On Sunday three American experts who participated in an independent inquiry into the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States arrived in Yerevan to help launch a similar probe of the post-election violence in Armenia and participate in the sessions of the RA committee on investigation of March 1 events. The U.S. embassy in Yerevan said the former senior staff members of the so-called 9/11 Commission will be in Armenia from October 5-11 to advise ad hoc commission of its parliament investigating the deadly March 1 clashes between opposition protesters and security forces. It said they will also share their knowledge and experience with Armenian officials involved in setting up a smaller body that is supposed to conduct a more independent and in-depth inquiry. As a response to the question of the journalists what the opinion of the experts is about the fact that the committee consists exclusively of party members one of the experts Christopher Kojm said, “The RA government and the society should determine the format of functioning of the committee. We can only share our experience. Our experience shows that the joint work of two parties has proven to be quite productive.” By the way, yesterday the experts stated that the US President George W. Bush specially instructed them to cooperate with the ad hoc committee and provide them with necessary data. According to the experts the most important factor is the trust of the society to the works of the ad hoc. Indeed the Armenian ad hoc members don’t have that trust reflected from the society.
