SARKISIAN VOWS TO HEAL ELECTION WOUNDS

Radio Liberty
March 6 2008
Czech Republic

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian said on Thursday that his hotly
disputed victory in last month’s presidential election has split
Armenian society and told his cabinet members to start "dialogue"
with citizens bitterly opposed to the country’s leadership.

"Spite in the society has increased, the society is divided, and in
this regard I expect all of you to work actively in that direction,"
he said, opening a weekly cabinet meeting, the first since Saturday’s
bloody confrontation between security forces and supporters of his
main election challenger, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.

"You should engage in dialogue, you should argue, explain, even if
your interlocutor doesn’t understand. Even if your interlocutor is
blinded by hatred," said Sarkisian.

The president-elect at the same time defended the use of force against
thousands of Ter-Petrosian supporters who had been protesting the
official election results on a daily basis and pledged to punish
organizers of those unsanctioned protests. "Thank God, our security
forces managed to find adequate solutions," he said.

"We will make sure that all the guilty are punished," continued
Sarkisian. "I am promising this to all of you by 100 percent. This
is not a promise, this is an obligation which I will fulfill."

Sarkisian also criticized government ministers and other officials for
being too "passive" in trying to have the international community
accept the official version of events that left at least seven
protesters and one interior troops officer dead. He assured them that
relevant official reports aired by Armenia’s government-controlled
TV channels are truthful and can be cited as proven facts "without
hesitation."

The Armenian authorities say the violent confrontation which followed
the break-up on Saturday morning of Ter-Petrosian supporters’
sit-in in Yerevan’s Liberty Square was an opposition attempt at
a coup d’etat. Ter-Petrosian and his allies insist, however, that
the authorities themselves provoked the deadly clashes with their
heavy-handed tactic and refusal to end the former president’s de
facto house arrest.

Armen Harutiunian has questioned the credibility of the official
theory, prompting harsh criticism from President Robert Kocharian. "I
didn’t get answers to my questions," Harutiunian told RFE/RL,
commenting on the criticism.

"I can only say that as human rights ombudsman, I tried to do what I
consider the right thing," he said. "I think time will tell that my
approach was objective."