AZERBAIJANI WAR INVALID ATTEMPTS SUICIDE. Rei Kerimoglu,
press spokesman of the society representing Azerbaijan's
Karabakh war invalids, was hospitalized on 6 February after
slashing open his wrists in the foyer of the parliament
building to protest accusations by Hady Rajabov, chairman of
the parliament commission for social policy, that the
invalids represent the interests of the former Azerbaijani
population of Nagorno-Karabakh, Turan reported. Ali Kerimov,
chairman of the reformist wing of the divided Azerbaijan
Popular Front Party, had urged parliament speaker Murtuz
Alesqerov on 5 February to take immediate action to preclude
the death of any of the hunger-strikers, whereupon Alesqerov
charged the parliamentary commission for social policy to
rule on whether the strikers' demands for an increase in
their pensions and allowances should be met. Azerbaijan
National Independence Party chairman Etibar Mamedov met on 4
February with representatives of the Karabakh war invalids
who declared a hunger-strike last month, Turan reported. The
Islamic Party of Azerbaijan appealed to the hunger-strikers
to abandon their action, saying that "it is not possible to
defend human rights in a country where votes are stolen."

Azerbaijan Daily Digest, Tue, Feb 06 2001