WHAT WILL BE THE FORMAT OF THE FACT-FINDING GROUP?
Gevorg Haroutyunyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
23 Sep 2008
Armenia

Interview with SAMVEL NIKOYAN, Head of the NA Interim Committee
investigating the March 1-2 incidents and their causes

"Mr. Nikoyan, the committee is to submit the results of the
investigation before October 25, as planned beforehand. Did you manage
to disclose the entire picture of the March 1 events?"

"Probably, everybody remembers that we wasted two or three weeks on
setting up the committee. Although we worked without holidays, it took
us a long time to decide what competences to vest in each member of the
interim committee. Unfortunately, we devoted most of the time (which
was limited, as it is) on the negotiations to enable the members of
‘Heritage’ parliamentary faction and the other representatives of
the opposition to participate in the activities of the committee.

Those problems are not yet resolved although the committee
works actively and is about to finish the second stage of the
investigation. The group of experts still needs to be replenished. To
date, the committee doesn’t have a Vice Chair. The thing is that we
hope common sense will win, and they will send representatives for
working in the committee and the group of experts.

Apart from influencing the public opinion, the omissions I just spoke
about negatively impacted the activities of the committee as well. We
wasted time.

Had we known what goal the pro-opposition activists pursued, we
wouldn’t have wasted so much time. Unfortunately, only now did we
manage to find out the insolvency of all their arguments. It is
now clear that neither the pro-opposition figures nor ‘Heritage’
could be members the committee since they were obliged to represent
their own activities in the context of the March 1 developments in
an honest manner."

"The interim committee was required not only to investigate the
March 1-2 incidents but also disclose their causes that led to the
confrontations, lootings and the loss of 10 human lives. Can the
committee introduce certain causes now?"

"We’ll speak about the causes and our conclusions in a month when we
have the report on the outcomes of our activities. There’s no need
to run ahead of time. I can now assure you that we are conducting a
through and detailed investigation of all the available facts and
video materials. We are also trying to get a clear picture of the
developments that took place in the course of the ten days following
the elections and preceding the March 1 incidents, as well as the
chronology and the character of the developments.

If we start everything from March 1, it will simply become unclear
why the law enforcers went to the Theatrical Square on March 1, why
there eme rged a necessity of resorting to such operations or why the
demonstrators were armed with clubs and iron sticks. If it weren’t for
the analysis and the assessment of the situation and the atmosphere
of the past 10 days, it wouldn’t be clear why the March 1 developments
took such a course and what the prevalent logic was in that period.

For instance, the interception of the telephone conversations of
Alik Arzoumanyan, Head of L. Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign headquarters,
was considered as confidential information during the inquest. All
that is being published now was known to us, and we took that into
consideration. Now, each member of society can have access to the
interesting information, because the case is already being considered
by the court, and it is possible to draw relevant conclusions."

"Mr. Nikoyan, the radical activists and the international organizations
demanded from the outset that their ‘independent’ experts participate
in the fact-finding activities as well. How come that only now have
they found out that they have relevant experts?"

"Today, we have practically committed ourselves to the task of
setting up the fact-finding group. Before that, all the relevant
activities were carried out by the committee members. In my opinion,
the fact-finding group should only consist of specialists who do
not belong to any political party and are not involved in political
proces ses. This group should obtain relevant facts that will help
us get a clear picture of the March 1 events.

We have proposed that the candidacy of two of the members of the
fact-finding group be advanced by the ruling coalition, and the Human
Rights Defender, L. Ter-Petrosyan as an activist of extra-parliamentary
opposition and ‘Heritage’ as a pro-opposition parliamentary party each
have one representative. This format is still under discussion. As
soon as it is agreed upon, the international organizations will
dispatch their experts.

Such agreement has already been achieved with the representatives of
the European Union."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress