SummaryAt the end of March 2004, Armenia’s political opposition united in mass peaceful protests to force a “referendum of confidence” in President Robert Kocharian and to call for his resignation. In response, the Armenian government embarked on a campaign to break the popular support for the political opposition with mass arrests, violent dispersal of demonstrations, raids on political party headquarters, repression of journalists, and restrictions on travel to prevent people from participating in demonstrations. Hundreds of people were detained, many for up to fifteen days; some were tortured or ill-treated in custody. Excessive police force, particularly at an opposition rally on April 12, caused dozens of injuries among demonstrators. Some of the worst injuries were caused by stun grenades, which inflicted deep wounds in many protesters. At the same rally, police beat journalists and confiscated their cameras. The origin of the opposition’s demands was the government’s failure to date to redress the deeply flawed 2003 presidential election, which Kocharian, the incumbent, won. Disturbingly, the government is now repeating, with increasing violence, a pattern of repression that surrounded last year’s election. At that time, the international community warned the Armenian government that its intimidation of the opposition through the use of arrests and administrative detentions must stop.1 However, in March and April 2004, the Armenian government not only began a fresh campaign of detentions, but added to the intimidation with security force violence. This briefing paper outlines the events of March and April 2004 and details human rights violations committed by Armenian authorities during this time. It is based on interviews done by a Human Rights Watch researcher in Yerevan from April 14-18, 2004. Human Rights Watch calls on the Armenian authorities to cease intimidating the political opposition, to stop using excessive force against demonstrators and torture and ill treatment in custody, and to hold accountable those responsible for these abuses. We call on the international community to assist the government of Armenia in urgently addressing this situation and to ensure that further acts of repression are not repeated. [1] Administrative detention is customarily understood to mean detentions ordered by a non-judicial body. However, in Armenia administrative detentions are regulated by the Code of Administrative Offenses (from here on referred to as the “Administrative Code,”) and are determined by courts, which can impose fines or imprison people for up to fifteen days for petty offences. The same due process guarantees afforded criminal defendants under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) also apply in these cases. Armenia has ratified the ICCPR and it entered into force on June 23, 1993 and the ECHR that entered into force on April 26, 2002. Although the Armenian practice in most respects conforms to judicially determined detention, for the sake of simplicity and clarity we shall continue to refer to it as administrative detention in this document. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe called on the government to stop the use of arrests and administrative detentions. See, “Republic of Armenia, Presidential Election 19 February and 5 March 2003,” Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Warsaw, April 28, 2003, page 24, and “Honouring of obligations and commitments by Armenia,” Document 10027, January 12, 2004, Report of the Committee on the Hounouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, paragraph 33, 35, and 106.
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