Matthew Bryza: "We urge to free all who were arrested in Armenia for political reasons"

"We condemn the Armenian authorities for the actions, undertaken to restrict freedom and urge to free everyone who were detained for political reasons", said Bryza at the hearings arranged by the Helsinki Committee of the US Congress, held previously.

Matthew Bryza noted that mass detainments of opposition figures, with most of them still arrested, occurred after March 1.

According to Matthew Bryza this process has "political trends". Bryza called lifting emergency state within 20 days following its imposing as a progress and said: "Nevertheless, we continue considering the law on conduction of meetings, rallies and demonstrations as limited.

Unfortunately, we see that the tax bodies hold inspections in the opposition mass medias, which is considered a persecution. Moreover, we have witnessed incredible things-people gathered in Yerevan, doing nothing in real, just talking or holding silent rallies and were detained by the police in the result", Bryza said.

The US diplomat pointed out several directions of work to find a way out from the situation, placing the need to define the level of strictness the United States blame violence of March 1, regardless of who has committed it, among them.

"It is now difficult to say who was the initiator but in such cases the elected government is to be blamed for everything", said Bryza. He noted that it is necessary to hold a biased investigation and punish those who are responsible irrespective of who they are.

"We hope that main rights will be restored both on the level of law and in the practice and the investigation will be carried out with the offenders of the Electoral Code punished.We also hope to see the national dialogue with participation of the opposition, powers and civil society", said Bryza.

He also voiced hope for restoration of democracy and noted that the ban for conduction of meetings will not reduce the mass resentment: "The suppression of the opposition will not get the opinions closer, while deterioration of the democratic institutes will not lead to stability".

/ArmInfo/