MATTHEW BRYZA PLANS TO CONVINCE THE ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT OF THE NECESSITY TO LIFT THE STATE OF EMERGENCY

Mediamax
March 6, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew
Bryza will hold meetings in Yerevan today with representatives of
the Armenian authorities and the opposition.

Mediamax reports that official representative of the U.S. State
Department Tom Casey said this at a briefing in Washington.

"The primary focus of that and the intention of his visit there was
first and foremost to see what he could do to help encourage and
facilitate a dialogue between the government and the opposition there
in light of some of the violence that we’ve seen in the post-electoral
period.

One of his core messages will be to tell the Armenian Government that
now that the situation has calmed down, it’s very important to us to
see the state of emergency lifted there. We also are concerned about
the limitations and restrictions that have been placed on the media,
including Radio Liberty and we’d like to see those lifted. It’s
important for not only us but for – more importantly the people of
Armenia to be able, in this period, to have access to open information"
Tom Casey stated.

Mediamax notes that the Armenian President Robert Kocharian stated on
March 5 that the emergency state in Yerevan was introduced on March 1
for the term of 20 days and that he does not see necessity to prolong
or to reduce the given term.