Azernews.Az

Ethnic Armenian separatists, with Armenian support, continued to control most of the Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories, the US State Department has said in its annual report on human rights.

``During the year shooting incidents continued along the militarized line of contact separating the two sides in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and caused numerous casualties on both sides. Figures for civilian casualties along the line of contact were not available,`` according to the ``Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011``.

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. The ensuing war claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced up to a million Azerbaijanis. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territory, defying international calls and UN resolutions. Peace talks, brokered by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.

Regarding the human rights situation in Azerbaijan in 2011, the State Department report, along with citing positive developments such as the absence of politically motivated disappearances, restrictions on access to the Internet and anti-Semitism, expressed concern about the state of freedom of speech and assembly, and the judiciary.

Karabakh victims
A US congressional panel has suggested providing financial assistance to the victims of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict for the 2013 fiscal year, despite opposing efforts of the Armenian lobby, a diplomatic source in Washington told Trend news agency last Friday.

If the measure, offered by the subcommittee on foreign operations of the US Congress Appropriations Committee during discussions of next year`s draft budget, passes in the legislature, the Senate is to assign financial assistance to the refugees and IDPs displaced during the Karabakh war in the early 1990s.

The subcommittee also called for a peaceful settlement to the territorial dispute.

Armenians around the world have been making an effort to counter the inclusion into the US draft budget of a clause on assistance to the victims of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The inclusion of this clause shows that the U.S. recognizes the presence of victims of the conflict and calls on the Senate to provide them with financial assistance.