Pennington: no one will ever know truth behind bloody March 1-2 clashes

PanARMENIAN.Net - WikiLeaks has released another lot of U.S. State Department’s classified cables, among which there was a cable sent by U.S. Chargé d'Affaires in Armenia Joe Pennington on April 9, 2008.

“It has been difficult to obtain detailed information on the deaths of the eight people killed in the March 1-2 clashes between protesters and security services. Besides the total number killed, official information on the specifics of the deaths has been sparse. The lack of a full, public accounting has only served to fuel rumors of a higher death toll and government cover-up. One prominent rumor has it that authorities planned the killings in advance in order to impose the state of emergency, clamp down on the opposition, and discredit its leaders. The fact that very few of the victims' families have gone public with details of their losses has only reinforced the currency of these rumors. Two controversial YouTube videos showing security forces shooting on and driving over presumed protesters have added even more fuel to the fire. This report represents an effort to provide details on the deaths which post has pieced together from various disparate sources (official, media and human rights groups),” Pennington’s cable read.

“In an effort to obtain more information on the deaths than was being publicly released in the immediate aftermath of the violence, the Embassy requested information by diplomatic note on March 5. Post received a response only on March 24, which contained information from the Prosecutor General's Office dated March 10. Additional requests for information have been problematic in that the Prosecutor General's Office insists that requests be made by additional diplomatic notes, a condition that prevents post from a timely receipt of current information.”

“It's probably safe to say that neither the Armenian public nor the international community will ever know the full truth behind the bloody March 1-2 clashes. Regardless of the authorities' and opposition's competing versions of events, their disturbing nature alone raises concerns about the way the GOAM responded to the crisis, and how it continues to publicly account - or not - for the drastic, lethal measures it took. Until the authorities provide an independent, transparent explanation to Armenia's citizenry describing what really transpired in the dark hours of March 1-2, the infamy of the events will dog the ruling regime and risk undermining its legitimacy,” it said.