FROM PLUNDER TO WAR

The separatism which originated in Nagornyy Karabakh 26 years ago led to a full-scale war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the victims of which were dozens of thousands of people. As a result, 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's territory was occupied. Throughout the conflict, Azerbaijanis were subjected time and again to genocide by the Armenian occupation forces. A great many of the nationalists who were the originators of Armenian separatism in Karabakh now hold leading posts in the Armenian government, However, there are few today who recall such sponsors and committed torch-bearers of nationalism among the Karabakh Armenians as Manucharov, whose subversive activities were recounted to R+ by a former investigator of the USSR General Prosecutor's Office Konstantin Maydanyuk.

- At the end of the 1980s, when the fires of the Karabakh conflict had just been lit, you put behind bars in Susa a group of shady businessmen led by the head of the "Stepanakert" [Xankandi] marble works, Manucharov…

- In February 1988 I was sent to Nagornyy Karabakh to investigate the murder of two Azerbaijanis in the village of Asgaran [Askeran]. USSR Prosecutor General Sukharev then instructed me to investigate at the same time economic crimes at the "Stepanakert" marble works and everything linked with marble production. Before the USSR prosecutor's investigation group started its work the Azerbaijani law-enforcement bodies carried out an investigation at the plant. We gathered compelling and irrefutable evidence of the crimes of Manucharov's group. He admitted guilt and the case was taken to court. Manucharov and six of his cronies were sent to Susa prison. During interrogation one of the gang leaders exposed the whole criminal scheme at the plant. He handed over 200,000 roubles to the investigation, which was a vast sum of money at the time. He had hidden the money in a bundle in a wall.

- The case begun by the General Prosecutor's investigation team could only be hushed up by direct order from the Kremlin. Could a thread of the case have led to Moscow?

- Our job wasn't to expose the criminal links between the shady businessmen and other regions of the country. The marble works was linked with other manufacturers of this material. The investigation established a number of facts of the crime, one of which was that Manucharov had unlawfully allocated state apartments in new houses. Workers at the plant admitted that they had given Manucharov large sums of money as a bribe for obtaining state apartments. If there had been a trial lots of people could have been brought to book, including on charges of extremist activity.

- But wasn't the whole point to release one of the key figures of the KRUNK separatist organization?

- Manucharov was one of the leaders of the KRUNK separatist movement, and he made no secret of that. There was a split in the CPSU Central Committee regarding the Karabakh issue. The supporters of Yegor Ligachev (the CPSU CC's ideology secretary) were in favour of a clampdown on law and order in the Karabakh region, arresting the leaders, the separatist activists, and banning all protest actions, and so on. But the supporters of Aleksandr Yakovlev (a member of the CPSU CC Politburo) proposed that traditional methods should not be used and a more liberal attitude shown to rallies and demonstrations in the NKAO [Nagornyy Karabakh Autonomous Region]. Eventually it was the liberals' position that won the day, I was working in the USSR General Prosecutor Office investigation apparatus and unlike the KGB we had no powers to investigate crimes of a political nature. We dealt basically with economic crimes.

It was the KGB's investigators and other law-enforcement bodies that dealt with the investigation into the involvement of Manucharov and others in the semi-legal KRUNK organization. As far as I am aware, criminal proceedings on political crimes were also initiated in this regard.

- Did they not try to intimidate you? There were a lot of weapons around in the NKAO at that time…

- Yes, some forces in Karabakh did try to derail the investigation group's work. Widespread disturbances were organized under the guise of a struggle for Manucharov's rights, and because of that the first attempt to arrest him failed. Someone warned Manucharov that he was about to be arrested and he fled to Yerevan. However, we knew where he was hiding there and brought him back to Karabakh and banged him up in Susa [Shusha] prison. Moscow had doubts that the trial of Manucharov's group in Azerbaijan would be objective and switched the proceedings to a court in Belarus, although legally the trial should have been held in either Baku or Nagornyy Karabakh. All the participants in the case were sent to Belarus. Activists from KRUNK quickly set off for Minsk and, together with local "democrats" and human rights supporters they disrupted the examination of this case. In the end, against the backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet Union, this case was, as they say, hushed up and the trial never took place.

As far as I am aware, after lengthy delays the case was sent back to Azerbaijan, but Manucharov and the others were not convicted. It should be pointed out that the investigation team proved the involvement of all the accused in corruption, fraud and acquiring state funds in large amounts.

There were no direct threats against members of the investigation team in Stepanakert. The team of 50 investigators was housed in the building of a sanatorium in Susa and security was organized at the highest level. When Manucharov was arrested pressure on the investigation was stepped up. Incidentally, we also interrogated other leaders of the KRUNK organization.

At the time weapons arsenals in the region were securely guarded, and only hunting rifles could be kept. Rallies opposing us were held in Stepanakert every day and stones were thrown at the building of the local prosecutor's office several times. Once, because the building was blocked by demonstrators, prosecutor Vasilenko and I were unable to leave it and we had to spend the night there. But there were no attempts to release Manucharov from the prison in Susa by force. Everyone knew that the prison was guarded by the KGB.

- If you had been able to see the case of the fraudsters through to the end could the bloody continuation of the Karabakh conflict have been avoided?

- We had fulfilled our mission to the letter and the case had been sent for trial. Whilst working in Nagornyy Karabakh, it became clear to me that ordinary Azeris and Armenians were not in any way to blame for the stand-off. There were forces who, as they say, muddied the waters. With hindsight it is possible that some things could have been changed and the chain of events moved to a different channel, but what happened happened.

- Incidentally, how did the investigation into the murder of the two Azerbaijanis in Askeran end up?

- The incident in Asgaran happened in February 1988. A crowd of people had set off from Agdam to Stepanakert. Barricades had been erected along the roads by the Armenians. As they attempted to break through the barricades they were shot at from hunting rifles. One young man received a fatal wound and another was seriously injured. It was very difficult to investigate this crime as everything was politicized and no-one gave reliable evidence. But still, we were able to establish the identity of the man who fired the shot and arrested him. At first he was held in Susa prison and then transferred to Butyrskaya prison in Moscow. This case was later terminated on the basis that the man who fired the gun "acted in self-defence".