PACE rapporteur: "Armenia has never been fully loyal to the Assembly's recommendations"

John Prescott, the co-rapporteur of the draft resolution of PACE said presenting the document that "the Assembly agreed with the document which fixes several positive moments, including conduction of a referendum in Armenia in line with the Constitution.

However, Armenia has never been fully loyal to the recommendations of the assembly and in the result we are now presenting this resolution to PACE", said Prescott.

He noted that the atmosphere of suspicion exists in Armenia, there are convicted in the results of the March events. According to the PACE rapporteur, lack of public distrust to elections resulted in mass demonstrations.

The protests were observed before and after the elections until March 1, Prescott noted that reminded that 10 people died and the major candidate from opposition, first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan was in fact under home arrest.

Prescott reminded that various restrictions have been imposed including restrictions of freedom of press: "This proves the obvious violation of human rights. There are various versions of what occurred and we should clarify what occurred in real, which can be done on basis of an independent investigation, aimed at restoring public trust to the electoral processes".

He said the Council of Europe and world society may assist to such investigation. "PACE is anxious about the fate of those who were detained in the result of March events.

THe detained should be freed if they have not committed violence", said Prescott and added that some regulations of the Criminal Code are not quite clear, in particular the regulations, regarding the freedom of speech, can be interpreted in different ways.

Thus, said Prescott, we consider that if the demands of the Assembly are not fulfilled, Armenia's influence as a CE member-state will be undermined. According to him, "if no positive reaction follows, this should be taken into consideration at the next session of PACE in June".

"It is necessary to attain consensus on the suspension of powers of the Armenian delegation in the Assembly and deprive them of the right to vote beginning from June 2008. The Assembly is determined to assist Armenia to restore democratization process in the country", said Prescott.

It should be noted that among demands to the Armenian side, the Assembly put forward the demand to reform the political system transform the political system for ensuring the right of the opposition.

Moreover, the document says: "The Electoral Code should be optimized so that to ensure formation of an unbiased electoral system, not controlled by any political party; ensure independence of the commission on national and public television and radio. The composition of the aforementioned structures should be checked for meeting the demands of the Armenian society".

Moreover, the document states the need to ensure the freedom of assembly in the law and in life.

The Armenian authorities should make efforts to ensure really independent judiciary system to raise public trust to decisions, passed by judges.

The Armenian authorities should put an end to arrests and detainments, as well as maltreatment of prisoners. Effective mechanism of control over the work of the Armenian police is needed.

/ArmInfo/