PACE concerned with Armenia's reaction to Resolution No. 1609

The authorities of Armenia have made "imperceptible" steps to enforce PACE's Resolution No. 1609 dealing with the freedom of democratic institutes in the country. This conclusion was made at the recent session of the PACE's Monitoring Commission held in Kiev.

The Commission is seriously worried that "there is no progress towards international, independent, public trustworthy investigation on the March 1 events in Yerevan."
The members of the PACE's Commission believe that the parliamentary commission that was set up to investigate the events cannot be regarded as independent and cause public trust, since it includes no representatives of off-the-parliament political forces, public organizations and international experts.

The members of the Monitoring Commission fail to notice any serious progress in releasing the persons who had been arrested for their political convictions.

The Commission has expressed its confidence that in spite of the fact that the deadline as set up in the Resolution (June 23) is quite close, the authorities of Armenia will still manage to cope with what the Resolution demands. The Commission has decided that a week before the start of the PACE's summer session co-rapporteurs George Colombier and John Prescott will visit Armenia.