Scapegoats will be found

Thereby, probably, among Robert Kocharyan’s milieu

 On March 9, the EU Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg made public the report made as a result of his visit to Yerevan in January, which contained a harsh criticism toward the government. Yesterday “Aravot” asked for a comment from the Armenian National Congress representative, already ex-diplomat Arakel Semirjyan who has been constantly and actively dealing not only with the issue of political prisoners, but also, as a rule, was present at the meetings between the relatives of the dead and the EU HR Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg. A. Semirjyan did not conceal that he was excited by the published report. According to his perception, the Commissioner’s report is full and precisely reflects the events that took place on March1-2 and the developments that followed those events. According to him, it is said in the report in part concealed, in part obviously about not only what had happened on March 1 and after that, but also what had to be done to uncover “March 1”.

Semirjyan divided Hammarberg’s report into several basic parts, “First one is the mention that “on March 1-2” the force used by the security agencies was inadequate. That is the most important point, because stressing that also means that all the following actions against the protesters were inadequate. He did not explicitly say, but it assumes that on March 1-2 an inadequate force was used against the peaceful protesters, it means that people were slaughtered; a military coup took place. Second important mention is that the steps taken to uncover the cause of 10 deaths were unproductive. The Commissioner does not explicitly say, but this means that the government has either not been able to uncover the killings for 3 years, is not capable of that, or has been concealing those. Third main part of the report is that the justice is administered selectively. It means that any man, according to the government’s selection, can be condemned, and any man who has committed a murder, according to the same principle, can be released.

Fourth that is also very interesting is that the Commissioner welcomes president Sargsyan’s order related to uncovering “March 1” case, however he expects that it will be turned into real actions towards finding and punishing the people responsible for that. He would like to say that S. Sargsyan’s order is not yet sufficient, and that the EU follows the developments. It is clear that those orders and statement are not reliable for not only the international community, but also for us, and without concrete steps those can only make one laugh and remain just statements.”

In the context of the further activities of the government, as the necessary steps pointed out by Hammarberg, Semirjyan marked out these two notes; to soften the results of the human rights abuses occurred because of the March events “additional efforts are necessary for the government to regain the society trust and for the society reconciliation” and “the families of the 10 dead must appropriately be compensated for the loss of their relatives and be fully informed about the details of the investigation conducted.” A. Semirjyan is convinced that the international community actually encourages the government by that to arrest specific and serious, responsible people, “And there is a claim in the same context that “the responsible people have not been discovered so far, the responsibility for the orders given by the police and high-ranking officers of the security agencies have not been seriously discussed.” In response to my question, whether the government in power will discover itself or the same discovery imitation will take place, Semirjyan said, “I think that they will find a few scapegoats, and in that regard Robert Kocharyan’s interview was not casual. Now for the sake of rescuing their own skin they will try to hold each other responsible for “March 1”, and clarify who to what extent was aware and guilty or not guilty, and so will start the demise of the rule of bandits. I do not see any other choice. If it is left to them, nothing will be uncovered. Kocharyan’s statements are the very responses to Hammarberg’s report, because in the case of fulfilling all those demands the exact names of killings will immediately be given, and since the government cannot blame itself, then it will do everything possible for those exact people to be among Kocharyan’s milieu. I do not know any other report containing such harsh and serious accusations. I hope there will be no other.”