ARMENIA: OPPOSITION RAPS PACE RESOLUTION
By Rita Karapetian

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Jan 30 2009
UK

They’re angry with European organisation over suspected U-turn on
punishing the government for rights record.

The opposition this week criticised a Europe-wide human rights body’s
decision not to suspend Armenian delegates’ voting rights, suggesting
that it had been fooled by "not entirely reliable information" from
the government.

The authorities, meanwhile, welcomed the resolution by the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, saying it had
recognised the government’s willingness to reform.

The PACE investigation stems from the suppression of opposition
protests in March, which followed presidential elections the month
before. Ten people died in the protests, and as yet no one has been
charged for their murders.

After initial suggestions that PACE might suspend Armenia’s members
from voting, on January 27, it welcomed the establishment of a probe
into the March events, and the release of a number of people who had
been held since then. It also upheld the voting rights of Armenian
delegates.

"I consider that decision to be the result of the recent display of
political will and reforms on the part of the authorities headed by
the president," said Eduard Sharmazanov, spokesman for the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia.

"This is a victory for the democratic future of Armenia."

He said a PACE delegation that visited Armenia this month had been told
of the country’s determination to reform Articles 225 and 300 in the
criminal code, which deal with attempts to overthrow the government,
and other proposed changes.

These conversations seemed to have satisfied the delegates, although
not entirely since the PACE resolution said they meet again in April
to "examine the progress achieved by the Armenian authorities with
regard to the implementation of this and the previous resolutions
and to propose any further action to be taken".

February’s presidential polls themselves were described by
international observers as having been "mostly in line with the
country’s international commitments", but candidates including Levon
Ter-Petrossian – the country’s first post-independence president
who heads the Armenian National Congress, HAK – said the winner,
Serzh Sargsian, had stolen the election.

Two weeks of mass protests by supporters of Ter-Petrossian and other
candidates followed, but they were crushed when the government declared
a state of emergency and banned independent news coverage.

In two successive resolutions – number 1609 in April and number 1620
in June – PACE demanded that Armenia guarantee citizens’ rights to
protest, that it allow an unbiased investigation into the deaths,
and that it free activists "seemingly detained on artificial and
politically motivated charges".

But three parliamentary deputies and ex-foreign minister Alexander
Arzumanian are among seven people still in detention charged with
organising the mass protests.

The opposition said 58 political prisoners remain in detention, and
that 18 of the 20 people freed before PACE’s monitoring commission
met were ordinary criminals with no connection to politics.

"HAK regrets that voting in the [PACE] monitoring group took place
on the basis of not entirely reliable information," said a statement
from Ter-Petrossian’s organisation to PACE.

HAK also said the government’s promises to liberalise the criminal
code could not be relied upon.

"If the past is any indication, the Armenian authorities have almost
certainly made this proposal in order to win time and find some way
of circumventing the problem," it said.

In particular, opposition leaders were annoyed that a reference to
the opposition leaders in detention as "political prisoners" had been
removed from the PACE resolution, although the body still speculated
that the charges brought under Articles 225 and 300 "could have been
politically motivated".