Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 - Armenia

Publisher	Human Rights Watch
Publication Date	1 January 1999
Cite as	Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 - Armenia, 1 January 1999, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a8b218.html [accessed 6 June 2023]
Comments	This report covers events of 1998
Disclaimer	This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Human Rights Developments

President Levon Ter-Petrossian's resignation in February radically changed Armenia's political landscape, but the government's human rights practices remained poor. The Armenian government's human rights record in 1998 was marred by its failure to prosecute election-related violence, physical abuse of conscripts in the Armenian army and in pretrial detention, and by its willingness to condone religious intolerance.

President Ter-Petrossian left office after Armenian defense minister Vasgen Sarkisyan called for his resignation and forty members of parliament quit the bloc that supported the president to join the Yerkrapah faction. The Yerkrapah faction is associated with the Yerkrapah Battalion, a conservative veterans' organization led by Sarkisyan, which was linked to violent attacks in April 1995 on twelve non-apostolic religious groups, mostly Christian sects other than the Armenian Orthodox Church. Throughout the past three years, the Armenian government failed to bring to justice any of the perpetrators of these violent attacks. The Yerkrapah Battalion also reportedly ransacked a human rights library in July 1997.

Ter-Petrossian's forced resignation was related to his willingness to compromise in negotiations on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to allow the enclave to retain effective independence, but technically remain part of Azerbaijan. Snap presidential elections were called on March 16 in accordance with Armenia's constitution, with a second round of voting on March 30. Former Prime Minister Robert Kocharian was declared the winner. The OSCE election observers' final report found both rounds to have been marred by extensive fraud, and flatly stated that the final round did not meet OSCE standards. The report noted that monitors witnessed ballot stuffing, discrepancies in the vote count, a large presence of unauthorized persons in polling stations, and intimidation of voters, election workers, and even the international observers themselves.

After the elections, the government claimed to have prosecuted some violent incidents during the elections. But Human Rights Watch learned that many organized groups that participated in ballot stuffing and violence were not prosecuted. For example, on March 16, a group of approximately thirty men entered a Yerevan polling station and in front of numerous witnesses beat two candidate proxies who protested the group's tampering with the ballot box.

A September 1997 amendment to the law on the freedom of conscience and religious organizations further tightened restrictions by prohibiting financing for religions with spiritual centers outside the country. The law, originally adopted in 1991, precludes proselytizing by religions other than the official Armenian Orthodox Church and is clearly intended to hinder the activities of religions other than the official Armenian Orthodox Church.

The law provides for a Committee for Religious Affairs, under the Council of Ministers, with broad and vague powers to register religious organizations. The Jehovah's Witness organization, whose adherents were among those attacked in April 1995, continued to be refused registration due to the authorities' view that the organization opposes compulsory military service. Members of the government human rights committee and some nongovernmental organizations supported the ban on the group's registration. Amnesty International has declared several adherents of the Jehovah's Witnesses, convicted for failure to perform military service, as prisoners of conscience.

Physical abuse and poor conditions plagued the Armenian army, resulting in the deaths of several conscripts. They include the death on April 7 of Vahagan Alaverdyan, an eighteen-year-old resident of Yerevan drafted into the Armenian army in November 1997. Alaverdyan's family stated that they identified him at the Khojaly Military Hospital in Nagorno Karabakh, covered with extensive bruises on the chest, stomach, and back. They further accused officers and other members of the military unit in which he served in Nagorno Karabakh of beating him to death. The Armenian government routinely denies that it conscripts troops and requires them to serve in Nagorno Karabakh.

Officers remained largely unaccountable for abuse in the army. In one case, a nongovernmental organization brought the beating of two soldiers to the attention of authorities. On August 8, the Ministry of Defense responded that the officers had been reprimanded and threatened with expulsion from the Armenian army. However, such a sanction is highly unlikely to be effective in preventing abuse. Nongovernmental organizations reported that Ministry of Defense personnel continued to take family members hostage in order to secure the return of draft-evaders.

The procuracy and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Security showed an insufficient commitment to impartial investigation and prosecution of credible allegations of physical abuse in police lock-ups and pretrial detention. For example, police in the Massis district police station and in Yerevan Isolator Number 1 allegedly beat Hamlet Heloyan, an ethnic Yezid suspected of thefts, after he was arrested in March 1998.

In June, a court sentenced four policemen from the third and fourth precincts in Gumri to eight years of imprisonment in relation with the August 1997 death in custody of a suspect. The police were convicted on charges of abuse of office and assisting in a suicide, even though photographic evidence showed extensive evidence of severe beatings on the victim's body.

Defending Human Rights

The Ministry of Justice reportedly refused to register some nongovernmental organizations, including human rights organizations. Human rights organizations that have attempted to register reported that the Ministry of Justice merely returned application documents, refusing to provide a written acknowledgment that a registration request has been made or to provide a letter stating the reason for the denial.

Continued impunity for members of the Yerkrapah Battalion who attacked the Vanadzor Human Rights Center library underscored the stifling atmosphere for civil society in Armenia. Few human rights advocates and nongovernmental organizations reported feeling free to express robust criticism of the government; they noted that such critiques had to be couched in careful terms. Government officials did meet with nongovernmental organizations, although they were frequently not receptive to independent organizations' concerns.

The Role of the International Community

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe

The OSCE did a commendable job in rapidly and efficiently mounting a large election observer delegation after elections were unexpectedly called in February. But the opposition and some international monitors harshly criticized the OSCE for failing to appoint a specialist with election monitoring experience to the key position of head of the March election monitoring mission.

Armenia's 1996 application for full membership in the Council of Europe remained under review. Members of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly issued an effusive statement on April 4 asserting the election's legitimacy, but the OSCE's final election report concluded that the elections failed to meet OSCE standards. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly acknowledged that the statement was based on limited observations by only two observers. As of this writing, Armenia's application for Council of Europe accession appeared stalled, primarily due to the failure to resolve the dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh.

The United Nations

In March, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reviewed Armenia's initial report. The Committee expressed concern about reported cases of torture and other degrading treatment by police and other investigating officers and about the government's lack of commitment to keeping statistics on racially motivated crimes.

United States

Departing U.S. Ambassador Peter Thomsen stated that Armenia had made advances in democratic development, citing the increased liveliness of the press. However, Ambassador Thomsen failed to note that the government continues to control Armenia's only newspaper printing press and that journalists do not feel free to cover a range of taboo subjects. The U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997 on Armenia accurately described the government's manipulation of the 1996 presidential election, the security forces' serious abuses including the beating of detainees during arrest and detention, and that few newspapers are independent of patronage from political or economic interest groups.