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Official: Armenia created obstacles in demining process

23 October 2022 14:39 (UTC+04:00)
Official: Armenia created obstacles in demining process

By Sabina Mammadli

Armenia has created multiple obstacles to hinder landmine clearance on Azerbaijan's liberated lands, Chairman of the Board of Azerbaijani National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) Vugar Suleymanov has said.

He made the remarks during panel discussions at the Baku International Conference of Ombudspersons, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Ombudsman's Office of Azerbaijan.

"They willfully scattered scrap metal and iron nails in mined areas. All this slows down the work of landmine detectors," Suleymanov added.

Further, the official reminded that Azerbaijan purchased 18 vehicles for landmine clearance in 2021, adding that following the signed contract, another vehicle is supposed to be purchased by the end of 2022 or January 2023.

"The landmine clearance vehicles are mainly bought from Slovakia and Croatia, and it is more convenient for our employees to work with them. In addition, we're able to repair these vehicles ourselves, if necessary," Suleymanov specified.

He noted that the Azerbaijani territories, which have been under 30-year-long Armenian occupation, are contaminated with landmines and the landmine maps provided by Armenia were reliable only by two percent.

"The de-mining operations established areas where eight mines were planted per square meter. A total of 30 anti-tank plastic landmines were discovered on ​​a 50 square meters area while conducting landmine clearance activities during the construction of the Horadiz-Aghband railroad line," Suleymanov added.

Armenia spared no efforts to plant land mines on Azerbaijani territory, not only during the 30 years of occupation but also just before days of leaving Azerbaijani lands as envisaged in the trilateral statement in order to cause human casualties.

Armenia deliberately and constantly planted mines on Azerbaijani territories, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, thereby being a major threat to regional peace, security, and cooperation.

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