl told Helsinki Watch:

"We were taken by foot to the Askeran police station and put in one cell. All the men were taken away. Then I was put in a cell with thirty or forty other women from Khojaly. The policee chief came and told us not to be afraid, that we would be exchanged.... Long-haired men with beards and bullet-proof vests would come by and rape us. Sometimes we were given a little bread and water.

4.4. Aghdam

In early March, Armenian forces began intense shelling of towns located along the eastern border separating Upper Garabagh from the rest of Azerbaijani territory. These towns are Aghdam and Fizuli (including suburbs), which are staging grounds for Azerbaijani operations in Upper Garabagh. Among the civilian structures destroyed in Aghdam was the central market. Helsinki Watch representatives noted that the market was totally burnt out in what appeared to be a perfect hit, and that little damage was evident to the streets or houses surrounding it. The makeshift hospital located in railroad cars near the Popular Front command headquarters, was bombed in early March. A cafe director told Helsinki Watch that two people in his neighborhood were killed by a “Grad” missile explosion on March 23. One of them, Ekhbar Husseinov, was returning home when a rocket exploded in front of a store. He also reported that he saw considerable damage on Azbekov, Voroshilov and Kirov streets all apparently residential areas.

On April 11 at 4:00 pm a grenade blew up the house of Sevil Pashaieva located in the woods near Aghdam. Shrapnel from the explosion caused head wounds to her 1 year old son Seymur. According to Semur's doctors interviewed by Halsinki Watch at the Aghdam Military Hospital, Mrs. Pashaieva who was holding her son in her arms at the time, sustained shrapnel wounds to her legs.

4.5. Abu Gulabli

On April 24, fourteen-year-old Ali Biramov was herding cattle near his house when bullets of a high caliber machine gun hit his hands; all his fingers were amputated. It is not known if his home was located near a military post.

4.6. Papravend

On April 24 Zahir Gambarov, a twelve-year-old Azerbaijani boy, was playing in his yard when a shell exploded near him causing shrapnel wounds. His family’s house located ten meters away from that place was not seriously damaged. According to the boys account, the village self-defense post is located in the mountains, and not near his home.

4.7. Gushchular

50 hostages were reported seized as a result of assault made on Gushchular village, most of them elderly people. Helsinki Watch spoke with one of them; a woman of about sixty named Gulustan Akhmedova was captured at Deheraz as she was fleeing:

“Two of us were taken, me and Aisha Zenalova. I had taken 6,000 rubles with me. The Armenians took that money and our golden valuables in Agbulaq, next they took us to Askeran. They kept us for a week in a bull-pen (pre-trial detention cell). We were the only ones in the bull-pen. Then an Armenian from Ketikh came and took us home for a week; there we were kept in a basement. They gave us a piece of black bread in the mornings and evenings and a pot of tea. The host said his son was in Shusha and they were going to exchange us. He didn't beat us or do anything to us. Then we were taken to Dashalti. Two Armenian men beat us with sticks. They struck us on our hands and faces and insulted us in azeri language. We were in black and blue bruises. One of Armenians said the Muslims had killed his father, the other said they had killed his brother. They left us outdoors, and we had to stay outside all night.

Then they took us to the forest between Shusha and Dashalti and exchanged us there.

Niazi Zenialov, a sixty-four-year-old man whose mother was killed by Armenian fighters, related his experience to Helsinki Watch:

“…armenians came in about 9:00 or 10:00 am. They didn't say anything; just hit me on the neck with a butt. Then they said they would take us to Hankendi («Stepanakert») and kill us. They said it in Armenian. Other Armenians spoke in wrong Armenian; so I understood they were not local. They were speaking in a different Armenian dialect I couldn't understand… They took four of us in a truck to Malybeyli and then in a van. They didn't put handcuffs or blindfolds on us. We went to the headquarters in Hankendi («Stepanakert»). One man came to the car, pointed at me and said ‘One of my relatives has been imprisoned by Azerbaijanis. I'll take him home’. Then three Armenians came and took the other three men. I never saw them again.

I was taken by car to the house of that Armenian. They threw me in the basement where I had to stay for two months.... They didn’t allow me to get fresh air. The house was on Gorki Street. Slavik Arapetian was a prisoner in Azerbaijan, and his wife took care of me. She was educated woman aged thirty-five or forty and taught Russian in school. She said her husband was arrested in May. She said, ‘I'm taking care of you only because of my husband. There's no food here – how can I feed you?’

When Armenians came to beat me up she wouldn't let them; she would fight with them. They would come almost every night and talk about the villages they seized, threatening to kill my sons. Later they exchanged me near Aghdam for Slavik Arapetian”.

Bakhlyl Pashaev, a man in his late fifties who took no part in military activities, told Helsinki Watch he was captured on February 26, 1992, at Deheraz when he was fleeing with his family from Khojaly. Along with a huge crowd of other Khojaly residents, he was taken first to a barn, where their belongings including clothes were expropriated. Two days later a group of nineteen Azerbaijanis, including Pashaev, were taken back to Khojaly, where they were beaten with butts, and then to the Hankendi («Stepanakert») prison. He was detained in a cell along with seven other people; each day of his detention about five Armenian men reportedly came to the cell and beat them.

Pashaev and the other captives were given fifty grams of bread per day, and had no mattresses to sleep on. During Pashaev's captivity six separate international and humanitarian delegations visited the Hankendi («Stepanakert») prison. Pashaev said that before each of these visits, his Armenian captors threatened to beat the hostages if the latter told the missions they were beaten or related about their conditions. Pashaev was released on April 20, after fifty-five days of captivity.

A twenty-one-year-old Azerbaijani woman' and her brother were seized while fleeing Khojaly and brought to the Askeran police station. The woman witnessed her brother beaten: “They wanted to exchange me but I didn't want to go because my brother was still a hostage. He was beaten four days long. I could hear his wails. Then I stayed in a cell with my brother. They beat him in front of me with metal rods, and bashed his lip with a machine gun. I was released on March 4 with my brother and four other people”.

In relation to the Khojaly events, the Azerbaijanis claim that Armenian forces prevented the evacuation of the dead bodies and wounded men. Representatives of the Azerbaijani Procuracy team investigating Khojaly events told Helsinki Watch that attempts to rescue the wounded and collect the bodies of the dead, which began on February 27, 1992, were repeatedly either quit or had to be aborted because of shooting by Armenian forces. As a result, some victims were left lying in the snow awaiting help. Aiden Rasulov, head of the procuracy effort, told Helsinki Watch that during the first rescue attempt the team saw a girl lying on the ground and trying to move to attract attention. When the helicopter attempted to land, however, Armenian forces opened fire.

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