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 The April 12-13 Events

In March and April 2004, opposition parties notified in writing the relevant mayors’ offices in Yerevan and other parts of the country several days in advance of their planned rallies. They typically received replies that the demonstrations could not go ahead because of the “detriment to the city’s economic well being,” or because they should be “blocking traffic.”³⁰ On April 7, the Justice Alliance informed the Yerevan City Mayor’s Office of its intention to hold a rally on April 9 in the city’s Freedom Square. The mayor’s office responded in writing, stating that the rally could not go ahead because it would “not be expedient,” and disrupt “the city’s normal life.”³¹ On April 9, between 10,000 and 15,000 opposition supporters gathered in Yerevan’s Freedom Square for the rally. According to media sources, police detained approximately one hundred people during and after this rally.³²

From April 9 to 13, the opposition held continuous rallies in Freedom Square, despite the authorities’ announcements that the demonstrations were banned. Police threatened to intervene if the protesters tried to march through the city.³³ Other authorities continually warned the opposition against holding unauthorized rallies, stating that it would be dealt with as a criminal offence.³⁴

These bans by municipal authorities on public demonstrations contravene Armenia’s constitution and international obligations. Although there is no legal basis for declaring all opposition rallies unauthorized,³⁵ the police and courts have shown themselves willing in the past to accept these decisions of local municipal authorities.³⁶

Excessive Force

In spite of the warnings of government authorities, on April 12, an estimated 15,000 people marched from Freedom Square along Marshal Baghramian Avenue towards the presidential residence. Hundreds of riot police and security forces stopped them near the parliament and the protesters did not attempt to break through the barrier, but continued the protest at that place in the street.³⁷

On the night of 12-13 April, the protesters on Marshal Baghramian Avenue set up camp for the night next to the barbed wire barrier and hundreds of security forces. According to protesters and observers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the demonstration was completely peaceful, with protesters playing music, dancing, and sleeping.³⁸ The opposition leaders at the demonstration made several demands to meet with the president, the speaker of parliament, and the chief of police; the authorities did not respond.³⁹

Shortly after midnight an estimated 3,000 protesters remained in the street when the street lights went out. Then at about 2:00 a.m., protesters heard an announcement, telling them to leave the road. Police vehicles with water cannons then drove up and began spraying large volumes of high-pressure water on the crowds. According to one observer:

We saw a woman over seventy years old under the jet of water. I went to help her. I stood in front of her to stop the force of the water… I stood with my side [to the water], facing the parliament and saw police in uniforms throwing [stun grenades] from the parliament grounds. One blew up about twenty centimeters from me. My friend had both eardrums broken. The gas made my eyes water. I could see the police beating women with batons.⁴⁰

After about ten minutes of spraying the crowds with high pressure water, police and other security forces, some in black clothing and others in camouflage uniforms, began throwing into the crowd stun grenades, which are small explosives that make a deafening noise.⁴¹ Other police beat the protesters with batons and shocked them with electric prods.

Speaking about the stun grenades, a woman told Human Rights Watch: “They were very frightening. I became deaf, and couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t see either from the smoke everywhere.”⁴²

After this initial security force attack, the protesters responded by throwing plastic water bottles and sticks from their placards; they subsequently began to run away. The security forces, however, had by this stage surrounded the protesters and continued to attack them and then chase them down the street to where other security force personnel were waiting.⁴³ Protesters, observers and journalists were badly injured and beaten. There were no reports of injury among the security forces.

Three days after the protest, Vazgen Ghazarian, a twenty-two-year-old protester, told Human Rights Watch he still could not walk from the injuries he sustained at the protest that night. Twice a stun grenade thrown by security forces had detonated not far from him. He had nine significant wounds to his legs and groin, some more than a centimeter deep. Doctors removed three small pieces of plastic and one piece of metal from his legs. One of his eardrums was broken.⁴⁴

Styopa Safarian, a rights activist attending the rally as an observer,⁴⁵ was also injured after several explosives went off next to him. “I lost consciousness for two or three minutes. When I came to, I saw police violently beating and using electric shocks on the other protesters.”⁴⁶

Safarian suffered from severe pain to the groin, and his ear, face and legs were bleeding. He went to the hospital and had his groin area stitched up. He had open wounds of several centimeters in diameter on his legs, and his eardrum was broken. There were fourteen other people similarly injured at the protest in hospital with him.⁴⁷

Shavarsh Kocharian, an opposition member of parliament, told Human Rights Watch how masked security force personnel detained and beat him at the rally:

Then unexpectedly police and special units with batons and electroshock batons came from the entrance of the parliament. One man in a mask grabbed me and took me to the parliament grounds. They were beating lots of people there. I told him I was a member of parliament. He beat me on the shoulders and face with his baton. He put me in a prisoner transport van where I waited for two hours… They put a man with terrible head injuries in with me. They gave him a towel [to soak up the blood], and he waited with me for two hours.⁴⁸

At about 4:30 a.m., police took Kocharian and his companion to the Nor-Nork District Police Precinct and only after this did police seek medical care for the man with the head injuries. There were others at the police station, also detained from the protest, with bloody head and ear injuries.

