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A1+ : Tensions on Eve of Yerevan Rally

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  • A1+ : Tensions on Eve of Yerevan Rally

    A1+

    Tensions on Eve of Yerevan Rally
    [07:56 pm] 27 February, 2009

    Armenia braces for protests commemorating violent break-up of
    opposition demonstration.

    By Karine Asatrian in Yerevan

    Opposition activists will defy the authorities on March 1 to mark the
    anniversary of a police crackdown on protesters last year that left
    ten people dead.

    Both sides of the political divide hope there will be no repeat of
    last year's violence, but observers say there has been no significant
    easing of the tensions that caused the mass protests a year ago.

    Last year's protests were the result of opposition anger over the
    results of February 19 presidential elections, which they say were
    stolen by now-president Serzh Sargsian.

    The then president imposed a state of emergency after the
    demonstration, restricted the media, and sent in troops and armed
    police ` resulting in the deaths of eight opposition protesters and
    two policemen.

    `The political crisis in Armenia has still not been overcome,' said
    Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan.

    Indeed, opposition anger has been heightened by the police
    investigation into the events. Prosecutors say they have opened 90
    criminal cases against 110 people. Courts have already ruled on 97
    cases involving 101 people, and five people remain on the run.

    The most high-profile detainees, seven opposition leaders, remain
    behind bars, awaiting trial. Their cases have been repeatedly
    postponed. No police have been charged in relation to the deaths.

    `The Armenian authorities' response to the March 1 events has been
    one-sided,' said Human Rights Watch in a damning report published
    earlier this month.

    `While they have investigated, prosecuted, and convicted dozens of
    opposition members, sometimes in flawed and politically motivated
    trials, for organising the demonstration and participating in violent
    disorder, they have not prosecuted a single representative of the
    authorities for excessive use of force. The Office of the Public
    Prosecutor has also dismissed all allegations of ill-treatment and
    torture in detention as unfounded.'

    The opposition says its supporters were engaged in lawful protests on
    March 1 and were subjected to an unprovoked attack, despite calls from
    the international community for a peaceful resolution of the political
    crisis.

    The authorities, however, say they were forced to act after receiving
    information that weapons had been distributed among the demonstrators
    and that `mass riots' were planned. The trouble began early on the
    morning, when police moved in on several hundred protesters sleeping
    in tents pitched on Freedom Square in central Yerevan. They cleared
    the square quickly, but subsequent protests continued all day,
    culminating in the state of emergency being proclaimed.

    The government has promised a full probe into the events, and
    prosecutors have occasionally reported on the results of their own
    investigations, but have come no closer to announcing arrest warrants.

    `I am not accusing anyone. I just want to know who killed my son. I
    want to know the truth,' said Aghasi Tadevosian, whose son Hamlet was
    one of the policemen killed in the clashes.

    His words were echoed by the bereaved parents of those on the other
    side of the lines.

    `Leaving political convictions aside, Armenians were killed by their
    fellow-countrymen. I am sure that the time will come when all those to
    blame for the crimes of March 1, as well as those before and after
    that day, will be punished,' said Robert Harutiunian, whose son Samvel
    died.

    Under pressure from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
    Europe, the government has agreed to alter two controversial articles
    in their criminal code under which the seven detained opposition
    leaders are charged, but most opposition figures say nothing of
    significance has changed in the last year to prevent protests bursting
    out once more.

    `Dialogue required actions, and not just promises. If the authorities
    were genuinely prepared for this, then first of all they would free
    the political prisoners, which must be their side of the
    dialogue. Secondly, we must uncover the circumstances around the
    deaths of ten innocent people, specifically the murderers and who gave
    the orders,' said Armen Martirosian, the leader of the Heritage
    Party's Parliamentary group, the only opposition presence in
    parliament.

    `There are already experts who could be deployed quickly to uncover
    the crime. But they have not done this, which means they do not want
    to solve these murders.'

    City hall refused to give opposition parties permission to protest on
    the anniversary of the crackdown. Artak Zeynalian, representative of
    the opposition Armenian National Congress, said 58 political prisoners
    remained in prison and that the Yerevan authorities had already turned
    down 100 requests to hold protests about it.

    He said that the opposition activists would gather at 3 pm in central
    Yerevan on March 1 anyway, and that they had warned police of their
    intentions.

    Eduard Sharmazanov, a member of parliament from the ruling Republican
    Party, said he expected the demonstration to pass peacefully, and
    hoped the police would allow the protesters to express their views.

    `I am far from the opinion that we must have an exclusive ruling
    class. If we are a country without a strong opposition, we won't have
    a strong government,' he said.

    Karine Asatrian is a journalist from A1+ television, and a member of
    IWPR's Cross Caucasus Journalism Network project funded by the
    European Union.

    www.iwpr.net
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