"There is no doubt that what happened in Khojaly in 1992 was an act of genocide. It was a crime against humanity and the perpetrators must be brought to justice,” head of Komnas HAM's research and study wing, Elfansuri Chairah, said at a seminar entitled "Justice for Khojaly and Lessons for Future” held Wednesday at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java.

The one-day seminar was attended by human rights activists, think tanks, religious leaders, scholars, diplomats and students. It was jointly organized by the International Youth Society for Peace and Justice (IYSPJ),The Habibie Center, Abdurrahman Wahid Center (AWC), and University of Indonesia’s vocational program to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

Khojaly is an Azerbaijani town located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. On the night of Feb. 25, 1992, Armenian troops, with the help of former Soviet Union regiment no. 366, attacked Khojaly and brutally killed innocent Azerbaijani Muslim civilians, burning down the whole city in the process. Armenia currently occupies 20 percent of Azerbaijan territory, eliciting condemnations by the UN and other international organizations.

According to Azerbaijan Ambassador to Indonesia Tamerlan Karayev, at least 613 people were killed, including 106 women, 83 children and 70 elderly persons during the course of a single day of violence in Khojaly.

"It was a heinous crime committed not just against Muslims but against humanity,” Karayev told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the seminar.

While expressing his organization’s full support for Azerbaijan, Elfansuri said that Komnas HAM was established mainly to deal with human-rights issues in Indonesia. But he said it could not sit idly by if crimes against humanity, especially at the level of genocide, occurred outside Indonesia.

"As a human rights body, we are ready to raise the Khojaly genocide issue at the regional and international level. We need more data and information from Azerbaijan,” Elfansuri said.

Indonesia, which strongly supports Azerbaijan sovereignty and territorial integrity, condemned Armenian aggression and asked both Azerbaijan and Armenia to resolve the dispute through negotiations.

"The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia should be resolved through dialogue. We should make efforts not to allow this kind of genocide in the future,” said Muhammad Syukron, vice director of the Abdurrahman Wahid Center.

Most of the speakers asked the Indonesian government to put more pressure on Armenia to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan territory. Indonesia, they said, must seek stern measures against Armenia at the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

"In fact, the OIC recently requested that all members, including Indonesia, impose political and economic sanctions on Armenia [...],” Karayev said.

 

(The Jakarta Post)