U.S. Department of State highly critical of Armenian authorities

The part dealing with Armenia the report say that “the significantly flawed February 2008 presidential election and violent break-up of ensuing protests that resulted in 10 deaths continued to fuel a political crisis that remained largely unresolved during the year and resulted in numerous human rights abuses,” the report says.

On September 16-17, approximately 16 months after its establishment, the ad hoc parliamentary commission headed by Samvel Nikoyan released its findings on the March 2008 post-election events and 10 resulting deaths.

The report stated that the commission was unable to shed more light onto the circumstances of the deaths and urged law enforcement authorities to do more to identify, track down, and prosecute individuals responsible for the deaths.

The report blamed authorities, the opposition, and the media alike for escalating the election-related tensions that preceded the clashes.

But the report assigned most of the blame for the violent unrest on the opposition, accusing presidential candidate and former president Levon Ter-Petrossian of poisoning the pre-election period by sowing “hostility and intolerance” and planting “doubts about the legitimacy of the elections” before the campaign began.

It also stated that the post-election protests by Ter-Petrossian supporters destabilized the country and disrupted public order.

“Authorities restricted the right of citizens to freely change their government in mayoral elections in Yerevan. During the year authorities subjected citizens, particularly those considered by the government to be political opponents, to arbitrary arrest, detention, and imprisonment for their political activities; lengthy pretrial detention also continued to be a problem. Authorities continued to use harassment and intrusive application of bureaucratic measures to intimidate and retaliate against political opponents."

”Authorities used force to disperse political demonstrations and constrain citizens seeking to publicize them. Police beat pretrial detainees and failed to provide due process in some cases. The National Security Service (NSS) and police acted with impunity in committing alleged human rights abuses. In spite of renovations and new construction, prison conditions remained cramped and unhealthy. Authorities denied citizens the right to a fair trial."

“News outlets, especially in the broadcast media, practiced a high degree of self-censorship, and authorities continued to restrict media pluralism, including through a moratorium on renewal of broadcasting licenses. There were multiple attacks against journalists, and the government rarely identified or prosecuted perpetrators. Authorities restricted freedom of assembly, rejecting numerous applications filed by political opponents to hold demonstrations at requested venues, and often prevented spontaneous assembly by citizens," it said in a report.

”Corruption remained widespread, and authorities did not make determined efforts to combat it," the report says.


/News.am/