BAKU CRITICIZES PACE’S "DOUBLE STANDARDS"
Interfax News Agency
March 30 2008
Russia
Leader of the Azeri delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe Samed Seidov has reproached the Council of Europe
for being biased in assessing the situation in Azerbaijan.
"Criticizing the situation in Azerbaijan and, simultaneously,
justifying stark abuses of democracy and unthinkable processes in
Armenia is wrong," Seidov told the press on Sunday.
PACE does not state its attitude to the situation in Armenia and only
recommends that the problem should be settled as soon as possible,
he said.
"We have always been against the double standards practice and will
again speak about it at the PACE session in April," he also said.
Seidov does not think a rapporteur could be appointed on the
problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, "in the absence of
this problem." "Let us imagine a rapporteur is appointed. But who
will work with him?" Seidov asked.
Hopefully, PACE will reasonably approach this issue and will not
appoint a rapporteur, he said.
The Azeri authorities have established constructive relations with the
rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee for Azerbaijan, he said.
Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis recently expressed
serious concern about curbs on press freedom in Azerbaijan and spoke
against the practice of convicting journalists.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
