PACE MONITORING COMMITTEE INTO MARCH 1 COMMISSION REPORT COMES TO LIGHT

Tert.am
18:15 ~U 23.12.09

Armenian National Congress coordinator Levon Zurabyan, while speaking
to journalists today, addressed the report by Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) co-rapporteurs on the National Assembly
of Armenia Commission for the Investigation of March 1st Events.

"Unfortunately, though the report had been long distributed to
members of the monitoring committee, the governing leaders, in
essence, until recently, hid this report from the Armenian public,
presenting it with a few incoherent comments and misrepresented. The
report was made available on the PACE website yesterday, and we have
the opportunity to present it to our public," noted Zurabyan.

A summary of the report, as published on the official PACE website,
follows:

"The recommendations of the ad hoc Committee of the National
Assembly of Armenia into the events of 1 and 2 March 2008 provide
‘a comprehensive, although not complete’ response to the political
crisis, according to an information note by the co-rapporteurs for
the monitoring of Armenia of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) made public this week.

"In their note, Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD) and John Prescott
(United Kingdom, SOC) said the recommendations were regrettably not
complemented by a comprehensive analysis of the events of 1 and 2
March, which they felt was rather one-sided, and gave the impression
that the committee wanted to avoid criticising the authorities. They
strongly regretted the almost total lack of analysis of developments
that followed these events, and expressed concern at the lack of
concrete results from the inquiry into the 10 fatalities that occurred.

"The co-rapporteurs recommended the continuation of a special
body of the parliament to oversee implementation of the report’s
recommendations and conduct further inquiries where necessary. They
said they would closely follow this matter in the framework of the
regular monitoring of Armenia and report back to PACE’s Monitoring
Committee at a future meeting."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress