"The Armenian government should refrain from using violence and make clear that it won’t tolerate excessive use of force by police . A political crisis doesn’t give the government carte blanche in how it responds to demonstrators. "
Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch
(New York, March 2, 2008) – Armenian police on March 1 used excessive force and violence to disperse demonstrators protesting peacefully against recent election results, Human Rights Watch said today. Following the crackdown on demonstrators, President Robert Kocharian decreed a state of emergency in Yerevan, the capital, until March 20, 2008. There was a heavy police presence overnight in central Yerevan.
According to Arminfo news agency, the police have surrounded and sealed off the opposition news agency A1+, preventing its employees from entering or leaving the building.
“The Armenian government should refrain from using violence and make clear that it won’t tolerate excessive use of force by police,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “A political crisis doesn’t give the government carte blanche in how it responds to demonstrators.”
Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch that at 6.30 a.m. on March 1, Armenian special police forces violently dispersed a rally protesting against alleged electoral fraud that had entered its 11th day on Yerevan’s Freedom Square, beating demonstrators with truncheons and iron bars. Some were fleeing when police attacked them. Dozens are reported to have sustained severe injuries and more than 100 protestors were arrested. Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrosian, who was the main opposition challenger in last month’s presidential poll, remains under effective house arrest as police cordoned off his home. Also on March 1, at least six opposition leaders were detained for organizing illegal demonstrations.
Kocharian’s press office reported that under the state of emergency public gatherings and strikes will be banned and freedom of movement as well as non-government public broadcasts will be severely curtailed. Internet and satellite reception has been cut in Yerevan.
Later in the morning, protesters gathered in front of the French Embassy in downtown Yerevan. Their numbers grew substantially during the day, as did the police presence. A demonstrator told Human Rights Watch that police were equipped with rubber truncheons, electric-shock devices, and water cannons. The rally was still continuing in front of the embassy when the state of emergency was announced after police were reported by news organizations to have fired in the air to disperse the demonstrators.
Opposition demonstrations followed the February 19 presidential election, after the Central Election Commission declared Prime Minister, Serzh Sargsian the winner with 53 percent of the vote. According to official tallies, opposition challenger Ter-Petrosian won 21.5 percent of the vote. Tens of thousands of Ter-Petrosian supporters took to the streets in downtown Yerevan on February 20 to protest the declared election results and what they believed to have been electoral fraud. The protests continued peacefully on Freedom Square for the next 10 days, with some demonstrators camping out on the square in tents.
The mayor of Yerevan previously called on the opposition to end the rally on Freedom Square, as the demonstrators had no permit. The Yerevan mayor’s office issued a statement on February 25 saying the protests were unauthorized and urging demonstrators to call a halt to them. Two days later the Armenian police issued a statement urging an end to the demonstrations.
At about 6:30 a.m. on March 1, a few hundred opposition supporters were in their tents when police arrived and started to disperse them. Information about approaching interior troops began to reach demonstrators shortly after 6:00 a.m. A 30-year-old eyewitness, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, told Human Rights Watch that several rows of Special Forces in riot armor, with helmets, plastic shields and rubber truncheons, started approaching from the left and right sides of Freedom Square. The witness said that police, without prior warning, sprayed water and descended on the demonstrators, using rubber truncheons and electric prods.
“People started running towards Northern Avenue, but were chased by the police,” the witness told Human Rights Watch.
The witness was among those who fled, running together with his father and younger brother, but police caught him from behind and beat him on his back and head with a rubber truncheon.
“I momentarily lost consciousness after a blow on the head, and fell,” he told Human Rights Watch. “When I came to my senses, my brother was carrying me away from the square. My head was bleeding and my hat was all covered in blood.”
The witness required seven stitches on the right side of his forehead. He sustained bruises to his right hand, back and legs. Fearing arrest he refrained from going to a hospital and sought medical assistance from a private doctor. His father and brother also sustained cuts and bruises on their backs and heads, but did not require urgent medical assistance.
An Armenian human rights advocate told Human Rights Watch of several similar descriptions of the police action given to her by other witnesses.
The police operation lasted for about 15 to 20 minutes, but as news about it spread, more people started heading towards the square. At least two eyewitnesses described separately to Human Rights Watch how police attacked, beat, and detained groups of 20 to 30 people who attempted to gather near the square.
A member of parliament from the opposition Heritage Party, Zaruhi Postanjian, told Human Rights Watch that she arrived at the Yerevan Central Police Station around 9:00 a.m. to see police cars bringing detainees to the station, transferring them to other vehicles, and taking them to different locations. She stayed there for an hour and counted at least 100 detainees. According to Postanjian, two ambulances were also parked in front of the station and in one of them she saw a young man who appeared unconscious and had blood stains on his face and body. She also described a child she believed to be between 10 and 12 years old, bearing clear marks from beatings. Human Rights Watch could not confirm the nature or cause of their injuries.
According to Avetik Ishkhanian of Armenia’s Helsinki Committee, police arrested several opposition leaders, including Aram Manukian, Alexander Arzumanian, Hrant Bagratian, Vahagn Haiotsian, and Vahagn Khachatrian, charging them with the criminal offence of organizing an unsanctioned public rally. According to the opposition news website Lragir, Aram Manukian and Hrant Bagratian were released later during the day.
Postanjian told Human Rights Watch that in one case a journalist, Gagig Shanshan, was arrested and held in Zeitun district police station in Yerevan, but several hours after his arrest his lawyer still had no access to him. “Even in a state of emergency, those in detention and facing criminal charges are entitled to due process rights, and should have access to a lawyer,” said Cartner.
