29 August 2007, 23:00
In Azerbaijan policemen beat relatives of the victims of the crash of a 16-storey unfinished building
In Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the police have beaten the relatives of those who perished or disappeared under the collapsed 16-storey house.
The "Caucasian Knot" reports that the relatives of the victims tried to get to the place of the tragedy in order to find out the fate of their relatives, however, they were stopped by policemen. It became a cause of a conflict, as a result of which several persons were beaten.
In Azerbaijan, the journalists' organizations are also condemning the police pressure on the reporters who cover the tragedy.
During the first hours after the tragic accident, nobody hampered journalists' work, but with the arrival of high-ranking officials, the interior troop soldiers and policemen drove journalists away and prevented them to collect and transmit information. Those who tried to defend their rights were subject to still more police violence, runs the statement of the Institute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety that was received by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
The 16-storey house collapsed on August 28 in one of central Baku districts at No. 185 Mukhtarova Street. By different estimates, from 14 to 60 builders were busy at the moment at the construction site. The eyewitnesses say that fragments of the building fell on neighbouring smaller houses and that the collapsed building covered a group of children who played in the yard of the adjacent house.
Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent
