Civilian death toll in mine explosions in liberated lands reaches 10
By Aisha Jabbarova
Azerbaijani civilians continue to suffer from the mines planted during the three decades of the Armenian occupation.
Ten civilians have been killed and 21 others have been injured in mine explosions in Azerbaijan’s newly-liberated lands since the signing of the peace deal on November 10, the Prosecutor-General’s Office has reported.
The office warned citizens against visiting the formerly occupied lands without obtaining permission.
Armenia has refused to provide maps for around 100,000 mines planted during around 30 years of occupation of Azerbaijani lands.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s Agency for Mine Action has executed 1,800 operational and emergency field visits as response action to 2,300 calls from September 27, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers has said in its report for the past year.
As a result of the inspections, 1,600 unexploded munitions, 4,500 pieces of anti-infantry mines, 1,400 pieces of anti-tank mines, 1,900 pieces of anti-tank mine explosive fuses, 77 pieces of detonators, 1,400 pieces of 9N235 type bombs, 21,000 patrons of various calibers, 2 gas-grenades, 6 kg grams of black gunpowder, 275 kg of plastic explosives, 150 kg of ammonium-nitrate explosives, 17 meteorological radio direction detectors for military purposes, 7 drones (neutralized), 2 schemes for missiles and 1,900 unexploded missile parts have been found, the report said.
Some experts believe that Armenia has spent $350 million to mine lands in and around Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region that were liberated from occupation in the 44-day war.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on February 26 described Armenia’s failure to provide the maps of mined areas in liberated lands as the main difficulty for Azerbaijani IPDs to return to their homes. He said that this can also be considered to be a war crime as several servicemen and civilians were killed in mine blasts on liberated territories after the war.