The head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in North Ossetia was freed today after spending 317days in captivity.
UNHCR said Cochetel, 37, was released during the night of 11-12 December. He is en route for Moscow from where he will fly to France to be reunited with his family. UNHCR said Cochetel was exhausted but in good spirits.

Masked gunmen abducted Cochetel on January 29th from his residence in North Ossetia's capital Vladikavkaz.

Cochetel's release comes just two weeks after his wife Florence travelled to Moscow to make another plea

President Levon Ter-Petrossian's advocacy in November 1997 of a swift solution to the Karabakh conflict based on mutual concessions (never clearly spelled out) while Armenia was still in a relatively strong negotiating position was the catalyst for internal opposition that ultimately precipitated his forced resignation last February. It was therefore to be anticipated that Ter-Petrossian's political allies would seek to downplay, or even discredit, the present Armenian leadership's endorsement of the most recent draft peace proposal by the OSCE Minsk Group one month ago.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic said on 26 November in Yerevan that they have officially accepted the latest OSCE Minsk Group's Karabakh peace proposals as a basis for further talks, despite unspecified reservations, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Karabakh Foreign Minister Naira Melkumian said that the guarantees envisaged for Karabakh's future security and economic development need further clarification. She also noted that Stepanakert will not make any further concessions to Azerbaijan. The previous day,

The Secretariat
Kärntner Ring 5-7, 1010 Vienna, Austria
No. 76/98

Baku, 26 November 1998 -- The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, is today concluding a four-day visit to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

During his visit, Memoranda of Understanding were signed between the OSCE and all three governments with the aim of deepening co-operation especially in the human rights field. Also the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan welcomed the proposal to open OSCE offices in their capitals as a means to facilitate this enhanced co-operation.

Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Wed, 25 Nov 1998 11:13:16 -0500

Azerbaijan has made personnel and legislative changes in an effort to improve the Transcaucasian nation's ability to accommodate refugees and displaced persons. A presidential decree signed November 18 named Ali Hassanov as deputy prime minister in charge of internally displaced persons, refugees and migration. Hassanov will also serve as the head of the State Committee for Refugees. According to a Forced Migration Projects consultant in Baku, Hassanov appointment signals an increased

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International *
News Service:219/98 - AI INDEX: EUR 54/06/98
ARMENIA

Amnesty International is today calling on the Armenian Government to implement promptly the recommendations of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee, which has issued its concluding observations on the initial report submitted by Armenia.

Amnesty International had submitted its own report to the members of the Committee detailing its concerns. These included, among other things, the imprisonment of conscientious objectors

appeal no. 01.39/98
situation report no. 3
period covered: July - September 1998
Relief and development programmes continued throughout the reporting period by the International Federation and the three National Societies in the region. In July, two earthquakes which occurred in Azerbaijan caused significant damages to homes, prompting a special proposal for a reconstruction/shelter programme to ECHO. While funding for the various programmes has been sufficient, funds are urgently required to support delegations throughout the region and the International

No. 68/98
Oslo, 21 October 1998 -- The OSCE Troika, the Foreign Minister of Poland, Bronislaw Geremek, the Foreign Minister of Norway, Knut Vollebeak and the Foreign Minister of Denmark, Niels Helveg Petersen, met here today to review pressing issues facing the OSCE. The Secretary General of the OSCE, Giancarlo Aragona, also took part.

Their primary focus was on the progress toward establishing the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM). The Ministers also reviewed a number of regional issues of particular concern to the

Armenian parliamentary chairman Khosrov Arutyunyan on 7 October asked the Council of Europe to organize a joint meeting of the parliamentary speakers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, ITAR- TASS reported. Arutyunyan made the proposal in Tbilisi, where he is taking part in an expanded meeting of the bureau of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. PG