US Department of State criticized human rights situation in Armenia

In the section on Armenia of its report "Human Rights-2010" published on April 8, the US Department of State criticizes the situation with human rights, election processes, and situation in the army, media, law enforcement bodies and courts.

"Citizens' right to change their government through peaceful elections was restricted due to repeated, significant flaws in the conduct of elections, including a by-election for a parliamentary seat in January. Some members of the security forces continued to commit human rights abuses with impunity while under the direction of civilian leadership," runs the report.

The authors of the report mention cases of violence against people in police custody. Facts of detentions and arrests of opposition activists are listed.

"Authorities continued to arrest and detain criminal suspects without reasonable suspicion and to detain arbitrarily individuals due to their opposition political affiliations or political activities. During the year the authorities released four individuals who had been convicted in connection with the 2008 presidential election and post-election unrest in trials flawed by due process violations and apparent political motivations. Two other individuals convicted in connection with these events were released from prison after serving their full sentences, while a handful of other individuals remained incarcerated."

The report gives harsh assessments relating to the situation in the army, where, "suspicious deaths occurred under non-combat conditions, while hazing and other mistreatment of conscripts by officers and fellow soldiers, and a lack of accountability for such actions, continued."

The paper also deals with the position of the media. "The media, in particular television, continued to lack diversity of opinion and objective reporting," says the report.

"The report of US Department of State is fully reflecting the current situation in Armenia. The assessments given are absolutely adequate," Mikael Danielyan, a well-known human rights activist, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to his story, the reports on human rights of the US Department of State are usually complete, critical and are based on the real situation.

Ashot Manucharyan, a former chief adviser to the president of Armenia for national security (1991-1993), has linked the estimates expressed in the report with the current US policy.

"The Department of State, like other similar structures of the leading countries of the world, is monitoring political processes in other countries in terms of the US policy and US interests. In this case, we should not talk so much about the adequacy of the report, but about why now such assessments were made in the document. All of these estimates should be also viewed in terms of US' benefits in Armenia and in the region, Mr Manucharyan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As to whether the rhetoric of the report is too harsh, the former president's adviser remarked: "Tough rhetoric aims to force the country's authorities to fulfil a number of obligations related to Armenia."

Kiro Manoyan, head of the "Hay Dat" (Aj Data) office on political issues of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) "Dashnaktsutyun", told journalists that the report will have some influence in the West as an estimate of Armenia as a whole, and, possibly, will become a roadmap for the West in the matters relating to Armenia.