AUTHORITIES “INDIGNANT AT” OMBUDSMAN'S REPORT
Support A1+!“If the country’s leadership had solved the existing problems, the March 1 events wouldn’t have occurred,” Human Rights Defender Armen Harutiunian said at the HZhK office on June 6.
The Ombudsman says his report was aimed at bringing up the urgent problems and finding their solutions to alleviate public tension.
Armen Harutiunian says he is well aware of his liabilities and powers and has never exceeded his authority as the Prosecutor General says.
Harutiunian says he didn't make judgments, he simply posed questions. “For instance, three people died because the police had taken up obsolete arms against people. Doesn’t a human rights defender have a right to know the reasons? Why did the policemen take the guns thrown on the grass ungloved? They were to prove that the weapons belonged to the demonstrators, weren't they?
“Unless these questions remain unanswered people will keep on circulating rumours as freedom of expression and impartial investigation serve guarantees for the establishment of a democratic country.”
“We come across cynicism at every pace in Armenia. But I cannot understand the Prosecutor General's cynicism when he said the report had exited him to the bottom of his heart. Ten people died on March 1. An action was to have been taken on each case,” said HZhK board member Ruzan Khachatrian.
Asked why the authorities, especially the Prosecutor General and the Minister of Justice, “got indignant” at the Ombudsman's report, Armen Harutiunian said, “Probably, I had raised right questions.”
