Interior Minister of Azerbaijan, Colonel-General Ramil Usubov met Thursday with EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby, according to the Ministry’s Press Service.

General Usubov informed the guest on the structure and activities of the Interior Ministry.

Looking back at the first years of independence, he let him know that the Armenian military aggression on the one hand, and incompetence of the then authorities on the other, had plunged the country into chaos, anarchy and atmosphere of impunity. The Minister noted that it was the great statesman Heydar Aliyev who returned to power in Azerbaijan at the people’s urgent request whose decisive measures allowed taking control of crime situation and restoring socio-political stability in the country.

“For the past decade, over 30,000 illegally stored firearms have been confiscated, and now the republic is among those in CIS having the least number of crimes per 100 thousand residents,” Usubov said.

The General especially emphasized that the national leader- led democratic and legal reforms, including in the interior bodies, and the activities towards creation of a European values-based society, are now being successfully continued by the incumbent President Ilham Aliyev.

He added that protection of democratic principles and human rights and freedoms is one of the priorities of interior bodies’ everyday work. “New laws regulating activities of the interior bodies have been passed taking into account the recommendations of the Council of Europe experts, and some 1,000 employees have been sent to USA and European countries to improve their professional skills and gain experience,” Ramil Usubov said.

Comparing the facts of law observance by the staff in 1998-2002 and 2002-2007, he pointed out that over the period the number of violations decreased three times, while in the past five years, 621 people were punished, of whom 38 were arrested and 113 were sacked from interior bodies for violations of human rights and freedoms.

General Usubov also stressed the importance for the states and international organizations to join efforts in fight against transnational organized crime, illegal migration, trafficking in human, drug trafficking and other dangerous activities, that he said is acquiring a global scale.

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby thanked the Azerbaijani Interior Minister for the detailed information and expressed confidence that his visit will give a new impetus to the increasingly widening cooperation between the country and the European Union. He also expressed satisfaction with Azerbaijan’s rapid integration into the European values concerning the human rights and freedoms.

Ramil Usubov and Peter Semneby also discussed a number of other issues of mutual interest.