Police held Kocharian at the police station until 7:30 a.m. and then took him to the Counter Terrorism Department. An investigator came and told him that he was to be questioned as a witness in relation to an offence of calling for the overthrow of the government.⁴⁹ After questioning, Kocharian was told by the investigator that he was now being held as a defendant in the case. Kocharian demanded a lawyer, but was not provided with one. Police searched and fingerprinted him and then placed him in a cell. At about 8:00 p.m. the investigator came to Kocharian and said the charges had been dropped, and he was released.⁵⁰

In putting down the rally, Armenian security forces did not abide by the long-established international norms reflected in the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.⁵¹ The Basic Principles provide that “law enforcement officials, in carrying out their duty, shall as far as possible apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force. … Whenever the lawful use of force … is unavoidable, law enforcement officials shall … exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense.”⁵² The legitimate objective should be achieved with minimal damage and injury, and preservation of human life respected.⁵³ 

Raids of Party Headquarters

That same night, April 12-13, immediately after the attack began on the protesters in Marshal Baghramian Avenue, security forces stormed the Yerevan headquarters of the Republic Party, the National Unity Party, and the People’s Party, arrested those present, and closed two of the headquarters for several days.

According to party members present that night, shortly after 2:00 a.m. security forces in camouflage uniforms came to the headquarters of the Republic Party. Although they showed no search warrant or other documentation, they insisted on coming into the office, against the protests of the party members. They detained several dozen men present and then left. A couple of men and a group of more than ten women remained, and began ringing the press and others to tell them what had happened. The security forces then returned and banged violently on the door. Those inside refused to open it. Security force personnel smashed a window and entered the premises. They were very aggressive, swearing at the party members. They detained everyone and put them into a prisoner transport van. It was very overcrowded, and police refused to respond when the occupants called for help in panic from lack of air. Police did not explain to the detainees the reason for their arrest.

“Then they took us… to an unknown place. There were people in uniforms, but it wasn’t clear to us who they were. It was some sort of an official building, and they put us in a cell… Only later we learnt that we were in the Erebuni Detention Center for administrative detentions.”⁵⁴

The cell was cold, with metal beds and the authorities refused to give the detainees mattresses or blankets. The authorities held the party members for between thirty-six and forty-eight hours, never explaining to them their legal status. Investigators questioned one of the detainees, Artak Zayanalian, about the protest, stating that he was being questioned as a witness.⁵⁵

After detaining everyone from the Republic Party headquarters, police occupied the premises for more than two days. Party officials were able to get back into the building only on April 15. Doors, windows, furniture, and equipment were broken, documents and other things were lying all over the floors, and computers, documents, videocassettes, and other equipment had been confiscated.⁵⁶

The same night security forces raided the headquarters of the National Unity Party. No one was at the office at the time of the break-in, however, from the damage to the door, it was clear that the authorities had forced the door with crowbars or similar tools. They had forced all the internal doors open, as well as the doors to safes and cupboards, and had confiscated documents, including the list of party members, video equipment, and computers. The authorities then closed the office with an official seal from the Procurator General’s Office.⁵⁷

On October 14, party officials demanded that the Procurator General’s Office remove the seal. After several hours, local government representatives came and took away the seal and the party officials were able to re-enter the premises. They reported that documents and other things were scattered everywhere. They later received a document from the authorities, listing the things confiscated.⁵⁸

Between twenty-five and thirty armed police also stormed the headquarters of the People’s Party on the night of April 12-13. They entered the building shouting, and holding automatic weapons. They began detaining male party members. A group of women and other party members blockaded themselves in a room in fear. The police broke down the door with the butts of their guns.

Vardan Mkrtchian, a member of parliament, detained in the raid, told Human Rights Watch: “The police were shouting and swearing. They hit the women and young people. They beat my wife who was here to find out why the police had arrested me [earlier in the day].”⁵⁹

They detained more than twelve people, including Vardan Mkrtchian, and his son. The rough treatment continued at the police station after arrest. Police confiscated documents and videocassettes. They held the party members from between several hours to three days, taking some to court for administrative punishments.⁶⁰

Police also detained Ruzanna Hachatarian, press secretary of the People’s Party, from the party headquarters that night. They took her to a police station where they questioned her as a witness to the criminal case opened against the Justice Alliance and its supporters.⁶¹

Hachatarian told Human Rights Watch: “The investigator had a printed list of questions… They asked me ‘Why did the Alliance try to overthrow the government with violence?’… and ‘How did you use military measures to overthrow the government?’… He questioned me for about two hours.”⁶²

After questioning her, they informed her that she was no longer a witness, but was now being charged as a defendant in the case. She demanded a lawyer, who then attended the police station, and she refused to answer any more questions. After approximately thirty-six hours in custody, she was taken to the Procurator General’s Office where officials gave her a document stating that the charges had been withdrawn, and she was released.⁶³