Armenia: parents of March 1, 2008, victims accuse authorities of concealing the truth

In their open letter, parents of the ten persons who fell victim on March 1, 2008, during disorders in Yerevan accuse the country's ruling coalition and the members of the interim parliamentary commission of complicity to the crime and of an attempt to hide the circumstance of the events and blanch over the assassins.

The document, addressed to the speaker of the National Assembly Ovik Abramyan, vice-speaker Samvel Nikoyan, Deputies Ermine Nagdalyan, David Arutyunyan and Edward Sharmazanov, and all the members of the interim commission for investigating the last year's March events, who had signed the final report, and to the members of the ruling coalition, expresses indignation and disagreement with statements of the above persons that "the March 1 page is turned over."

"We - relatives of the victims of the events on March 1 - understand the authorities' desire to turn the page over," says the document. In the opinion of the parents, the authorities want "on the eve of the New Year get mixed with the crowd and proclaim that the case is over," in order "to innocently take part in the forthcoming elections."

The parents state that "they won't admit it." The letter notes that all the reports presented by the authorities on those events, "try to draw the curtain over the crime and shield the killers for their fidelity to the rulers." Thus, according to the signatories, the authors of the reports become crime companions.