OMBUDSMAN SUPPORTS RESIDENTS OF BUZAND STREET
A1+
| 21:03:49 | 13-10-2005 | Politics |
The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) today continued its series of
public hearings with a town-hall meeting on “Violations in Property
Alienation.” By means of the event, NCI brought a new stimulus to the
civic movement against the human rights infringements taking place
during implementation of the new construction plan for Yerevan. On
August 24, at the time of the first hearings devoted to this issue,
NCI had underscored the need to prepare a special report.
Illegalities and arbitrariness are still so widespread in Armenia that
this autumn the country’s ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdian had come up
with a special report in this regard. “The human rights defender had
been criticized for her 2004 annual report, where the facts pertaining
to the sad state of human rights were either under-expressed or
entirely missing. That gap has been filled by the special report,”
Alaverdian said. She also expressed a conviction that even after the
revelation of relevant evidences, unlawful acts continue unabated.
Despite the invitations that were sent to a range of state bodies,
there were very few government officials who took part in the
session. Chairman Karen Davtian of the Bureau for the Implementation
of Yerevan’s Construction Investment Plans attempted to substantiate
the legitimacy of property alienation. According to him, the number
of disgruntled citizens is small because approximately 1200 residents
of that area already have signed pertinent contracts and received
compensations. In the words of Davtian, the complaints by many are
baseless since those people do not possess any documents that confirm
their right to proprietorship.
However, the scores of citizens who participated in the public
roundtable with their private testimonies maintained the contrary
and presented their own counter evidence as victims of the state’s
“eminently false domain and needs.” Sedrak Barseghian in particular,
pointed out that the company, which received the permission to carry
out construction in that zone has an enormous debt to the state. The
Biuzand Street residents Vachagan Hakobian, Levon Ghasabian, Gohar
Gharibian, and Iskuhi Bilian on the other hand, testified that the
state authorities were evicting the inhabitants from their homes
without recompensing them.
Chairman of Helsinki Committee Avetik Ishkhanyan called to appeal to
the European Court of Human Rights, since the report of the Ombudsman
has big advantage.