PACE observers to visit Armenia in near future

Interfax News Agency, Russia
April 18 2008

YEREVAN April 18 — Members of the monitoring commission of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), co-authors of
the resolution on the democratic institutions in Armenia John Prescott
and George Columbier will visit Armenia before June 2008 in order to
see the progress made toward the country’s democratization.

The purpose of the resolution is not at all forcing certain steps on
Armenia, Prescott said.

We are simply expressing our ideas in case Armenia really wants to
move towards democracy, on which it signed a document in 2001 when
it joined the Council of Europe, Prescott said.

According to head of the Armenian delegation David Arutiunian, the
resolution passed at a PACE plenary session on Thursday is balanced,
Armenian media outlets said. "Though I disagree with some of the
provisions, we must be clearly aware of what this resolution is about.

This resolution is about the state of democracy in our country. We
must take steps toward democratization of the society and the country,"
Arutiunian said.

The violence that occurred in Yerevan on March 1 was the result of
mistakes, he said. "The political system in Armenia is not yet fully
formed," he added.

The resolution on the functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia
was passed at a PACE plenary session on Thursday. The document calls
on Armenia to hold an independent, transparent inquiry into the March
1 events in Yerevan, to drop all charges against supporters of the
opposition and parliamentarians, if these people committed no offense,
to free all inmates whose arrest might have been politically motivated.

PACE has also called on Yerevan to urgently modify the changes made
recently to the law on assemblies, rallies, marches and demonstrations,
which it said undoubtedly contradict the European standards.