The Royce-Engel Proposal for Monitoring the Ceasefire in NKR

Out of concern over the continually escalating tension on the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line, a common sense, life saving proposal is being advanced by US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel.

The Royce-Engel proposal which has the endorsement of over 80 of their U.S House colleagues, calls on the United States to advocate for the implementation of several steps that will help safeguard peace in the region by:

—  Reaching an agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the Line of Contact.

—   Placing OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the Line of Contact.

—  Deploying additional OSCE observers along the Line of Contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.

The Royce-Engel initiative points out that these measures will “allow OSCE to publicly condemn specific acts of aggression from either side as the longstanding US and OSCE practice of responding to each new attack with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence has failed to de-escalate the situation.”

Dozens of combat related deaths and a number of civilian casualties were registered in 2015 alone, with the last two cases reported only last week.

According to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have both expressed support for these life-saving initiatives; Azerbaijan continues to obstruct their implementation.

A letter signed by Julia Frifield, Assistant Secretary Legislative Affairs, supports the Royce-Engel Proposal by stating “without a mechanism to verify ceasefire allegations or sensors to pinpoint the locations of gunfire, it is difficult for the (OSCE) co-chairs to make specific accusations against one side’s use of violence. As the sides now use mortars and other heavy weaponry that inflict casualties on innocent civilians, the urgency of implementing such measures has never been greater.”

ANCA has launched an online grassroots advocacy campaign to Members of Congress, urging legislators to press the Obama Administration for the immediate implementation of the Royce-Engel proposals.

A meeting between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, is scheduled to take place in Bern, Switzerland on December 19, 2015. In light of recent escalations of violence, the sides will be urged to re-commit themselves to the peaceful resolution of the NKR conflict.