ARMENIA: GOVERNMENT EYES SEWN SHUT TO PRISON PROBLEMS?
EurasiaNet.org
Nov 8 2012
NY
November 8, 2012 – 1:27pm, by Gayane Abrahamyan
Self-mutilation by hunger-striking prisoners is raising a public clamor
in Armenia about treatment of the country’s roughly 4,800 inmates.
In an attempt to attract greater attention to demands for improved
living conditions behind bars, one prisoner sewed his eyes shut;
two others sewed their mouths. A third cut off his little finger.
As Armenia’s northern neighbor, Georgia, demonstrated last month,
prison problems can have serious ramifications for incumbent
authorities: experts say the distribution of video images of prison
abuse in Georgia was a major factor in the defeat of President Mikheil
Saakashvili’s United National Movement in the October parliamentary
elections. Although Armenia itself faces a presidential vote in roughly
four months, Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasian’s initial response to the
hunger strike, now into their third week without food, was dismissive.
“Some of them who sew up their mouths already have the holes for it.
It has become something very common,” said Tovmasian at an October 31
press briefing. “Just like girls pierce their ears and wear earrings,
they sew up their mouths.”
Outraged, some civil society activists sent thread and needle to
Tovmasian, demanding the minister’s resignation, and that he try
sewing his own eyes and mouth shut. Human rights activist Avetik
Ishkhanian, head of the Helsinki Committee, which monitors Armenia’s
11 penitentiaries, stressed that “if [prisoners] are now talking and
resorting to extremes, that means they have hit the bottom.”
Unofficial “[p]rison rules are so strict that convicts usually keep
silent not to become outcasts,” Ishkhanian added.
Ombudsman Karen Andreasian agreed. “People resort to self-harm as an
act of ultimate despair and the minister should be seriously worried
not to let such things become common,” Andreasian told EurasiaNet.org.
In a 2011 report, a group of 10 prison observers cited “lawlessness
and prison overcrowding” as critical problems confronting Armenia’s
prisons. [Editor’s Note: The observer group was financed by
the Open Society Foundation Armenia, part of the Open Society
Foundations network. EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices of
the New-York-City-based Open Society Foundations, a separate part of
that network.]
The report describes conditions as “humiliating” at Nubarashen,
Armenia’s largest prison, located outside Yerevan, where four of the
hunger-strikers are confined. The prison is designed to hold a maximum
of 1,200 detainees, but currently contains an estimated 1,400 people.
“The conditions are really intolerable: 20 inmates live in 30-40
square meters [of space], with not enough bedding, so that people
sleep in shifts,” said human-rights lawyer Robert Revazian, a member
of the monitoring group.
A 2011 amnesty by President Serzh Sargsyan freed 400 of Armenia’s
prisoners, “but it was a short-term solution because soon the pardoned
got replaced by new prisoners,” said human-rights advocate Artur
Sakunts, director of the Helsinki Citizen Association’s office in
the northern city of Vanadzor.
“Some 90 percent of defendants get sent to prison before a court
ruling,” said Sakunts, referring to a practice prevalent in neighboring
Georgia and Azerbaijan as well.
Armenia’s government says it is prioritizing the issue of prison
conditions, and officials contend that a four-year strategy will solve
the prison-overpopulation problem by 2017. But rights activists are
skeptical. Armenia has carried out prison reforms repeatedly since
1991, when it declared independence from the Soviet Union, with few
tangible results, they say.
First Deputy Justice Minister Grigor Muradian asserts that the coming
reforms will take “structural steps embracing all directions.” For
example, to tackle overcrowding and “help convicts reintegrate”
back into society, probation will be introduced as an alternative to
incarceration, Muradian said. In addition, the practice of pre-trial
detention will be implemented only in cases of extreme necessity,
the ministry says.
Parliament, in turn, is working on a package of reform proposals,
but details are not yet available. The reform ideas are scheduled to
be publicly presented November 20.
Prosperous Armenia Party MP Naira Zohrabian, chair of parliament’s
Committee on European Integration, one of the bodies meeting with
European monitors, agrees that “the prisons are in a sad and deplorable
state.” Zohrabian also asserts that parliament is determined to “take
the necessary steps to fix” matters. While problems with sanitation,
food supplies and adequate medical care can be resolved relatively
quickly, “structural” issues will require more time, she added,
without elaboration.
Human-rights activists aren’t necessarily cheered by such comments.
Ishkhanian and Sakunts both suggested that resolute statements about
addressing issues could just be electoral cycle rhetoric, adding that
“lawmakers’ proactive approach is only temporary.”
Editor’s note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com
in Yerevan.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66160