European Lawmakers call on Baku to Stop Using Own Civilians as Human Shields

BRUSSELS””Members of the European Parliament Marek Jurek of Poland and Costas Mavrides of Cyprus urged Azerbaijan to stop using its own civilian population as a human shields and to implement independent investigative mechanisms sponsored by the OSCE on the Artsakh-Azerbaijan border, known as the Line of Contact.

“On July 4, 2017 Azerbaijani armed forces violated the cease-fire regime in the contact line. Azerbaijan had installed a multiple rocket launcher system in an inhabited village, thus using its own civilian population as a human shield. The cross-fire resulted in a tragic loss of two civilians on the Azerbaijani side. We deplore the loss of two innocent lives and emphasize that this tragedy, as well as other clashes between the armed forced could have certainly been avoided, if Azerbaijan agreed to install an independent investigative mechanism to determine which side exactly violates the cease-fire. The OSCE Minsk-Group has proposed this on several occasions. The Armenian side has agreed to install this mechanism. Unfortunately, official Azerbaijan continues to reject it”