Tied to a tree for failing to pay utility bills in Azerbaijan

Radio Free Europe reports on bizarre and troubling human rights violations in northern southern Azerbaijan's Naxchivan region, a region that locals call "North Korea." In addition to disappearing journalists who inquire about human rights violations, the authorities have taken to tying people to trees for failure to pay their utility bills. My father was born in a refugee camp in Azerbaijan, and I've always felt a distant connection to the region.

A series of abuses -- some of them bizarre -- have been documented in media reports.

According to the reports, local authorities have ordered state employees to perform manual labor on weekends as a condition for keeping their jobs. People who fail to pay utility bills have been seized and tied to trees outside police precincts until a family member or friend can come and settle the debt. Residents are forbidden from hanging laundry from their balconies and from baking bread at home. In a region where average salaries are approximately $130 per month, farmers are charged a steep tax for owning more than one cow or one sheep -- $25 per cow, $10 per sheep.

Nasibova tells RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service that local authorities are seeking to silence journalists like her and her husband who have reported on these abuses. She said she expects to be arrested soon.

"I think their main goal is to force us [independent journalists] out of Naxchivan," Nasibova says. "While they were searching our apartment, the police told us: 'We will succeed in silencing you. You will have to leave the region.' I think this process is related to our professional activities here."

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[#1 posted by Cercamon , December 9, 2007 2:45 AM]

Naxchivan (or Nakhchivan), "northern Korea" as it may be tagged, is actually a southern province of Azerbaijan, severed from main land by Armenia. It is the homeland of the present presidential dynasty (the Aliev's) and through provincial solidarity high profile people from Nakhchivan have powerfull position in the Aliev administration.

[#2 posted by Kevin , December 9, 2007 3:23 PM]

Reminds me of what my dad used to say about the prisons in the Philipines. They'll throw a can across the road and tell a prisoner to go get it. Then they'll shoot them in the back and say they were trying to escape. I think he was joking but point is be happy that your living in the USA.

[#3 posted by zugzwang , December 9, 2007 9:01 PM]

"My father was born in a refugee camp in Azerbaijan, and I've always felt a distant connection to the region."

When was that?

[#4 posted by Cory Doctorow , December 9, 2007 10:30 PM]

In 1944 -- my grandparents were Red Army deserters who left Siberia and ended up in Azerbaijan. My grandmother is from Leningrad, and she worked on civil defense during the Siege as a little girl until the children were evacuated in the second year. My grandfather was from a town in a disputed region that is periodically Belarus or Poland, called Nowy Swerzne; he and some of his brothers fled on bicycles when news reached them of the Nazi invasion of Poland. They were picked up by a Red Army patrol and drafted.

My grandfather met my grandmother in Siberia, where they fell in love. She was 15, he was 16. They stole papers (my grandfather had learned watchmaking and had used his talents to win the trust of several officers) and fled to Azerbaijan after deserting.

When the war ended, they made their way back west, ending up in Hamburg (where my aunt was born, in another camp), then getting on a refugee ship to Halifax.

[#5 posted by zugzwang , December 9, 2007 11:56 PM]

Wow! That's quite a story. Thanks for filling us in. Now watch out for the identity thieves :)