The Euro Union assignee on human rights Thomas Hammerberg visited Armenia on March 5 based on the Armenia’s government’s invitation in order to see the situation of human rights and the impact of the state of emergency in the country. After the presidential election February 19, he released a statement on March 12-15, i.e. in the period of the state of emergency in Armenia.
In the report Hammerberg focused on the impact of the state of emergency on freedoms and rights guaranteed by the European convention (especially those concerning demonstrations, expressing free will, as well as freedoms to get information). He also took under consideration the “allegations concerning disproportionate act of force and use of power on the part of the demonstrators.”
The assignee cited the joint statement of the EU PACE and ODIHR stating that that the presidential election proceeded mainly in line with Armenia’s responsibilities against the OSCE and Euro Union, and emphasized that the media monitoring implemented by the ODIHR showed that the broadcast of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan by different media companies contained many criticizing hints, while the other 8 candidates were covered mainly in positive or neutral contexts. Almost all broadcast media covered Mr. Sargsyan’s activities through more favorable expressions than all the other candidates. Most of the broadcast media news programs mainly refrained from covering the critics of Levon Ter-Petrosyan addressed at Serzh Sargsyan and the incumbent president. Some people have also told the assignee that the pro-government media harshly criticized Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
Concerning the March 1 events and specifically the allegations of the police that on March 1 they wanted to check up the square and look for weapons in case when the peaceful demonstrations had started nine days before that, Hammerberg referred to his conversation with the police head stating that the police had received information that the demonstrators were receiving weapons. “Accusations, which are refused by the demonstrators,” the assignee emphasized. The police chief told Hammerberg that their primary objective was to take the demonstrators to another part of the city “in order to escape from hygienic problems and problems preventing the movement of the transport.” The report writes that according to the information given by some people, the police started checking up the place of the demonstration on Sunday, at 6:30 a.m. “According to the both sides, on the same day they agreed to move either to the square near the Myasnikyan monument or the railway station.” However, it seemed that the demonstrators were not informed about that decision in a duly manner, specifically Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was not allowed to leave his house, did not inform the demonstrators about it. “The demonstrators moved toward the Embassies of Russia and France evidently assuming that demonstrations in this place would be safer. Serious clashes took place in the surrounding streets and 8 people died,” reads the report.
The report contains an interesting part stating that “definitely there were minimum 3 separate clashes” between the police and security forces and demonstrators. The assignee was shown different pictures and tapes concerning the events, which, according to the report, clearly showed that the police and security forces “applied disproportionate force.” The proof is the fact that there are many people and even passers-by who have been taken to hospitals with body and head injuries. Furthermore, it seems that the assignee puts under question the official announcements concerning the suffered people in the following statement: “According to representatives of non-governmental organizations, the official entire number of suffered people may not express the clear picture as on March 1 hospitals and medical clinics were not accepting injured people.” Besides that, he emphasized that there have been cases when people were arrested just after leaving the hospitals. Hammerberg also emphasized that the demonstrators used “brute power” in order to protect themselves from the police. “It seems to be clear that some demonstrators used brute power such as throwing stones, using wooden or metallic sticks, against the police and security officers for the purpose of protecting themselves. Some demonstrators even fired cars and buses. Most of the injured policemen had injuries on the lower part of their legs as a result of metallic sticks. It is not clear whether such injuries are resulted from hand-made explosion materials, hand weapons, or the armaments used by the police for the purpose of keeping the people under control,” reads the report. It writes that there are contradicting opinions in the public concerning the incidents and how they developed and how the situation became uncontrollable. “It is difficult to make a clear imagination about the incidents of that day,” emphasized the assignee and added that it is necessary in the existing situation to find out what really happened and what provoked clampdown. “The two parties are describing the events differently. Besides that, from the point of view of human rights the main facts should be clarified. It will be possible only after an in-depth independent, free, fair and transparent investigation, which will enjoy the trust of people. It seems that the existing methods applied by the police for controlling the demonstrations should be revised because the police made serious mistakes.”
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The report also refers to the state of emergency in a separate section. According to Hammerberg’s definition, in Armenia the human rights were temporarily suspended, and the government, on May 3, informed the EU General Secretary about stray from the human rights European convention. “Temporarily suspension of human rights also includes the freedom of moving easily, freedom of demonstrations, the freedom of expression and receiving information,” writes the report. As a result of discussions with different politicians the assignee came to the conclusion that some limitations announced by the state of emergency affected not only the capital city, but the entire territory of the country, because the limitations on organizing rallies and demonstrations were applied also out of the capital in big cities. Despite the assurances of the government representatives alleging that the state of emergency was necessary to recover the rule of law and civic order in the country, the assignee noted that some of the applied limitations have helped neither stabilization of the post-election situation after March 1, nor weakening the tension in the society and strengthening democratic institutions and processes. Also, during that period the limitations on Mass Media coverage gave arose many rumors and concerns in the society in case when it would be better to encourage steps aimed at recovering the credibility. “The fact that some of the pro-government media were slashing the opposition while the opposition media was out of circulation, did not support the constructive environment,” Hammerberg said and added that the changes on media as of March 12 “had a very small effect on the circulation and sources of information”, and the level of control over media seemingly was the same.
As for the cases of arrest, after some conversations with lawyers the assignee was informed that in Yerevan and in other places of the country some people were arrested before the events of March 1. He has met with three MPs and former foreign affairs minister Alexander Arzumanyan in the cells of the National Security Services. “Two of them said that in the past they had been praised as heroes during the war and were concerned of the fact that they were accused in treason. All of them had lawyers and their families had been informed about their place.”
By the way, Hammerberg said that Levon Ter-Petrosyan “de-facto was under house arrest” during those days. “Levon Ter-Petrosyan is in such a situation now which de-facto should be qualified as house arrest. He is under strict protection of the authorities in charge of controlling the state of emergency, especially the NSS. According to the police chief, he is free to go out of his house, but the strict security service can escort him to secure places only.” He also visited some prisons and talked to prisoners, who assured that the police applied disproportionate power during the arrest actions and his imagination is that people were beaten when being arrested and when being transported to different stations by cars. Some detainees also said that they had been beaten when giving a testimony or being questioned. Despite the assurances of the prosecutor’s office that there are no teenagers among the detainees, Hammerberg’s report contains information about two teenagers and one of them had mental disorders. The report also contains citations from the speeches of the defendants. The report states that in its accusations the prosecutor’s office used one-type expressions and one of the defendants wanted to boycott the court proceedings, who, according to him, was just stamping all the accusations and drafts sent by the prosecutors. Another detainee explained the fact of refusing his lawyer’s services with the fact that all they had taken bribe. “All they are taking bribes. Some of the detainees abstained from legal protection services offered by the state because they were not sure whether they would be loyal or would protect the interests of state officials.” Also, one of them, who was a witness, was suggested to give a testimony as a witness and sign a document in the same status stating that he did not want any legal services from any lawyers. However, during the investigation he was accused and recognized as a suspected party. Later the prosecutor refused to give him a lawyer reasoning that he had signed a document refusing such services.
It is worth mentioning that after the visit to Yerevan Thomas Hammerberg came up with a draft of recommendations consisting of several points in order to weaken the tension and the post-election critical situation, however none of those points have been implemented so far.