Armenian authorities must investigate abuses committed in the government’s
recent crackdown against the political opposition, Human Rights Watch today said
in a briefing paper
that provided new details on the mass arrest and police violence against
opposition supporters.

On Wednesday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held
an urgent debate on Armenia, calling on the government to investigate abuses and
to create “fair conditions for the media,” and warned the government that if no
progress on this by September, the PACE may “reconsider the credentials of the
Armenian delegation.” PACE also called on the opposition to work within the
country’s constitutional framework.  

 

In early April, Armenia’s political opposition united in mass peaceful protests
to force a “referendum of confidence” on President Robert Kocharian and to call
for his resignation. The government responded with mass arrests, violent
dispersals of demonstrations, and raids on opposition party headquarters.
Hundreds were detained, many for up to 15 days, and some were tortured or
ill-treated in custody.  

 

“The Armenian government is repeating the same sorts of abuses that called into
question the legitimacy of last year’s election and sparked the protests in the
first place,” said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights
Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. “The cycle of repression must end.”  

 

Excessive police force, particularly at a nonviolent opposition rally on the
night of April 12, caused dozens of injuries among demonstrators. The Human
Right Watch briefing paper, based on an investigation in Armenia in mid-April,
documents this violence and other abuses. Human Rights Watch found that some of
the worst injuries at that rally were caused by stun grenades, which inflicted
deep wounds in many protesters. Police also beat journalists and confiscated
their cameras.  

 

The opposition protests derived from the government’s failure to redress the
deeply flawed 2003 presidential election won by Kocharian, the incumbent. At
that time, the authorities detained about 250 opposition activists and
supporters in an attempt to intimidate and disable the opposition in advance of
the vote. The Armenian Constitutional Court subsequently recommended that the
government hold a referendum of confidence. The government rejected the
recommendation, while the opposition insisted that the referendum be held.  

 

In its report on the 2003 presidential election, the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) found the vote to be “marred by serious
irregularities,” owing to “a lack of sufficient political determination by the
authorities to ensure a fair and honest process.”  

 

“Armenia has to address the underlying causes of the opposition’s
demonstrations,” said Denber. “A first step would be to implement the
recommendations made by the OSСE following the 2003 elections.”  

 

Human Rights Watch also called on the Armenian government to investigate the
excessive use of police force on the night of April 12, and to cease the use of
stun grenades and electric-shock equipment for the control of nonviolent public
demonstrations.  

 

Armenia’s international partners—including the European Union, the United States
government, the OSCE and the Council of Europe—should closely monitor the
situation and condemn any new abuses that occur, Human Rights Watch said. In
particular, the United States and the European Union should closely monitor any
security-related funding, particularly for crowd-control equipment, to ensure
that it does not fuel human rights abuses.  

 

Human Rights Watch urged the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to put
the ongoing crisis in Armenia on the agenda of its upcoming ministerial meeting
and to call on the Armenian government to take urgent measures to comply with
its obligations as a member of the Council of Europe.