Baku, February 13 (AZERTAC). The UN Security Council has held an open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

Addressing the event, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Yves Daccordalso stressed the importance of the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

Deputy Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Tofig Musayev also addressed the event.

“Fifteen years ago the Security Council adopted its first resolution (resolution 1265 (1999)) on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, which, inter alia, explicitly mandated a United Nations peacekeeping operation to protect civilians. Indeed, since then a number of important efforts have been undertaken to increase attention of the international community, develop the normative basis and enhance the implementation of protection mandates by peacekeeping operations.

At the same time, numerous challenges remain and civilians continue to account for the vast majority of casualties in armed conflicts. As the latest report of the Secretary-General on the topic acknowledges, "[t]he current state of the protection of civilians leaves little room for optimism" (S/2013/689). The increasing brutality of armed conflicts and the changing nature of warfare nowadays give rise to the need for greater measures of protection at the national and international levels.

More resolute and targeted measures are required to end impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. As the Secretary-General noted in his report, impunity contributes to instability, allows war crimes and serious human rights violations to thrive, undermines the fabric of societies and prevents the development of lasting solutions. When national authorities fail to take the steps necessary to ensure accountability, the international community should play a more proactive role in order to ensure an appropriate response, including through the establishment of ad hoc tribunals, international commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions.

Particular consideration must be given to the protection of civilians forced to leave their homes as a result of armed conflict. Azerbaijan supports the continuing efforts to raise awareness of the problem of internal displacement and the right of return.

My country's familiarity with the suffering of civilians in armed conflict is not based on hearsay. The forcible deportation of more than 200 thousand Azerbaijanis from their homes in Armenia at the end of the 1980s was accompanied by killings, torture and other crimes. Even children were not spared.

The period from 1991 until the establishment of the ceasefire in 1994 was marked by an increase in the magnitude, intensity and consistency of the attacks on Azerbaijani civilians. In February 1992, the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly was completely razed to the ground and its civilian population was subjected to an unprecedented massacre by the invading Armenian forces. Impunity still enjoyed by the perpetrators of the crimes committed during the conflict continues to impede progress in achieving the long-awaited peace and reconciliation between the two countries.

Despite the formal ceasefire, deliberate attacks against Azerbaijani civilians and civilian objects have become more frequent and more violent over recent months. Even the calls from the United Nations Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and other members of the international community to observe the Olympic Truce during the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi did not prevent the Armenian side from escalating the situation along the frontline.

Azerbaijan strongly condemns all attacks against civilians. They should not pay the price for the lack of progress in the settlement process. In that context, it is important that the Security Council, Member States and regional organizations ensure that peace efforts, inter alia, contribute to ensuring accountability, including by encouraging the parties concerned to envisage transitional justice and reparation clauses in peace agreements. It is essential that such efforts and peace agreements under no circumstances encourage the acceptance of situations achieved by the unlawful use of force and other serious violations of international law, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

In response to allegations of an Armenian representative, Musayev said: “Attempts by Armenia to disguise its aggression and thereby to assert its innocence for crimes committed against Azerbaijani civilians are unlikely to be taken seriously, given the incontrovertible evidence testifying to the diametrically opposite situation.

The arguments of the Armenian side are particularly astonishing as they sound in the Security Council, which in 1993 adopted a series of four resolutions condemning the use of force against Azerbaijan and the occupation of its territories by the Armenian forces, reaffirming respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the international borders of Azerbaijan and demanding immediate, full and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from all its occupied territories.

The aforementioned Security Council resolutions also made specific reference to violations of international humanitarian law, including the displacement of a large number of civilians in Azerbaijan, attacks on civilians, and bombardments of inhabited areas.

While trying to accuse Azerbaijan of alleged "anti-Armenian propaganda" and referring to ambiguous, politically motivated and groundless interpretations of the Khojaly massacre, the representative of Armenia at the same time not only refrains from commenting on the views expressed by the European Court of Human Rights, authoritative international non-governmental organizations and eyewitnesses of the tragedy, but also neglects to clarify the revelations of his own country's high-ranking officials and the direct participants in the crime, who in turn unequivocally admitted their responsibility for the extermination of the inhabitants and defenders of Khojaly.

Armenia’s widespread, deliberate and systematic policy of aggression and hatred is clearly reflected in the famous interview of 15 December 2000 with the then Defense Minister, now the incumbent President of Armenia. Responding to the question as to whether things could have happened differently and whether he had any regrets about the deaths of thousands of people as a result of the Armenian attacks against Azerbaijani civilians, he said frankly: "I have absolutely no regrets", since "such upheavals are necessary, even if thousands have to die". No further comments are needed here to explain the logic and the attitude of the Armenian leadership to the issue of civilian protection and the peaceful settlement of the conflict.”