(02/03/98) -- A conservative veterans' organization is posing a serious threat to the rule of law in Armenia, Human Rights Watch charged today. An organization of veterans of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, known as the Yerkrapah Battalion, played a role in the February 3 resignation of President Levon Ter-Petrossian. The Yerkrapah Battalion's growing faction in parliament had recently joined Armenian defense minister Vasken Sarkissiyan's calls for President Ter-Petrossian's resignation. On February 2, forty members of the national assembly reportedly quit the ruling coalition in order to join the Yerkrapah parliamentary faction. In 1995, the Yerkrapah Battalion was linked to violent attacks on non-apostolic religious groups -- mostly Christian sects other than the Armenian Orthodox Church. Defense Minister Sarkissiyan was a leader of the Yerkrapah Battalion at that time. "Militia groups like the Yerkrapah Battalion are a threat to Armenia's nascent civil society," said Holly Cartner, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Division. "The Clinton Administration should lead the international community in sending a clear message to the Armenian Defense Ministry: human rights abuses by vigilante groups will not be tolerated." Cartner urged the Armenian government and its defense ministry to bring to justice those Yerkrapah members who are guilty of human rights abuses. "Yerkrapah members should not be allowed into government security forces or other official positions without a thorough review of each applicant's record," Cartner said. "Those who participated in the 1995 attacks on religious groups should be excluded." Over the past three years the Armenian government failed to bring to justice any of the perpetrators of violent attacks on members of twelve non-apostolic religious groups in April 1995. The U.S. State Department Armenia Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996 noted that paramilitary troops wielding iron pipes and guns broke up religious groups' services, severely beat and kidnaped adherents and pastors, and ransacked offices. The report adds that several victims were rushed to the hospital, and that twenty adherents were held for several days or weeks at an Armenian military police facility. Credible accounts attribute the attacks to members of the Yerkrapah organization.
Militia groups like the Yerkrapah Battalion are a threat to Armenia's nascent civil society.
The Clinton Administration should lead the international community in sending a clear message to the Armenian Defense Ministry: human rights abuses by vigilante groups will not be tolerated.
Holly Cartner, Human Rights Watch.
Holly Cartner, Human Rights Watch
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