MATTHEW BRYZA: "WE URGE TO FREE ALL WHO WERE ARRESTED IN ARMENIA FOR POLITICAL REASONS"
Today.Az
olitics/44390.html
April 18 2008
Azerbaijan
Matthew Bryza, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and US co-chair
of the OSCE Minsk Group, called on the Armenian authorities to free
all persons, detained for political reasons".
"We condemn the Armenian authorities for the actions, undertaken
to restrict freedom and urge to free everyone who were detained
for political reasons", said Bryza at the hearings arranged by the
Helsinki Committee of the US Congress, held previously.
Matthew Bryza noted that mass detainments of opposition figures,
with most of them still arrested, occurred after March 1.
According to Matthew Bryza this process has "political trends". Bryza
called lifting emergency state within 20 days following its imposing
as a progress and said: "Nevertheless, we continue considering the
law on conduction of meetings, rallies and demonstrations as limited.
Unfortunately, we see that the tax bodies hold inspections in the
opposition mass medias, which is considered a persecution. Moreover,
we have witnessed incredible things-people gathered in Yerevan,
doing nothing in real, just talking or holding silent rallies and
were detained by the police in the result", Bryza said.
The US diplomat pointed out several directions of work to find a
way out from the situation, placing the need to define the level of
strictness the United States blame violence of March 1, regardless
of who has committed it, among them.
"It is now difficult to say who was the initiator but in such cases
the elected government is to be blamed for everything", said Bryza. He
noted that it is necessary to hold a biased investigation and punish
those who are responsible irrespective of who they are.
"We hope that main rights will be restored both on the level of law
and in the practice and the investigation will be carried out with
the offenders of the Electoral Code punished.We also hope to see the
national dialogue with participation of the opposition, powers and
civil society", said Bryza.
He also voiced hope for restoration of democracy and noted that the ban
for conduction of meetings will not reduce the mass resentment: "The
suppression of the opposition will not get the opinions closer, while
deterioration of the democratic institutes will not lead to stability".