The Youth Committee of the Armenian National Congress and the Political Prisoners Committee have addressed the following letter to Ambassador Yanez Lenarcic, Director of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.   As you are well aware the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) took important steps aimed at overcoming the political crisis in Armenia, which occurred as a result of a crackdown on peaceful demonstrators by governmental forces on 1 March 2008. The PACE adopted four resolutions on democracy in Armenia and currently also encourages democratic reforms in the country. Unfortunately, the OSCE/ODIHR’s role in helping Armenia to overcome the deep political crisis was not as sound as it could have been according to the mandate of the organization, which is aimed at championing democratic development, human rights, tolerance, rule of law. In effect, the OSCE/ODIHR’s followed the retreat of democracy in one of the OSCE member countries and the imprisonment of dozens of political prisoners, as an observer. We also regret the fact that during Your Excellency’s visit to Armenia, you were the only high-level international official, who did not meet with the representatives of the opposition. The only visible involvement of the OCSE/ODIHR in the crisis-stricken Armenia was the observation of trials of March 1 related cases by the representatives of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission. As in any similar process, the mentioned observation was due to result in a comprehensive report. At the end of last year, it became known that the report “Observation of trials in Armenia” has been prepared and the draft has been presented to the government of Armenia, as represented by the Minister of Justice Gevorg Danielyan on 21 November 2009. Later, the press reported that OSCE/ODIHR plans to publicize the report in the second half of January 2010. And recently, the press reported again that the government of Armenia has asked OSCE/ODIHR not to publicize the report for the time being. According to information from the press, Armenian authorities have offered a deal to OSCE/ODIHR so that the latter will not publicize the report. The fact that the document has not been publicized until today directly confirms the truthfulness of the information published in the press. However, regardless of the conditions of any deal and the motivations of the parties to the deal, the Armenian public has the right to demand that the organization mandated to reinforce democracy and human rights in free Europe, where Armenia is a member, to eventually publish the report. The publishing of the report is important for us in the sense that it is yet another material which will allow the Armenian public to become informed about the nature of shortcomings in Armenia’s judiciary system and to play its important and natural role, which is to demand from and work with the authorities to eliminate those shortcomings. Let us eradicate the distrust toward the OSCE/ODIHR, which was formed in the Armenian public after the presidential elections of 19 February 2008, when the preliminary report was published the day after the voting, according to which the elections were basically in line with European standards, which, however, had nothing to do with the reality. In the final report issued by the OSCE/ODIHR three months later, violations only in the pre-electoral period were described on more than 20 pages. How come that knowing so well about the volume of violations, the observation mission harshly gave a positive assessment of the elections? According to the judgment of numerous experts expressed in the last two years, one of the main causes of the tragic events of March 1 was the preliminary report published by the election observation mission, where OSCE/ODIHR also participated, which allowed the Armenian authorities to attempt brutally quelling citizens who were justly protesting against the falsified elections. Becoming acquainted with the content of the “Observation of trials in Armenia” report prepared by OSCE/ODIHR, will also provide us with the opportunity to restore our confidence that Your Excellency is faithful to the principles of OSCE Charter of Paris. And the Charter states: “Ours is a time for fulfilling the hopes and expectations our peoples have cherished for decades: steadfast commitment to democracy based on human rights and fundamental freedoms; prosperity through economic liberty and social justice; and equal security for all our countries.” We would like to ask you to do everything possible within the limits of Your Excellency’s mandate to make the report available to the public. Sincerely, Political Prisoners Committee Youth Committee of the Armenian National Congress