ACCORDING TO SUREN ABRAHAMIAN, ROBERT KOCHARIAN IS MAIN PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR MARCH 1 EVENTS

Noyan Tapan

Se p 10, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The aim of the early March 1 events
was to create some conditions for declaring a state of emergency
and for consigning the fact of the election rigging to oblivion,
Suren Abrahamian – the head of the Committee on Public Inquiry into
the March 1 Events, former interior minister of Armenia, stated at
the September 10 round table.

Commenting on the video with episodes of the events that took place
on the morning and evening of March 1, he said that the actions
of the authorities on the morning of that day had nothing to do
with protection of the public order and a search but these were the
Armenian president Robert Kocharian’s beating methods in order to
teach the opposition a lesson. In his words, after the nomination
of Levon Ter-Petrosian as a candidate, persecution and violence
against his supporters began, with the whole arsenal of police acts
of violence and the possibilities of some oligarchs, skinheads and
criminals being used.

S. Abrahamian said that the police ceased long ago being a body
that performs the main two functions of protecting the public order
and detecting crimes, it has become a secondary link of political
police persecution in the hands of the national security service. In
his words, the dirtiest and meanest tasks of political character (to
beat a political figure, to trump up a charge, hold a political talk)
are given to this link. According to S.

Abrahamian, among illegal measures of the police are kidnapping
political activists, taking people to police, moving cars to "penalty
areas", banning timber from being brought to Liberty Square.

The former interior minister said that unlike the 2003-2004 events,
there was a qualitative change in the March 1 events: "this time
the beating was accompanied by the manifestation of mordid inhuman
cruelty by some police forces or those acting under their name."

In the opinion of Suren Abrahamian, after the situation got out of
control, the authorities resorted to a graver crime: they fired at
people. In his words,"in such conditions the problem of police forces
is not to shed blood.

In case of large crowds of people, using not only arms but also other
technical means against people is a crime. If a panic had begun,
there would have been hundreds, even thousands of deaths. Whereas,
not only technical means but also fire-arms were used on that day."

Thus, in the words of S. Abrahamian, "Kocharian re-confirmed the
opinion held in the country that "he was the instigator and the main
person responsible for the morning beating and the evening slaughter."