news.am, Armenia
Feb 6 2010

Lindblad mooted involvement of RA army in March 2008 events in PACE

16:35 / 02/06/2010Motion for a resolution under `The involvement of
the army in the events of March 2008 in Armenia’ head, signed by 20
PACE delegates and presented by Goran Lindblad was posted on PACE
official website. NEWS.am issues the full text.

1. Recalling its previous resolutions on Armenia, in particular
Resolution 1609 (2008), which, among other things, calls for `an
independent, transparent and credible inquiry into the events of 1
March 2008′;

2. Dissatisfied with the report of the ad hoc Committee of the
Armenian Parliament on `the events of 1 March’, which, in essence, is
biased and avoids criticizing the Armenian authorities;

3. Deeply alarmed at reports concerning the use of the army during the
events of March 2008, which constitutes a violation of the Armenian
Constitution and a breach of the internationally accepted principle of
neutrality of the army in domestic political matters;

4. Outraged by the existence ‘ recently discovered and made public `
of secret order no. 0038, issued by the then President of Armenia,
Robert Kocharyan, on 23 February 2008, proving that Armenian army
units received formal orders to assemble and deploy in Yerevan before
1 March;

5. Considering that the involvement of the army in domestic political
matters, accompanied by large-scale repression of citizens’ civil and
political rights and persecution of the political opposition, clearly
bears the characteristics of a coup d’etat;

6. Considering unacceptable the attempts by the Armenian authorities
to conceal the involvement of the army in the events of 1 March 2008,
the Parliamentary Assembly urges the Armenian authorities to take the
following immediate action:

– disclose all information concerning the involvement of the army in
the events of 1 March 2008;

– conduct a transparent inquiry into the involvement of the army in
the post-electoral events;

– hold personally responsible all officials involved in the army’s
participation in the events.

7. The Assembly encourages the member states to use their influence on
the Armenian authorities to ensure that this inquiry is carried out.

8. The Assembly intends to examine this matter urgently and include
the outcome of that examination in its next report on Armenia.