Georgian ombudsman urges caution in commenting on ethnic Armenian’s
killing

Prime-News, Tbilisi
11 Mar 06

Tbilisi, 11 March: Commenting on the tense situation in [the
multiethnic] Tsalka District [in southern Georgia], Georgian ombudsman
Sozar Subari has urged local law enforcers to work more actively.

Subari said at a new briefing today that on 9 March a clash between
young ethnic Armenian and Georgian residents of Tsalka had a tragic
end: One young Armenian died [of knife wounds] while four others were
injured. The ombudsman’s representatives visited Tsalka on 10 March to
study the situation. Their preliminary findings indicate that the
unfortunate incident had common criminal rather than ethnic
causes. Police arrested several suspects on the same day [9 March] and
are still looking for other suspects.

On 9 March, angry ethnic Armenians residents of Tsalka staged a
protest rally outside the Tsalka District administration building. The
rally turned into mass disturbances. Some of the protesters, about 300
men, gathered outside the Tsalka police station and demanded that the
suspects be lynched. Another group of about 200 men stormed the
administration building, shattered windows, smashed doors and burnt
documents.

The Georgian ombudsman said that lynching suspects and storming the
building was not a civilized form of justice but a crime. He said that
organizers of the storming as well as those who committed the murder
should be punished.

Sozar Subari expressed his condolences to the deceased Gevork
Gevorkyan’s family and condemned activities of the groups that tried
to use the tragic incident for inciting ethnic hatred, thus making the
sorrow of the deceased young man’s family deeper.

It is also unfortunate that some nongovernmental organizations
described the 9 March incident of hooliganism as an ethnic incident
and misled the Georgian population and the international community,
Subari said. He noted that the statements made by the NGOs were
absolutely inappropriate and could only harm the centuries-long
good-neighbourly relations between the brotherly Georgian and Armenian
peoples. The Georgian ombudsman urged everyone to refrain from making
such groundless statements and let the law-enforcement bodies finish
the investigation without any pressure. Such irresponsible statements
escalate tensions in the region and play to the hands of external
forces who want to stir up new conflicts, [Subari said].