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Armenia is a party, set out the safeguards which should accompany those deprived of their liberty, and access to a lawyer is one of those safeguards.
Government information sources showed police footage of arms stockpiles that allegedly were discovered at Freedom Square after the demonstration was dispersed, including truncheons, guns, grenades, and gas capsules. The report was vehemently denied by the opposition.
“The Armenian government prides itself on having a democratic image,” said Cartner. “Beating peaceful demonstrators is inconsistent with that image and violates its obligations under human rights law.”
Posts
2 comments:
UN human rights chief troubled by Armenian violence
Geneva - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Sunday she was 'deeply troubled' by the reports of deaths and injuries in clashes between police and opposition protestors in Armenia.
Louise Arbour said she was also concerned at reports that force had been used against peaceful demonstrators and that opposition protestors had been detained.
Eight people were killed in violence Saturday in the capital Yereven where thousands of protestors have taken to the streets following disputed February 19 elections. A 20-day state of emergency has been declared.
Arbour called upon the authorities to exercise the utmost restraint.
Below is a second statement by Human Rights Watch
Armenia: Civilians Die as Police Suppress Demonstrations and Riots
Authorities Should Swiftly Investigate Use of Lethal Force
(New York, March 2, 2008) – The Armenian government should launch a prompt and independent investigation into the use of lethal force by security forces to quell demonstrations and rioting overnight on March 1, 2008, Human Rights Watch said today. The violence occurred after a 20-day state of emergency was declared by President Robert Kocharian in response to an alleged threat to public order posed by opposition demonstrators.
Clashes between police and demonstrators in downtown Yerevan, the capital, on the night of March 1-2 resulted in at least eight deaths, according to the Armenian Health Ministry. Military forces deployed in Yerevan helped suppress the protests and riots. The ministry also reported that at least 131 people – including 57 police – were injured, some of them seriously. Many demonstrators have been reported missing, according to journalists and other observers in Yerevan.
“The Armenian government should swiftly investigate whether the police and army used lethal force against protesters in accordance with international standards,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “While the government has a duty to maintain civic order, lethal force may only be used when strictly necessary to protect life.”
The protests began when tens of thousands of supporters of opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian took to the streets in downtown Yerevan on February 20 to denounce the declared election results and what they alleged to have been electoral fraud. The protests continued peacefully on Freedom Square for the next 10 days, with some demonstrators camping out on the square in tents. Early in the morning on March 1, Armenian security violently dispersed the crowd.
Several demonstrators and eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that violent clashes started late in the afternoon of March 1, after demonstrators refused to abide by police instructions to disperse. Police then shot tracer bullets, allegedly resulting in the first casualties, including the death of a demonstrator.
Later in the morning of March 1, protesters gathered in front of the French Embassy in downtown Yerevan. Their numbers grew substantially during the day, as did the police presence. Observers reported that police were equipped with rubber truncheons, electric-shock devices, and water cannons, and that military personnel arrived in armored personnel carriers. Several journalists present told Human Rights Watch that angry masses of people prepared for a confrontation with the security forces by arming themselves with stones, wooden sticks, and iron bars. Another demonstrator explained that people used nearby park benches and fences to find metal and wooden objects.
By about 5 or 6 p.m., tens of thousands of people had gathered near the French Embassy. A demonstrator told Human Rights Watch that the crowd wanted to march towards the home of Ter-Petrosian, who has been under effective house arrest since police had cordoned off his home. Demonstrators made a cordon around the rally area using cars and buses.
Violent clashes broke out, according to eyewitnesses, when a tracer bullet apparently struck and killed a demonstrator. Angry demonstrators cried for revenge and attacked the security forces. A local observer who watched a video recording of the events told Human Rights Watch that the video showed how demonstrators, demanding revenge, placed the dead body of a man, apparently in his 50s, on top of a car. Eyewitnesses reported that demonstrators then attacked police, who retreated. One protestor told Human Rights Watch how a group of young demonstrators chased police, set fire to police cars, and broke shop windows.
Persons in the vicinity told Human Rights Watch that they heard weapons being fired. A local source who watched video footage of the aftermath of some of the clashes told Human Rights Watch: “I saw thick layers of blood, parts of human bodies, several dead bodies... at least eight police cars were on fire... a lot of wounded, who cried for help and water, a lot of people with open head wounds, claiming that they had been assaulted by police... I saw also wounded police, a lot of blood, pools of blood.”
“Police and security forces clearly faced an extremely difficult situation,” said Cartner. “But they are still obliged to adhere to standards for the use of lethal force.”
The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials call upon law enforcement officials in the dispersal of violent assemblies to use firearms only when less dangerous means are not practicable and only to the minimum extent necessary. Lethal force may only be used when strictly unavoidable to protect life and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives.
Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned by reports from journalists and local observers that many demonstrators have gone missing. In the current state of emergency, with an effective media blackout, relatives have little access to information about their missing family members.
“Armenian authorities should promptly make the casualty list public, as well as the names of those arrested and places of detention,” said Cartner. “The authorities should also not use the state of emergency to unnecessarily restrict freedom of information.”
Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Armenia is a party, governments may limit certain ICCPR rights only during a state of emergency that is declared during a “public emergency which threatens the life of the nation.” Limits on rights and freedoms may only be to the extent strictly required by the situation. Governments must at all times guarantee the right to life, the prohibition against torture and ill-treatment, the right to liberty and security of person, the right to a fair trial, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion, among other rights. The European Convention on Human Rights provides similar protections.
Post a Comment