The US Department of State published the Human Rights in 2009 report, which, as always, contains a large chapter about Armenia as well.
The main topic of the 80 page section on Armenia is again focused on the presidential elections 2008, the events of March 1, the 10 victims and the actions of the activities till the end of 2009. The report is totally dedicated to the violations on part of the Armenian authorities. The report writes that the presidential elections, which proceeded with widespread violations, and the results of the ten victims as a result of the clampdown following the elections, still keep the environment tense and the political crisis continues. In the report on human rights 2009 in Armenia the Department of State focused on the presidential elections 2008 and March 1 as the authorities of the country have been busy with casting shadow on the violations and trying to send the violations to the history, as well as intimidating on opposition activists. The report also writes about the report of the Armenian ad hoc looking into the events of March 1. “The ad hoc, which was to investigate the post-elections activities, published a report on September 16-17, which contains critics addressed both to the government and opposition, but it mainly accuses the opposition led by former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan in the violence and clashes,” writes the report of the Department of State.
The US Department of State finds that during 2009 the political crisis in Armenia did not come down; even there were many new cases of human rights violations. The report writes that the violations and intimidations of the presidential elections continued during the local government elections in Yerevan on May 31 too. “The authorities limited the right of citizens to be free to change their government during the local government elections of Yerevan. In 2009 the authorities persecuted political oppositionists, arrested people, kept people under preliminary arrest for a long time, used methods of bureaucratic intimidation or payback toward opposition activists,” writes the section about our country.
“The authorities used force against the participants of political demonstrations and prevented the attempts of people to disseminate information about such demonstrations. The police beat up arrested people, and the cases of violating people’s rights on part of the police and national security services have been left without punishment. Arrested people were deprived of the right for fair justice,” write the authors of the report.
Generally the report covers the entire period of 2009 and 2008, as well as the tense environment during these years, starting from the events of March 1, amnesty and ending up with the fact that many of the political prisoners are still under custody. It is not only an opinion about the events, but also detailed description. The report writes about the work of the Mass Media as well. “Generally the Media and especially broadcast media have a high level of the practice of self-censorship. The authorities are limiting the free opinions of the media, and one of the proofs is the fact that the authorities have suspended the provision of broadcast licenses. There have been new cases of intimidation and attacks on journalists,” writes the report in the detailed section on the work and environment of Mass Media.
The report has a separate section about the arrest and court proceedings of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper’s chief editor Nikol Pashinyan. The report has separately covered the cases of all arrested opposition activists. It also writes about the intimidation on opposition businessman Khactaur Sukiasyan and his family, starting from the cases of Pizza di Roma and ending up with the Bjni company.
It writes that the Armenian government has limited the freedom of rallies and gatherings, have numerously refused citizens’ applications to organize demonstrations in specific areas, as well as have interrupted and dispersed spontaneous gatherings of people. The report has also dedicated a large section to the police and security services. It brings detailed information about the violations and abuses. The US Department of State also finds that widespread corruption is still a big problem in Armenia and the authorities are not taking serious steps to fight corruption.
The same report of the last year had the same vectors. RPA deputy head Galust Sahakyan last year said that it was a “mistreat”. As the report did not contain any positive information about the Armenian government this year either, MP Galust Sahakyan says it is a “dark” report. “We cannot agree with that and I don’t think we should pay attention to this document. We have very serious components concerning these issues and will try to give solutions to these issues. The report is very dark and biased. If they don’t see any positive thing in a report, it is their problem, “said Galust Sahakyan and said that the US Department of State should change the sunglasses.
Galust Sahakyan agrees with the fact that there is corruption and problems with human rights in our country and we need for reforms and efforts to fight these problems. However, the MP does not agree with the part concerning the media and believes that this sector has turned into anarchy. Yesterday the chairman of Helsinki association Mikayel Danielyan spoke about the human rights situation, who also spoke about the report of the US Department of State during our conversation: “There is nothing in it to explain. Everything is clear. The US Department of State puts the alleged discovering of the March 1 and this imitation under question. Certainly they condemn it, and we agree with them. I think that the Armenian government should give an answer to these questions. Maybe the Armenian government can escape this time too and not solve the problem, but time will put everything in its place. Last year the authorities did not do any positive change in any law, neither they are going to do anything. Everything speaks about the fact that they are not going to do anything to move toward democracy“. Armen Khachatryan, a representative of the ANC legal assistance service says that the US department of State has raised the issues for which they have been struggling. “Of course Galust Sahakyan will not see the shortcomings pointed out in the report. This time he may say that this report was written by the US president‘s hairdresser of the state secretary’s driver. But the report writes about issues that we have been addressing during several years. The opposition has always said that these rights are violated in Armenia, there are political prisoners, and the important principle of free vote for forming a government is abused. The government had to at least release the political prisoners, which they failed to do. The A1+ is still closed, which means that there are problems with the media sector as well. There is no freedom for organizing demonstrations, which means that the important democratic institute of free gatherings and demonstrations does not work in Armenia. There is a problem with personal immunity as well,” says A. Khachatryan.
Former military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan added that even though it is shameful that there are such opinions in the report, but those are objective. “Generally, notwithstanding the verbal or term formulations the content of the report on Armenia can be identified with the announcement of the opposition during the past 2 years concerning the violations of the civic rights of citizens, personal immunity, abuse of freedom rights, the malformation of the judicial system, hundreds of court proceedings with political purposes, thousands of administrative and tax persecution, police terror and other shortcomings. These opinions are objective even if the Armenian authorities think that are unacceptable and harsh, said Gagik Jhangiryan.