Ricardas Lapaitis, is a military correspondent, photographer and reporter from Lithuania. He is also an eyewitness of that heartbreaking Khojaly and Garabagh events. He is the one who lived every single moment in Garabagh war together with the soldiers on the Azerbaijani side. Journalist Lapaitis maintains a close coopertion and friendship with International Eurasia Press Fund, the NGO in Azerbaijan that has been founded in 1992. 

Ricardas Lapaitis is the author of a number of photographs taken in the battle under the flying bullets. The war correspondent said he clearly remembers the mothers crying over their children that were brutally killed, and it grieves him talking about the Khojaly night where he witness the tragedy.

"The atrocities in Khojaly cannot be justified before the eyes of the world community. Khojaly is one of the worst and most cruel crimes against humanity of the last century! And it’s impossible to compare this genocide with tragedies like Khatyn or others where people simply have been killed. However, in the Khojaly genocide, the Armenian militants not only killed innocent people but enjoyed mocking their corpses. They tortured and scalped them alive and took pictures mocking at the corpses of the murdered Azerbaijanis. At that time, I thought it could be enough if the photographer Victorian Ivleva took photos of the victims in the tragedy to present at the international court of the Hague!

Alas, the world has changed so much. Sometimes I question myself - what happened to us?! Unfortunately, today, Khojaly perpetrators write books about the atrocities of the murdered children and they can still travel freely around the world! "

The journalist also explained the moments of the Khojaly events in details. He added that it was restricted for media to spread the news about the Khojaly genocide, which was informed a month after the event in his homeland in Europe.

"Despite three weeks have passed since the bloody massacre committed by the Armenian armed forces with the attack of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the Russian army, those atrocities yet were hidden from publicity in Europe. All information was concealed like in the Chernobyl event. The Russian media remained silent. Only in the early March the world began to learn the truth about the most cruel, violent reprisal against civilians in the Khojaly town.

Aghdam was where a huge number of corpses of the killed Khojaly residents arrived, then it looked like the real hell. The city hospital was crowded with wounded and frozen ones. The medical facilities built in train wagons were out of the town and the doctors who worked there probably survived a second life. In a short time, more than 500 amputations and surgical operations were made in places without well condition. In Agdam itself there was no electricity. The hotels were burnt and did not function. I was horrified about the stories told by the witnesses who were returning from the Armenian captivity; they told me that they were kept half-starved throughout the day. The Armenian mercenaries scoffed at them and periodically bit and did not give them food. Especially Armenian extremists took revenge on those Azerbaijanis, who helped people to escape before the assault on Khojaly. The Armenians even looked for the bodies of those heroes, so that even their bodies were mocked.

Sometimes couples, siblings tried to pretend that they did not recognise their relatives, so that they would not scoff at the corpse of them. Many prisoners of war freed to rejoin their loved ones after paying ransom to the Armenian militants. The impression was that the Armenians actually celebrated the victory by mocking the corpses. After Khojaly, everything changed. People ceased to believe in justice. Civilians from other villages began to leave their native villages fearing lives of their children.

On February 28, a group of local journalists in two helicopters were able to get to the place of the dead bodies of Azerbaijanis. We saw fields strewn with corpses, among which were small children, women and elderly people. As Armenian troops kept heavily firing, it was hard to enter that territory. Armenian militants wanted to cover up the traces of terrible crimes. At that time I did not hear about any kind of free corridor that Armenians claimed as though they had created for residents to escape."

The journalist added that on February 12, the Armenian extremists seized the villages of Malybeyli and Gushchular, and as the result of the only shooting in the village of Malybeyli more than 50 Azerbaijani people were killed.

He also mentioned the Armenian ASALA and Dashnak groups who were also reported to have secret military back up in several bases.

"It is the fact that ASALA, Dashnaks of Armenians owned military camps and arms depots in Syria and Lebanon. They were prepared in advance for this merciless war against the civilian population of Azerbaijan," he added. 

"The survey of Khojaly survivors and those who were captive for Armenians made me even more worried. I found out how terrible it was for them to be hostage for Armenians. Against the backdrop of a hanged Azerbaijani, Armenian extremists rejoiced in victory! This victory, for life will go down in history as the most vile and criminal act of retaliation! In the report of the Memorial of the Human Rights Centre there is such a record - about 200 bodies were taken to Agdam in just four days. In Agdam, among those bodies after forensic examination there were found 51 women, 13 children and 181 male bodies received multiple tortures. Forensic medical examinations were carried out directly in Baku. One of the corpses was found to have been killed alive after scalping."

The war correspondent, whose eyes filled with tears after talking the history expressed his sorrow for the victims of Khojaly. He urged the punishment of the criminals by the International Court in Europe as well as calling all war correspondents to tell only the truth to the world.   

"The perpetrators of the Khojaly tragedy and its organisers must be deservedly punished and answer in the Hague tribunal. Armenian extremists crimes, terrorism and ethnic cleansing put Khojaly's tragedy on some of the worst crimes of the last century. Now in the century of technology, Armenian criminals create different myths and falsifications of events, but those vandals can not hide the truth about the terrible crimes! Therefore I urge all war correspondents not to be afraid of telling the truth, regarding to the denials of the Armenian diaspora around the world about the atrocities in Khojaly. I want justice for Khojaly and the vicotry of Azerbaijanis!

by ELNUR ENVEROGLU