(New York, May 4, 2004)—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.
