Boutros-Ghali urges Armenia to pull out troops

Boutros-Ghali urges Armenia to pull out troops

BAKU (AFP): UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called on Armenia yesterday to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijani territory while hinting at possible United Nations involvement in a peacekeeping plan to separate the warring republics.

At the start of a three-nation tour to the Transcaucasus, Boutros-Ghali said in an open meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Gasan Gasanov in the capital Baku, he "will reiterate the United Nations' position which is: the territorial integrity of the member states and the immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijani territory."

On his first visit to Azerbaijan since it gained independence three years ago, Boutros-Ghali was given a tough introduction to the results of the republic's six-year war with neighboring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, when he visited the Allee Shakhidov war cemetery, located on a hill above Baku overlooking the Caspian sea.

"I've lost my son, I don't want any more fighting. I want peace," an Azeri woman dressed in black, standing next to her son's gravestone, tearfully told the UN secretary general.

A cease-fire brokered by Russia has held for six months in Karabakh, an enclave situated inside Azerbaijan but populated by an ethnic Armenian majority, which has raised hopes of a settlement to the conflict.

A Russian proposal to send its own peacekeeping troops to Karabakh has been consistently ruled out by Azerbaijan which fears a Russian force would merely cement the republic's territorial losses.

Azerbaijan's pressure on the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), to deploy an "international" peacekeeping force to separate the warring sides in Karabakh, appears to have paid off after the CSCE proposed a 1,600-2,000 strong peacekeeping force earlier this month -- the first in the CSCE's short history.

Boutros-Ghali said the CSCE's lack of peacekeeping experience should "not be an obstacle to a presence of the CSCE to solve the situation (in Karabakh)."

The secretary general affirmed the United Nations would assist the CSCE-sponsored peace plan and hinted at a possible UN role in the proposed peacekeeping operation, saying the United Nations would "participate in a real presence on the ground."

UN representative to Azerbaijan Mahmoud El-Said said the United Nations would provide "technical help" for any CSCE peacekeeping effort but it was not yet clear what form this would take.

But standing in the way of a peace agreement is Armenia's continued refusal to evacuate the strategically vital Lachin "corridor" and the town of Shusha.

Lachin forms a vital land link between Armenia and the disputed territory while Shusha, situated above the Karabakh capital of Stepanakert, was used to rain shells and rockets on the latter's Armenian inhabitants until it was captured by Armenian forces in 1992.

Foreign Minister Gasanov urged Boutros-Ghali to raise the issue of Lachin and Shusha with the Armenian government when he travels to Yerevan next week.

An Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman said, "...Without Lachin or Shusha, it (a peace agreement) will not be possible."