ARMENIA: OMBUDSMAN SAYS VIOLENCE REPORT SKEWED

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NEWS BRIEFS
9/23/09

A recent report by a group of legislators on the causes of the 2008
post-election violence in Yerevan is off the mark, Armenian Ombudsman
Armen Arutyunian contends.

Speaking at a September 22 news conference, Arutyunian noted that the
long-awaited report, released earlier in the month, offered only tepid
criticism of authorities’ conduct, while the opposition was spared
no blame, the Kavkazsky Uzel news service reported. Yerevan street
protests degenerated into deadly violence on March 1, 2008, as police
battled demonstrators who disputed the results of the February 19
presidential vote. An ad hoc commission was later set up to investigate
the clashes. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The report’s criticism of the prosecutor’s office and police was
limited to expressing anger over the failure of these agencies to
cooperate with the parliamentary commission, Arutyunian said. The
ombudsman, however, commended the report for pinpointing systematic
flaws of governance that contributed to the unrest, Kavkazsky Uzel
reported.