Kurdish Human Rights Project: This is the legacy website of the Kurdish Human Rights Project, containing reports and news pertaining to human rights issues in the Kurdish Regions for 20 years. |
You are here:
Charity Awards
Gruber Prize
Gruber Justice Prize
| Baku-Ceyhan Campaign Representatives Face Intimidation in Azerbaijan |
|
KHRP is alarmed to learn that representatives of its partners in the Baku-Ceyhan Campaign have been detained and intimidated by police during a research mission in Azerbaijan. Representatives of KHRP’s partner organisations Platform and the Centre for Civic Initiatives (CCI) were visiting the village of Hajalli in the district of Samukh as part of an investigation into whether British Petroleum is fulfilling it commitments to local residents affected by the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. In the course of their visit, they were arbitrarily detained by security forces for approximately three hours, faced intimidation and threats for asking questions about the pipeline, and had documents confiscated. Villagers also faced intimidation and subsequently expressed fears that they would lose their jobs as punishment for speaking to Platform and CCI. The research mission is part of ongoing work that the Baku-Ceyhan Campaign has been undertaking for several years, which includes investigating reported practices and policies of the states and companies involved in the pipeline project that have infringed on villagers’ rights to property and livelihood, and that have also resulted in allegations of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment. ‘The BTC pipeline has already caused substantial environmental damage and incidents like this only serve to underline the lack of transparency surrounding the project and serious concerns about the treatment of those whose lives have been affected by it,’ said KHRP Executive Director Kerim Yıldız. ‘The Azerbaijani authorities and all parties involved in the BTC pipeline must take all necessary steps to ensure that the villagers caught up in this incident face no further punitive measures, and that research of this kind is proactively facilitated rather than obstructed.’
|