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Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch has listed a range of human rights abuses in Armenia in its annual report for 2009.
The Armenian authorities have yet to ensure meaningful investigations into excessive use of police force during March 2008 clashes with opposition supporters protesting alleged fraud in the previous month’s presidential election, and address related allegations of abuse in police custody, Human Rights Watch says in its report.
The rights organization recalls that the clashes resulted in at least 10 deaths, including two security officials and eight protesters.
Soon after the March events the police dismissed several top officials, although none was charged in relation to the violence. Officials claimed to have opened 200 internal inquiries into police conduct, but only four police officers have been charged in two separate cases for excessive use of force.
In September 2009 a parliamentary commission investigating the March 2008 events and dominated by the ruling Republican Party concluded that despite isolated incidents of excessive force, law-enforcement actions had been "largely legitimate and proportionate". A separate fact-finding working group, with opposition participation, had been dismissed by President Serzh Sarkisian in June.
More than 50 civilians were prosecuted in relation to the March violence, with some sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Although a 19 June 2009 presidential pardon released many, local human rights groups maintain that 17 opposition supporters remain imprisoned on politically motivated charges.
HRW also touches on the case of Levon Gulyan who died in the police building in 2007. "Despite a June 2008 court order to reopen the investigation into the May 2007 death in custody of Levon Gulyan, prosecutors closed the case again in April 2009. Gulyan was found dead after police arrested and interrogated him. The authorities allege that while being held for questioning, Gulyan jumped from a second-storey window of a police station while trying to escape, a claim denied by Gulyan’s relatives who believe he was tortured," the report says.
As for the municipal elections held in May 2009 in Yerevan, HRW says that although election observers from the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities stated that the 31 May 2009 Yerevan City Council elections were broadly in compliance with European standards, they also documented cases of intimidation of party proxies and domestic observers by unidentified persons. Unidentified assailants attacked opposition newspaper journalists Gohar Veziryan (IV Estate), Tatev Mesropyan (Hayq) and Marine Kharatyan (Zhamanak), and prevented them from accessing polling stations. The journalists complained to police, and the investigation is still ongoing.
As regards media freedom, Human Rights Watch recalls the attacks on Nver Mnatsakanyan, anchor for the private television station Shant, Argishti Kvirikyan, editor for the Armenia Today online news agency, and Edik Baghdasaryan, editor of the online news magazine Hetq. HRW notes that in April 2009, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media, Miklos Haraszti, urged the authorities to swiftly investigate the attacks.
The organization also touches on the case of the A1+ TV channel, saying that despite the decision of the European Court in June 2008 in favour of the TV company, it has still not received a broadcast licence.
HRW thinks the authorities continue to restrict freedom of assembly by frequently denying requests to hold rallies, usually on technical grounds. Out of 84 opposition requests for demonstrations and rallies, only 28 were granted.
The organization also recalls attacks on youth activists of the opposition Armenian National Congress. *