Azerbaijani parliamentary candidate and the first deputy chairman of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party, Ali Kerimov, made the party's second TV campaign broadcast on 9th October.

The video showed archive footage of the PFAP's activities, the same video footage shown in the first campaign broadcast.

Seated at a desk in his office, Kerimov began by speaking about the oil and gas policy of the Azerbaijani authorities. He said he had chosen this topic because oil was of particular importance in Azerbaijan; 74 per cent of investments coming to Azerbaijan went to the oil sector while oil accounted for 84 per cent of exports and over 40 per cent of profits to the state budget.

He said that the current authorities were very proud of this policy, while in reality the oil strategy had been set up by the former president, the late People's Front leader Abulfaz Elchibey. Contracts were signed during Elchibey's presidency because the People's Front government wanted to attract the investment and technology of foreign oil companies. "However, the current authorities made great mistakes in implementing this policy," Kerimov said. Firstly, the share of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic in the main oil consortium fell from 30 per cent to 10. The 20 per cent that was supposed to have been given to Azerbaijan was given to foreign companies. "Moreover, the terms of the contract were changed under which the foreign companies' share of the profits increased from 15 to 30 per cent. In other words, Azerbaijan's share in this fell from 85 per cent to 70. In this way, the billions that Azerbaijan could have made for 30 years, were taken out of the country," Kerimov said. "The other big mistake was that Azerbaijan planned to sell only crude oil."

"Up to now, oil bonuses worth over 600m dollars have been received and despite our insistent demands, they have not been transferred to the budget yet. No-one knows who spent them, what they were spent on." Even MPs are not aware of this even though it is a very big sum for Azerbaijan, Kerimov said.

"As you know oil prices have increased in international markets. But have you, the people who are paid from the state budget, felt any improvement in your lives? Are you receiving more now? Not at all. Because all the riches from oil are going into senior officials' pockets," he said.

Dwelling on this issue, Kerimov said that "many countries are extracting oil. In those countries, there is control over this sector and that is why they are successful. In a country where there is no control, billions of funds from oil easily disappear. This situation has been created in Azerbaijan, he said. "There must be parliamentary control over the oil funds." Today no-one is afraid of parliamentary control because "the government's supporters are in parliament today but tomorrow other people could be in parliament and control the oil fund," he noted.

Kerimov also reiterated his ideas about the fuel and gas shortages in the country. As in his previous election campaign broadcast on radio, he accused the authorities of not using the gas from the Chirag-1 deposit. He wondered why the country did not have enough energy and condemned the government for its incorrect policy in this field.

He said that the profits from oil should mainly be spent on social problems, to alleviate people's suffering, and on developing other sectors in the economy, such as industry and agriculture.

Kerimov said that in oil-producing Azerbaijan petrol prices were higher than in its non-producing neighbour Georgia. "Enough to make people suffer," he said. "How come that fuel is being brought from Georgia to be sold in Azerbaijan?"

"All these violations are taking place because there is no control by parliament over the government, over Azerbaijan's wealth. Become the owner of your own wealth and do not remain indifferent to the misappropriation of your wealth. I call on you to vote on 5th November."

In conclusion, Kerimov said that "we plan to have constant meetings with Azerbaijani voters. The first meeting will be on 14th October at 1200 [0700 gmt] in Ali-Bayramly and then we will have further meetings in other regions."

Source: Azerbaijani TV, Channel One, Baku, in Azeri 2200 gmt 09 Oct 00

BBC Mon TCU 101000 at/nm

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Posted October 11, 2000 © Eurasianet
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