THE PROPOSALS OF PACE RESOLUTION MUST BE ADDRESSED TO EVERYONE
Arthur Hovhannisyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
une 27, 2008
Armenia

Interview with RPA deputy chairman, MP Razmik Zohrabyan regarding PACE last
resolution.

"The PACE resolution regarding Armenia particularly states that
from now on the authorities must not put improper restrictions on
the demonstrations organized by the opposition. It seems PACE is not
satisfied with the amendments and supplementations made in the law on
"Holding rallies, demonstrations and protest marches" What would you
say in this respect?"

"As we know the law on making amendments and supplementations in that
law has already been passed by the National Assembly and has already
come into force. As regards the requirements made by the opposition,
to hold demonstrations wherever and whenever they want, then I must
say that it is up to the authorities to decide. The Municipality
has the right to propose a proper place for holding demonstrations,
based on the security of the citizens. And it cannot be considered
an improper restriction."

"The Parliamentary Assembly considers intolerable to conduct criminal
persecutions based only on the testimony of the police. Is it a
legally acceptable proposal to ignore the testimony of the police,
in case of the absence of other testimonies?"

"From the legal point of view it is an unacceptable proposal and
doesn’t meet the requirements of RA Criminal Code, and by the way
not only RA. Besides that it is up to the court to consider the
testimonies trustworthy or false. The demands and the proposals must
be close to reality."

"The resolution also proposes the President to appeal to the National
Assembly with the law on "Amnesty", which will provide an opportunity
to release those detained in connection with March 1-2 developments,
who didn’t commit violent actions. Which means only physical violence
is considered a crime, do you think only physical violence is dangerous
for the people?"

"Of course no. The criminal code envisages punishment not only for
conducting physical crime, but also for instigating, organizing,
and assisting violence, murder, firings and other types of crimes.

For example if it comes clear due to the investigation that the
organizer or organizers made attempts to take power by force or
breached the constitutional order of the Republic of Armenia, then
they will face charges according to article 300 of RA Criminal Code,
even if they failed to bring their violence to the end.

In my personal opinion the actions of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters
were mainly aimed at taking power by force and breaching the country’s
constitutional order. But they failed because the authorities did
their best to avert dangerous consequences."

"The new resolution attaches great importance to the activity of the
temporary committee investigating March 1-2 developments, especially
to the independence and transparency of the committee’s activity,
as well as raising public trust."

"Firstly I would like to mention that the before mentioned committee
is a parliamentary committee and it hasn’t got investigative
functions. The readiness of the authorities to include experts in
the works of this committee is the very step aimed at raising public
trust towards the committee.

As regards the proposal made by PACE, it should be addressed both
to the authorities and the opposition. They should particularly take
into account the fact that by refusing to have their representative
in the committee, one wing of the opposition, "Heritage" party,
to be more precise their faction represented in the Parliament,
doesn’t contribute to raising public trust towards the committee.

This step of the opposition displays that no matter how transparent
the work of the committee is going to be, opposition will anyway
criticize it. PACE must have exhorted them to participate in the works
of the committee by their own representative and contribute to the
fair investigation. However I believe the authorities simply have to
form a really independent body, to investigate what has happened and
represent its standpoint.