ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 9, 2007 Friday 08:10 AM EST
Armenia criticises US report on human rights
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan believes that the chapter
of the annual report of the U.S. Department of State on the human
rights situation in the world, which deals with the situation in
Armenia, “contains some factual mistakes and biased approaches to
some problems.” He said so at a press conference here on Friday.
According to Oskanyan, the Armenian Foreign Ministry is closely
analysing the report, comparing its evaluation of the situation in
Armenia with the opinion of some neighbouring and other countries.
The annual report of the U.S. Department of State on the human rights
situation in the world, which was published on Tuesday, said that the
index of the protection of human rights by the Armenian authorities
continued to be low in 2006.
The document said that the republican authorities had put
restrictions on the private life of people, on the freedom of the
mass media and of the population.
In the opinion of the Department of State, there were serious
violations at the referendum on amendments on the Armenian
Constitutions in 2005 and at the 2003 parliamentary elections, and
the voting did not meet international standards.
At the same time, Oskanyan said the chapter dealing with Armenia
“contains both the recognition of the improvement of the situation
in a number of spheres, and serious, well-grounded criticism.” He
stressed that Yerevan would certainly call the attention of the U.S.
authorities to the above-mentioned “factual mistakes and biased
approaches.”