''WASHINGTON SHOULD BE MORE SCRUPULOUS WHILE CHOOSING ALLIES''

PanARMENIAN.Net - Involvement of such countries as Azerbaijan in the military union causes the indignation of different public figures in Western capitals. For example, the Director of the International Institute of Press (Vienna), Johan Fritz made a statement recently urging not to cooperate with countries ignoring the norms of democracy. ''Governments of some countries involved in the coalition have suppressed the independent media in their countries,'' Fritz says. Among those countries he named, particularly, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Columbia, and Uzbekistan. ''While the United States and the Great Britain promise to establish democracy in Iraq, cooperation of Washington and London with authoritarian states causes concern''.

A surprise in this matter has expressed also the ''Prospect'' magazine issued in Michigan. The observer asks, what can be expected from countries the democracy of which does not differ from Iraq. ''The Department of State itself does not recommend the American citizens to visit several countries included in the list of the allies,''- Prospect reads. ''Can we count on the assistance of such countries as Panama, Costa Rica, Salvador and Azerbaijan?,'' the journalist asks.

The American analysts have already voiced their doubts in this regard. In January, the Department of State published a report prepared by a group of independent experts, discussing, whether the aid provided by Washington to developing states meets the interests of the United States. Azerbaijan was mentioned by the authors of the document among those countries which ignore the democracy norms and use the American aid in order to strengthen the authoritarian regime. The conclusion is that the cooperation of the United States with such countries as Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Cameroon, Egypt, Haiti, Kenya and Morocco, may contradict to the interests and national security of America. The numerated countries, according to the experts, have a ''pseudo democratic regime'' and have the lowest level of civil liberties. As far as Azerbaijan is concerned, the report reads that authorities of that country ''are maintaining with difficulty the appearance of multi-party elections, with a very small dosage of pluralism or freedom''. According to them, ''the Parliament exists here only for veiling the real authoritative governing and allowing to gain the approval of the world community''.

This evaluation of independent experts causes doubts concerning the ways to choose partners and allies of the American Administration. Regimes governing in some of the countries included by Washington in the coаlition do not differ at all from the regime of Saddam Hussein...