OMBUDSMAN YET AGAIN TRIES TO PLEASE EVERYONE

Tert
Sept 18 2009
Armenia

The report which referred to events that took place after last
year’s elections came to the conclusion that the causes of the
situation were objective, which is a result of systemic mistakes
by governing authorities, said Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan during a
press conference today.

According to Harutyunyan, the negative examples in the report were
mainly connected with the opposition. "There is nothing in the
Commission’s conclusion that says that the state of emergency [that
is, the media lockdown] was only applied to opposition media." It
is important to note that during the events of March 1, when the
president declared a media lockdown, only national media were able
to broadcast news.

Harutyunyan also emphasized the conclusion was too mild in terms of
the ten victims and noted that the commission has tried to spare
the prosecutor’s office from the beginning to the end. "Mainly,
they speak about the police, the Special Investigation Service;
they speak as little as they have to. There is no mention of the
prosecutor’s office."

The human rights defender also considers it favourable that the
report mentions a display of gloveless,"bare hands" holding a weapon,
subjecting people to beatings, but does not reveal whose weapon it was.

Touching upon the negative aspects of the report, the ombudsman said
it lacks clarity adding, however, that "giving one-sided evaluations
on specific tenets, the commission has been objective, in general,
which is most important."

"The Commission unequivocally states that the main reasons were
systemic, institutional reasons; that is, over-centralization of
governing bodies, a class of people who had special advantages,
and other [reasons]," the ombudsman stated.

In Harutyunyan’s opinion, that’s the reason which created such a
situation, "but who and how they directed the situation is another
matter."