FOR BETTER ASSESSMENTS WE NEED BETTER INVESTIGATION OF THE FACTS
Naira Khachatryan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
14 Oct 2008
Armenia
Secretary of ARFD parliamentary faction Artashes Shahbazyan was the
guest of "Hayatsk" club yesterday.
The questions directed to the MP who is involved in the works of the
temporary committee investigating March 1-2 developments were related
to the activity of the committee.
Underscoring that the fact-collecting group will be set up by the
order of the President, A. Shahbazyan said: "The principle is to set
up a committee of independent specialists, which means that the work
is pure professional and it would be right to involve specialists
there. This fact-collecting group must have the possibility to collect
all the necessary facts. They must be able to make use of all those
documents, which are linked with these developments. They must have
possibility to meet with all those people who have connection with
"March-1" developments.
It is presumed that two candidates from the coalition, one candidate
from Armenian National Congress and one candidate from "Heritage"
party will be involved in the committee. The Human Rights Defender will
also be represented in the fact-collecting group. "It is the problem
of the opposition whether or not they will participate in the works
of the group, I will not make predictions. Anyhow in case of th eir
participation if they have desire to publish certain facts found by
themselves, no one can stop them. I don’t see any obstacle here.
According to Shahbazyan their investigations are based on the morning
of March-1 developments: "We must make investigations of the same
volume and profundity, regarding the other parts of the day as
well. Maybe time will give us possibility to go deep into the facts.
The expansion of the time is also good because the court proceeding
will soon start and the conclusions will soon be clear for
everyone. Maybe this time-expansion is not very good for society,
but in my view the process will benefit from it. The information base
will become complete for us."
As regards the adequateness of the actions taken by the police, the
member of the committee states that for better assessments "we need
better investigation of the facts."
He assured us that the competent bodies that can help find the complete
picture of March 1 developments will be invited to the sessions of the
committee. "It is not excluded that the ex Chief Police Officer and
other officials be invited in the session. But we can invite these
people only after we have clear questions to ask them. The work is
not over yet.
But it will happen because we don’t have any complications regarding
that issue."