COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVINCES TER-PETROSIAN TO HOLD INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF VIOLENCE IN YEREVAN
By Emil Danielyan

Eurasia Daily Monitor
Nov 11 2008
DC

Bowing to Western pressure, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has
formed a supposedly independent body to investigate the deadly clashes
in Yerevan that were sparked by his controversial victory in last
February’s presidential election. The new inquiry could undermine
the Armenian government’s justification for the use of lethal force
against thousands of opposition supporters protesting official vote
results. Nonetheless, the Armenian opposition has downplayed the move’s
significance and set conditions for its indispensable involvement in
the probe.

At least eight civilians and two members of the security forces were
killed on March 1 and 2 as the Armenian authorities suppressed a
campaign of non-stop street protests launched by the main opposition
presidential candidate, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian,
following the disputed vote on February 19. The worst street violence
in Armenia’s history was triggered by the pre-dawn dispersal of a tent
camp set up by Ter-Petrosian in Yerevan’s Liberty Square. Later on
March 1 thousands of his furious supporters regrouped and barricaded
themselves in a sprawling area elsewhere in the city center

Despite firing live rounds and using heavy anti-riot equipment, the
police and other security forces failed to break up the unprecedented
protest. The most aggressive of the protesters armed with Molotov
cocktails, iron bars, and sticks chased them away from the scene,
burning police and other cars and looting shops in the process. The
crowd dispersed at Ter-Petrosian’s urging in the early hours of the
next morning after outgoing President Robert Kocharyan declared a state
of emergency and ordered the military into the Armenian capital. The
authorities branded the opposition actions an attempted coup d’etat
and arrested at least 100 opposition members and supporters in the
following weeks.

Ter-Petrosian and his allies rejected the accusation, saying that
Kocharyan had organized the "slaughter" to install his longtime chief
lieutenant Sarkisian in power. The official version of events has
also been questioned by Western governments and human rights bodies,
notably the Council of Europe. One of their key demands to the Armenian
authorities since then has been to allow an "independent, credible,
and transparent" inquiry into the bloody unrest.

The authorities claimed to have complied with this demand when they
launched a separate parliamentary inquiry in June. The tiny opposition
minority in Armenia’s National Assembly as well as Ter-Petrosian’s
opposition alliance, which is not represented in the legislature,
were also given a chance to name representatives to an ad hoc
parliamentary commission formed for that purpose. They both rejected
the offer, however, on the grounds that the commission was dominated
by pro-government lawmakers.

The opposition boycott led Council of Europe officials to express
serious misgivings about the parliamentary body. Visiting Yerevan
in July, the Strasbourg-based organization’s commissioner for human
rights, Thomas Hammarberg, proposed a new format for the inquiry,
whereby the main investigative work would be done by another, purely
fact-finding body, in which the government and opposition camps would
have equal representation. The parliamentary commission would only
make a political assessment of that body’s findings.

The authorities in Yerevan accepted the proposal, with Sarkisian
signing an executive order on the formation of the Fact-Finding Group
of Experts on October 23. A statement by Sarkisian’s office said that
its main mission would be to collect information that would shed more
light on the "legitimacy" of police actions and the circumstances in
which 10 people were killed on March 1. The fact-finding group will
have the right to obtain that information from "any state or local
government body or any of their officials" and to question individuals
who played a part in the unrest.

Under the presidential directive, Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National
Congress (HAK) alliance and the opposition Heritage party of U.S.-born
former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian will each name one member of
the group. Two other members will be nominated by Armenia’s governing
coalition loyal to the president. The remaining fifth member will
represent the state human-rights ombudsman, Armen Harutyunyan, who
cautiously welcomed Sarkisian’s decision, calling it the first "serious
step" toward a dialogue with the opposition (168 Zham, October 28).

Opposition leaders, however, were far more skeptical about the
implications of the move. Ter-Petrosian told RFE/RL on October 27
that the new body could not be independent because it was supposed to
report to the parliamentary commission, to which it would therefore
be "subordinated." He claimed that those guilty of the March 1
deaths would not be brought to justice as long as Sarkisian stayed
in power. In a joint statement on November 1, the HAK and Heritage
described Sarkisian’s October 23 directive as "unconstitutional" but
said they would participate in the new inquiry if the body conducting
it was given more power and was joined by foreign experts.

Sarkisian and his four-party coalition have yet to respond to the
opposition’s demands. The very fact of them agreeing to forego
control over the purportedly independent probe is in itself quite
significant. The fact-finding group, assuming that it takes shape and
starts working, is extremely unlikely to endorse the official theory of
the unrest, which is at the heart of the ongoing criminal investigation
launched by Kocharyan. There is speculation in Armenia that Sarkisian
is not only eager to avoid sanctions by the Council of Europe but
is also seeking to distance himself from his hawkish predecessor,
who is widely blamed for the bloody post-election crackdown.

Kocharyan’s lingering influence on law-enforcement bodies is seen by
some local observers as the main reason why the vast majority of the
oppositionists arrested in the aftermath of the February election
remain in jail. Their release is another key demand by the Council
of Europe to Yerevan. Government loyalists have fueled talk of an
impending amnesty for the opposition detainees. One loyalist, former
Justice Minister David Harutyunyan, hinted on November 5 that Sarkisian
might announce it before the end of this month. (Aravot, November 6.)