AZG Armenian Daily #105, 09/06/2005

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OMBUDSWOMAN VISITING GYUMRI

Armenian ombudswoman, Larisa Alaverdian, paid a one-day working visit to
Gyumri on June 7. Mrs. Alaverdian said during a meeting with journalists at
Asparez club that she had visited Gyumri last year to solicit for the
release of the detainees after the notorious protest rally.

Arriving in Gyumri on invitation of Sakhorov Human Rights NGO and Asparez
club, Mrs. Alaverdian first of all received citizens at the office of
Sakhorov NGO. Addressing people’s needs on the spot is more efficient than
trying to solve something through official correspondence. Mrs. Alaverdian
said that 90 percent of complaints from Gyumri and Shirak region as a whole
concern distribution of apartments (Shirak is an earthquake-hit region), the
remaining 10 percent concerns teachers’ violated rights during the process
of optimalization, social issues and very few issues concerning civil
rights.

Aside from this, the ombudswoman was in Gyumri to let the NGOs and the
public know about the first ever report that a human rights protector makes
in Armenia. Discussion over this document would surely be more useful if
people were informed about its contents beforehand.

By Gegham Mkrtchian