The
joint reference submitted by the parents of the 8 servicemen died in the army
in time of peace and the RA Human Rights Defender remained unreciprocated.  Non formal working group established within
the National Assembly with the aim to examine the breaches during the
investigation of soldiers’ deaths cases presented neither clarifications nor
reports to the parents within one year.

Some of
the MPs involved in the Working Group are not in the National Assembly anymore
and they informed the parents that cannot be helpful. Parents demand to
establish a new working group to examine their sons’ cases.

Recall,
on September 30, 2011 the RA Human Rights Defender Karen Andreasyan has
initiated the meeting between the parents of the 8 servicemen died in the army
in time of peace with the members of the RA National Assembly. The parents
protested against the breaches in the investigation of their sons’ cases. The
RA Human Rights Defender Office supported the parents to present a reference on
each of the case to the MPs where official versions on deaths and the parents’
versions were presented along with the violations and shortcomings during the
case investigation.

A non-formal group has been
established in the National Assembly. NA Vice-speaker Samvel Nikoyan, Chairman
of the Standing Committee on Human Rights Aram Safaryan, Chairman of the
Standing Committee on Defense, Internal Affairs and National Security Hrayr
Karapetyan and member of «Zharangutyun» parliamentary faction, the first RA
Human Rights Defender Larisa Alaverdyan were involved in the group.

The working group was supposed
to examine all the cases and react to the issues raised by the parents. In
response to www.hra.am inquiry it was received information from the
National Assembly that inquiries were sent to different agencies and their
responses will be gathered, analyzed and presented to public. The responses
were neither published nor presented to the servicemen’s   parents.

 “I do not know how their work
should have been evaluated but one thing is clear: they did nothing for us. We
were not aware whom they asked, what were the questions posed and the answers
received”, says Anahit Mkrtchyan, mother of Araik Avetisyan who died on
December 30, 2001.

For ten years she repeats that
her son was killed in presence of four witnesses by the battalion commander
Mher Stepanyan who was drunk and wanted to «punish» the guy for not paying for
the required leave. However the witnesses were scared to testify and the case
was concealed with the version on suicide.

After May 6, 2012 Parliamentary
Elections the members of the National Assembly were changed. The MPs who
supported soldiers’ parents admitted that they can do nothing in the
parliament. The parents referred to the new MPs. 

 “Nikoyan says that now they cannot answer our
questions and we will receive clarifications only during the next session.
Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense, Internal Affairs and National
Security Koryun Nahapetyan informs that they have the answers but cannot share
them as the direction does not allow”, told www.hra.am Gohar Sargsyan, mother of
Tigran Ohanjanyan who died in 2007 at the military unit of Karchaghbyur,
Vardenis under suspicious circumstances.

According to
the official version Tigran Ohanjanyan was electrocuted. Nevertheless, within
five years of preliminary investigation this version was rejected several times
with solid argumentation. Parents are confident that their son was killed.  

Parents demand to create a new commission

On September 9th parents of the soldiers who died in the army
in time of peace organized a protest rally in front of the National Assembly
building with the demand to create a new commission in the National Assembly to
examine their sons' cases.

They addressed to the representatives of all 7 factions of
the NA. Representative of the Armenian National Congress Levon Zurabyan invited
mothers to their office to discuss the issues. Member of the Armenian
Republican Party faction Arakel Movsisyan told the parents that they are sorry
for these cases and will do their best to punish those who are guilty.

Parents met with the member of the Armenian Republican Party
Margaret Yesayan, members of the Armenian National Congress Nikol Pashinyan,
Aram Manukyan and member of “Zharangutyun” faction Zaruhi Postanjyan in front
of the NA building.

Parents do not
have big expectations but they hope that opposition forces of the parliament
will “move the wheel”.  

The
Ombudsman is ready to get involved in the new commission

RA Human Rights Defender released a statement on
September 10 on his consent to get involved in the ad hoc commission of the NA
proposed by the parents of dead soldiers.

«While
realizing legislative limitations of interfering with the current cases investigation,
there are still serious concerns regarding the breaches and shortcomings
recorded during the investigation of several criminal cases of the soldiers
died in the army in the time of peace », is stated in the statement released by
the Human Rights Defender.

The Ombudsman believes that
only thorough and impartial investigation and restoration of justice may ensure
the restoration of confidence in relation of the investigation and prevention
of violence and murders tomorrow.

Member of the former
working group examining the soldiers' cases, former member of «Zharangutyun»
faction Larisa Alaverdyan believes the activities of the group were
inefficient.

«It appears that as a commission we did not discuss
the answers received in the result of the inquiry.  As a volunteer member of the group I think
that the conducted work was not efficient. We were told to wait until all the
answers will be received. When the answers were received, we were told that the
cases are still in the stage of preliminary investigation, there are unfinished
things and everything was delayed », says to www.hra.am Larisa
Alaverdyan.

She hopes that
the new group will bring more clarity; the responsibilities of the group
members will be defined and clear deadlines will be set for presentation of the
report to parents. She highlights that the working group is obliged to inform
parents even if there were no answers from the public agencies and present a
report which has not been done by the former group.