INVITATION REJECTED

vardan-harutyunyan
06:52 pm | March 24, 2010

Politics

The 37-th international forum of International Federation for Human
Rights (FIDH) titled "Justice. The right to an effective remedy before
an independent jurisdiction. New Challenges" will be held in Yerevan
on April 6-8. The upcoming event will be attended by delegates from
more than 100 countries as well as high-ranked officials of influential
European organizations.

Armenian advocacy organizations are among the invitees. In his letter
to the forum organizers, Vartan Harutyunyan, Head of the Centre of
Right and Freedom NGO rejected the invitation.

"Regardless of any project proposed by an international structure,
Armenian authorities will attempt to use the opportunity on their
behalf, which, of course, will be an unsuccessful experience. I do
not want to deal with these authorities therefore I rejected the
invitation," Vardan Harutyunyan told A1+.

Asked whether his withdrawal will not promote to the error concealment,
Mr. Vradanyan said: "In fact, the invitees are not granted freedom
of speech. Armenian delegates will simply have to listen to the RA
Justice Minister’s report on independent courts but they cannot speak
against the report."

Vardan Harutyunyan depicted Armenia’s real image in the letter
addressed to the forum organizers. The letter reads in part:

"The situation in Armenia is quite different today. The presidential
election of 2008 was conducted with large-scale violations. Thousands
of Armenians went to the street in protest against the authorities
who came to power through fraudulent vote.

Authorities decided to "silence" the opposition’s peaceful
demonstrations by force. On March 1, 2008, riot police and Armed
forces were sent against demonstrators. They came into clashes with
the demonstrators leaving 10 dead and 200 injured in downtown Yerevan.

To date, no one has been made accountable for the deadly clashes.

Neither the perpetrators nor the organizers have been detected.

Dissatisfied with the murder of ten victims, the authorities started
mass arrests and a chase against the proponents of the opposition
candidate at the same time announcing the post-election events as an
attempt of power seizure.

Hundreds of people were detained, many businessmen lost their jobs
because of their political views. Armenian prisons were filled with
political prisoners. Two years have since then but many of them are
still in jails.

Armenian courts having nothing in common with justice returned similar
verdicts on the basis of trumped-up evidence of policemen. They did
their utmost to please the authorities.

Nothing has changed during the past two years. The situation became
even worse. Political persecutions are still ongoing, courts obviously
meet the authorities’ demands, and opposition-linked businessmen
lose their businesses. Marches and demonstrations are banned in the
country. PACE, OSCE/ODIHR and U.S. Department of State, Freedom House
and Human Rights Watch have already given assessments to the state
in Armenia.