ARMENIAN OPPOSITION FACTION CRITICAL OF CHANGES TO LAW OF ASSEMBLY

Mediamax
March 19 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 19 March: Members of the Heritage opposition faction
today harshly criticized amendments to the law "On the procedure of
staging rallies, demonstrations and marches" adopted by the Armenian
parliament.

Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan today, Heritage faction
member Larisa Alaverdyan said that "by placing political and civil
freedoms under the jurisdiction of the law-enforcement agencies,
the authorities automatically politicized the activities of the
law-enforcement agencies," Mediamax news agency reports.

She added that the cornerstone of the country’s security is the
protection of human rights which are violated by the adoption of the
new version of the law.

Heritage faction secretary Stepan Safaryan stated that this law is
aimed at "frightening the opposition-oriented part of society". He
added that having made this decision, the Armenian parliament "put the
sign of equality between international terrorism and its own population
which disagrees with the results of the presidential elections".

He said that an anti-democratic law has come into force in Armenia,
and "its real authors are representatives of the presidential
administration, not the 70 MPs who voted for the amendments".