Monday, June 29, 2009

New report details brutality in Azerbaijan

A new report by Amnesty International describes a persistent pattern of abuses by authorities in Azerbaijan. The report looks in particular at several cases of individual journalists who have been persecuted by authorities.

The report comes a day before the parliament votes on a set of measures that will make operation of independent NGOs in Azerbaijan nearly impossible. (I've shared information about these proposals in earlier posts.) I have listened to friends in Azerbaijan who say that they doubt that the parliament will pass such extreme measures.

I'm not so sure. It seems that in recent history every repressive measure that has been proposed has, in fact, been adopted.

If these measures are adopted, it will probably mean more brutality by authorities against the journalists of Azerbaijan and against the population of that country in general.

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