June 3, 2004 - 19:46 AMT
INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS DENY REPORTS ON PRESENCE OF AZERI CHILDREN IN LACHIN CAMPS
The International Working Group (IWG) for Release of Prisoners of War and Search for Hostages and the Missing in the zone of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict states that the reports that Azeri children kamikaze are present in Lachin camps are not true. This is stated in a press release of the IWG, whose Co-Chairs visited Lachin lately. According to the report, May 20 this year Zerkalo Azeri newspaper published an article of Lala Nuri titled "Lachin is "Buchenwald" for Azeri children. The article emerged after IWG Co-Chair P. Zakareishvili called calumny the statements of turncoats Roman Tarian and Artur Apresian, who went to Baku, that the Armenian party makes kamikazes out of Azeri children taken prisoners. The article said that certain businessman Asaf Alimardanov called up the editor's office of the newspaper and told "when visiting occupied Lachin in 90-s, his colleague American engineer Terry Cagle met with Azeri children kept by Armenians." At the instance of Zerkalo newspaper Alimardanov again got in touch with Cagle to "get proof of the fact Azeri children were kept in a special camp in Lachin." Journalist Nuri suggested that IWG members find the Azeri children and return them to their fatherland. In response to the IWG inquiry Terry Cagle expressed bewilderment regarding the reports arrogated to him, flatly denying the information the article contained. At that he suggested to get in touch with pastor D. Goehring and missioner S. Brown, who performed many humanitarian missions in Lachin within Agape project. Conversation with them showed they rendered assistance to a child institution, where Armenian children were brought up.