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Azerbaijan submits first anti-personnel mine report to UN

21 November 2008 14:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanovâ€“APA. Azerbaijan submitted its first report to the United Nations in accordance with Article 7 of the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, Director of Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) Nazim Ismayilov told APA. He said the report was delivered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to UN Headquarter and other international agencies. â€œAzerbaijan did not join the Ottawa Convention because of its state of war. However the report is good evidence that Baku is observing the international law. We noted about the works done in elimination of mines and unexploded ammunitions. The UN and other international organizations welcomed Azerbaijanâ€™s reportâ€.

The ANAMA Director said the report didnâ€™t cover Nagorno Karabakh and seven nearby regions occupied by Armenia and being out of control of the central government.
Ismayilov said the document would be submitted at the meeting in Geneva on November 24 dedicated to the prohibition of anti-personnel mines.

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction was signed in 1997 in Ottawa, Canada. 158 countries signed the Convention and 156 of them ratified it. 39 countries, including Azerbaijan and other South Caucasian countries did not join the Convention.