“Freedom of assembly is not absolute right, it can be limited by the state if need be but at the same time as long as the protest remains peaceful even if it was unsanctioned Government has to exercise all restraints before using force”, in interview with Aravot.am said the senior researcher for “Human rights watch” Georgi Gogia.
According to him it needs to be investigated how properly the water cannons were used, in what circumstances. He added that used force against journalists, detention of journalists, destruction of their property are unacceptable and under no circumstances use of violence against journalists would be justified: “I think our recommendation was very clear do prompt investigation. The investigation would be able to lead to accountability of concrete police officers. We know that some internal investigation has taken place and some administrative punishments needs to be done and needs to be investigated whether police actions were beyond just administrative violation. There have been signs of crime and that has to be investigated by special investigative services”.
Talking about police actions on July 6th Georgi Gogia said: “Government in some circumstances can limit the freedom of assembly. I have not really looked into those circumstances of opening the avenue. I think the way it was handled it appeared to me that exercise some caution: they have not used any special means to disperse the crowd. So hopefully some lessons were learned. Unfortunately Armenia has a history of use of police force which put particular burden on the Government to insure that no actions are left without attention, without investigation, accountability”.
Ami Chichakyan
