Armenian Opposition Vows To Continue Probe Of Postelection Violence
Levon Zurabian, who is a leading member of former
President Levon Ter-Petrossian's Armenian National Congress (HAK),
announced on June 25 that the HAK intends to form a committee that will
continue to investigate the circumstances of the violent clashes in
Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008, Noyan Tapan reported on June 29.
President
Serzh Sarkisian last month dissolved the five-person independent group
of experts he established last fall and tasked with assessing the
findings of the ad hoc parliamentary commission set up under pressure
from international human rights bodies to review the events that
culminated in the Yerevan violence.
Ten people were killed
during the night of March 1-2, when police and security forces clashed
with Ter-Petrossian supporters protesting the apparent rigging of the
February 19 presidential ballot. According to official returns,
Sarkisian polled 52.8 percent of the vote and Ter-Petrossian 21.5
percent.
Under pressure from the Council of Europe, in June
2008, Sarkisian established an ad hoc parliamentary commission tasked
with investigating the events that led to violence. That commission was
originally supposed to present its findings by mid-October 2008, but
that deadline was extended twice, first until mid-February 2009 and
then until mid-September.
By February of this year, the
commission had established that three of the deaths were caused by
outdated tear-gas canisters fired into the crowd of protesters, but it
was unable to identify which of four police officers armed with such
canisters fired them, and on whose orders.
The five-person
Fact-Finding Group of Experts was likewise established in response to
pressure from the Council of Europe, with the aim of independently
evaluating the findings of the ad hoc parliamentary commission.
But
its very composition -- two of its members were selected by the ruling
(then four-party) coalition, two by the opposition (the HAK and
Zharangutiun, the only opposition party represented in the Armenian
parliament), and its chairman by human rights ombudsman Armen
Harutiunian -- proved an obstacle to its effectiveness.
In early May,
the two pro-government members suspended their activity, Three weeks
later, the group's chairman, Vahe Stepanian, stepped down in
desperation, saying he could no longer guarantee cooperation between
its members.
On May 27, Armen Martirosian, a senior member of the opposition Zharangutiun party, told journalists that his party would make public the group's findings to date if the group did not resume its probe. On June 8, Sarkisian abolished the group, citing its ineffectiveness.
But parliament deputy Naira Zohrabian, who represents Prosperous Armenia, one of the three remaining coalition parties, said on July 1 the group managed to compile 2,000 pages of documentation
which has been handed over to the ad hoc parliamentary commission. She
also said members of the ad hoc commission plan to meet with the police
officers who fired the fatal tear-gas canisters.
As for the
planned HAK investigation, it was not clear from Zurabian's June 25
comments whether the HAK and Zharangutiun will conduct a joint or
separate probes.