Serving the community with integrity and respect? Shoushan Voskanyan is an angry mother. She claims Vaghinak Martirosyan, Vahe Hovhannisyan and another man, all investigators with the Vanadzor Police threatened to take away her four kids and send them to an orphanage if she didn’t provide the testimony they wanted. Out of fear of losing her children, she did as they demanded and wrote down exactly what they dictated to her. A few days later she filed a complaint with the Lori Regional Prosecutor’s office.

Mrs. Voskanyan had been subpoenaed by police to testify in a case involving her husband Slavik Voskanyan. He had been arrested on October 7 and charges with murder and robbery. “What was the use? They called me in to change my testimony and a few days later my husband died in jail,” says Mrs. Voskanyan. Violence committed in police stations doesn’t end with the psychological kind. There is also physical violence. People, however, either do not raise the issue out of fear of repercussions or out of the conviction that nothing will change. According to studies conducted by the RA Human Rights Ombudsman, beatings and physical intimidation are mostly carried out by police to obtain a confession from an individual. Staff members from the Ombudsman’s office have also visited police stations where they have seen citizens with black and blue marks and other wounds on their bodies. In 2009, employees from the Ombudsman’s office went to the police to follow up on a complaint it had received from a citizen. When they got there, the person’s nose was busted and bleeding. The annual report issued by the RA Human Rights Ombudsman always singles out the police for criticism, given that the bulk of complaints the office receives from citizens deals with the cops. The police remained #1 in terms of complaints received by the Ombudsman in both 2008 and 2009. In 2008, the office received 259 written complaints and 225 in 2009. Major-General E. Ghazaryan, Commander of Police Central Headquarters, told Hetq that the general number of complaints received from the public stems from the interaction between the citizenry and police. “In comparison to the other government agencies, the police interact with the public to the greatest degree. Thus, rather than looking at the absolute number of complaints received from citizens, it would be more instructive to analyze the ratio of complaints against the backdrop of interactions,” Major-General Ghazaryan noted. He said that 16 employees of the police department were subject to disciplinary action in 2008, as a result of complaints received from citizens or the Ombudsman’s office regarding unprofessional, discourteous or ill-treatment. That figure rose to 51 in 2009. In 2008, one police employee faced criminal prosecution; 3 in 2009. Last year’s report issued by the Ombudsman’s Office says that in terms of subject matter, complaints from citizens didn’t change substantially from previous years. The bulk of complaints dealt with the groundless detention and illegal custody of citizens, inhumane treatment while being held, attempts to intimidate and pressure people into confessing, etc. The following excerpt is taken from the Ombudsman’s 2009 Annual Report: “Let us accept the fact that citizens, complaining about being beaten at the hands of the police, have little chance of redress in Armenia today. The RA Police continues to regard evidence, submitted by citizens attesting to the fact that they were beaten and abused, as groundless and untrue. Tragically, we must note that such occurrences have turned into a tarnished tradition within our law enforcement system and the reigning atmosphere where punishment is not meted out merely serves to increase such incidents.” People residing in the various Marzes (Regions) of Armenia are also displeased with the police. If the Ombudsman’s Office received one complaint against the police in the first half of 2008 from Aragatzotn Marz, it received 3 in the same period in 2009. The respective figures for other regions are: Ararat 2008-2, 2009-4; Kotayk 2008-7, 2009-8; Lori 2008-3, 2009-11. Regarding the complaints registered from Lori, Major-General Ghazaryan stated that the police were only aware of 4 cases and that appropriate measures had been taken in all of them. He didn’t say what those measures were. Results for 2010 will have to wait a bit. The Ombudsman’s Office will compile all received complaints in January. The Office says that in terms of general complaints, the largest number comes from Lori. In the first half of 2008 they received 42 and 39 in the same period this year. Overall, the number of complaints received by the Office is going down. In 2008, the Office received a total of 4,090 complaints; 3,783 in 2009; and 2,272 from January 1 till September 30, 2010. When I asked if the drop in complaints meant that people had started to trust the police more, Tzovinar Khachatryan, the Ombudsman’s press secretary, answered that the number of complaints is based on the overall political situation at any given time. Back in 2008, the number spiked due to the post-election atmosphere in Armenia. Nowadays, the political climate in Armenia has “calmed” in comparison. She also said that citizens were more informed as to their legal rights and have thus started to forward their complaints to the proper authorities. “As to citizen complaints about the police, the figures aren’t in so we can’t single out the underlying reasons. But their number must surely cause the police some concern,” added the press secretary.