Azernews.Az

First Vice-Speaker Ziyafat Asgarov has dismissed reports that food poisoning caused the recent sickness of over one hundred soldiers at a military unit in Baku.
164 soldiers at the Defense Ministry`s Garaheybat training center in the Garadagh district were hospitalized early on May 27 due to what preliminary reports suggested was food poisoning. All of the soldiers were returned to their military base after their condition stabilized. The servicemen were said to have suffered from poisoning after eating canned fish. Official sources did not cite causes of the contamination, while some media circulated reports that the incident could have been a deliberately-staged provocation.
Asgarov, who chairs the parliamentary committee on security and defense, told reporters that Aydin Mirzazada, deputy chairman of the committee, has examined the military unit in question, while he, himself, had contacted Defense Ministry officials and scrutinized the incident.
"I can say for certain that suggestions about a food poisoning sustained by the soldiers are baseless," Asgarov said, adding that actual reasons of the incident would be divulged upon completion of the ongoing probe by investigators.
Mirzazada noted that his visit to the training center was to thoroughly examine the military unit and soldiers` nutrition, in particular. The committee deputy chair said he was there at dinner time and had a meal along with the servicemen.
"The meal had been cooked quite well. We examined the food storage and found that the food supply is renewed on a daily basis and that it is not stored for a long period of time. The food is definitely examined by a doctor before being served to the soldiers. While we were there, we saw several boxes of canned food, and some of that was dished up in our presence. We did not observe any unsanitary conditions or lack of quality."
Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry has announced the outcome of laboratory tests conducted on the samples taken from the servicemen. According to Eldar Sabiroghlu, the ministry spokesman, the medical examination revealed gastro-intestinal distress among the soldiers.

Casualties
Military expert, retired lieutenant-colonel Uzeyir Jafarov, pointed out that the Azerbaijani army has sustained 35 casualties during the past five months of 2009. The loss of life is mainly due to ceasefire violations on the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, as well as food poisoning cases and violations of by-laws in military units.
Jafarov said that, according to official estimates, 500 soldiers had been poisoned by contaminated food from 2003-2009, and 20 of them died.
"The Azerbaijani army`s biggest problem is the lack of public oversight that does not allow it to check to what extent the cited figures comply with reality. Although deaths of soldiers take place in the central military hospital and the hospitals at garrisons, these facts are not being divulged to the public. The Defense Ministry considers the job done after having transferred the dead bodies of the soldiers to their families, and often no one is punished over these facts," he said.
The latest case of deaths in the Azerbaijani military took place on May 23 when four servicemen died and one was wounded after a 19-year-old serviceman opened fire during military exercises in the Shamkir district.