Activist under investigation

Mariam Sukhudyan, a local environmental activist, faces up to 5 years
after alleging cases of child abuse in a Yerevan boarding school. This
seems to be part of a growing trend of governments in the region
targeting youth activists

23.09.2009 Da Yerevan, scrive Onnik Krikorian

Mariam Sukhudyan is an environmental activist that recently fought
against the cutting of the Teghut forest in the north-east of Armenia.
She has previously been a volunteer in a boarding school, and she now
faces up to 5 years imprisonment for being part of a group of volunteers
alleging that staff at the Nubarashen #11 specialized boarding school in
Yerevan, the Armenian capital, routinely mistreated children in their
care. A teacher was accused of sexual abuse by at least two children
with the allegations forming the basis for a special report broadcast on
the main Armenian Public TV last November.

`According to the children’s accounts, they are subjected to beatings
and other forms of physical punishment,’ the group wrote in a joint
statement posted online. `We personally witnessed needlessly harsh
treatment of children by teachers and night guards. The school director
and other administrative workers use children as a free labor force in
their homes and summer houses,’ continued the statement signed by
Sukhudyan and eight others.

For those with experience of Armenia’s dilapidated Soviet-era boarding
schools, such allegations are unlikely to raise many eyebrows.

Since independence, such institutions remain the main depository for
children with learning or physical disabilities as well those from
socially vulnerable families. Conditions are sub-standard and directors
receive funding on a per-capita basis. Thus, critics of the system
argue, staff oppose plans supported by international organizations to
return children to their biological parents, place them in foster care,
or to integrate them into mainstream education.

Although the number of children enrolled in such schools has declined
from 12,000 to 5,000 in recent years, children from extremely poor
families are still known to attend in order to receive food and, in some
cases, clothing donated to the institutions. At one specialized boarding
school for the blind and visually impaired in Yerevan, for example, 60
percent of children have no problems with their sight.

`With the declining level of services in residential institutions, the
current trend is creating an underclass of children marked by poverty,
stigmatization and a lack of proper care and education who are likely to
lack opportunity as adults,’ reported the World Bank in 2002. `To the
extent that such children end up in institutions for the mentally
disabled, which offer only a special education syllabus for children
with mental disability, their development will be seriously hampered by
lack of educational opportunities.’

Speaking to Al Jazeera English last week, World Vision Armenia’s Child
Protection Officer Kristine Mikhailidi went even further, noting that
regardless of which children attend, conditions are of significant
concern. `Physical abuse is always there. They are yelling, they are
beating on these kids and all these things are happening. Closed
facilities, no interaction with the other society, no one is coming in,
they don’t have skills to work with these kids – all this brings to an
abusive situation.’

Nubrashen’s staff refutes such criticism, although the teacher accused
of sexual abuse resigned soon after the allegations were made. `They are
lying,’ Donara Hovhanissyan, Nubarashen’s Head of Education responded
when asked by Al Jazeera’s Matthew Collin about Sukhudyan and her
colleagues. `Because they were so young and inexperienced, they didn’t
understand that every child here has mental disabilities and very active
imaginations. It’s very easy for them to make something up.’

Nevertheless, although she admits she never witnessed any sexual abuse
in Nubarashen, Sukhudyan stands by the accusations made by the children.
`This little girl who was speaking about serious sexual abuse was
terribly distressed; she was in such a state that I was saying we
shouldn’t ask any more questions because she was in such emotional
distress.’ she told Collin.

However, while police did open a case based on the accusations aired by
Public TV, they eventually turned on Sukhudyan in August this year just
as her environmental activities increased. The 29-year-old now faces up
to five years in prison on charges of false denunciation while her
supporters believe that the action is part of a growing trend of
governments in the region targeting youth activists.

Sukhudyan has no links to any political party, government or opposition
alike, and is better known as one of the main environmental activists
protesting plans to mine copper and molybdenum deposits in the
north-east of the country at the expense of local forests. Conveniently,
while police investigate the charges against her, the activist is
confined to Yerevan and is unable to continue her environmental
activities outside the capital, and especially in Teghut.

`I can’t help but link this case with Teghut because I’m not the first
activist to be subjected to such pressure,’ Sukhudyan told RFE/RL last
month. `This may be a good opportunity [for the authorities] to break
our movement and force me to shut up.’

Certainly, the fact that Sukhudyan is the only one of many alleging
abuse in Nubarashen to be investigated by police raises many questions
and a number of civil society activists and organizations have already
condemned the case against her. `It looks like active citizens are not
encouraged in our country,’ Sona Ayvazyan, a specialist at the Armenian
affiliate of the international anti-corruption watchdog Transparency
International, told RFE/RL last month.

`The authorities seem to be trying to eliminate such citizens one by
one. Mariam is simply the latest victim, and we don’t know who will be
the next.’

—

Last week, the author worked with Al Jazeera English’s Matthew Collin on
a news report for the satellite TV station on Mariam Sukhudyan and
Nubarashen #11. The report aired on 13 September 2009.

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