Statement by the Army in Reality Civil Initiative on March 1st
14:04, March 1, 2012 | Announcements | Right to Life | Armed Forces
Four years ago, on this day, the civil or outburst against the fabrication of the presidential election results was suppressed violently, with bloodshed, with violations of all constitutional norms, and with the use of the Armed Forces.
Four years later the consequences of those bloody events have not been eliminated.
And the ten young lives, which were taken in the center of Yerevan, as if in a battlefield, will not be restored in four years or ever.
The Army in Reality Initiative records:
- The ten murders committed on March 1st and their perpetrators have not been revealed, and no one has been held criminally or otherwise liable for the murders. The high-ranking official, who gave the orders to shoot at the demonstrators, has not been identified or held liable. The state not only violated the citizens’ right to life, but also did not take any steps to provide a satisfying response to the families of the victims or to society regarding the tragedy or take action to eliminate the attitude of impunity among the police and the armed forces.
- As of this date, there has not been a legal assessment given tothe March 1, 2008 decree on declaring a 20-day state of emergency in the City of Yerevan issued by Robert Kocharyan, which was issued in the absence of a law on the state of emergency. The facts of violation of citizens’ rights during the state of emergency have not been examined and no legal assessment has been given over the restriction of those rights.
- The legality of Order 0038 issued by the RA Minister of Defense on February 23, 2008, has not been examined and there has not been a legal assessment given on the use of Armed Forces against peaceful demonstrators.
Society has not received the answer to these questions as as of this date; as a result, the atmosphere of impunity remains overwhelming. The absence of a legal assessment cannot be substituted by the numerous reassurances by the authorities about the political will, because the atmosphere of impunity is full of dangers for society. Moreover, on this very day, the National Assembly is going to vote on the RA Draft Law on the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency, which attempts to legalize the uncontrolled use of the Armed Forces during the state of emergency, without the legal assessments of the events of March 1st, 2008.
The Army in Reality Civil Initiative