VZCZCXRO6998
RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHYE #0304/01 1000307
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090307Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7362
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 1562
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 0629
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0589

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 YEREVAN 000304 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CARC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM KJUS AM
SUBJECT: CLOUDINESS SURROUNDING ARMENIA'S MARCH 1-2 DEATH TOLL 
 
REF: YEREVAN 187, YEREVAN 186, YEREVAN 179 
 
YEREVAN 00000304  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
(U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly.  Not 
for Internet distribution.18 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (SBU) 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). END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------- 
OFFICIAL NUMBERS, DETAILS 
------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) According to official information, a total of eight 
Armenian citizens were killed during the March 1-2 clashes in 
downtown Yerevan (reftels B-C).  One of the deceased was a police 
officer and the seven others were civilians.  Information provided 
to the Embassy by the Prosecutor General's office states that six of 
the eight died from wounds inflicted by weapons.  This information 
contradicts what officials have been saying in public, which is that 
only four died of injuries from weapons.  The Prosecutor General's 
Office information on the eight deaths came in the form of a 
quarter-page long table supplied to the Embassy that included only 
the following data:  Name, Year of Birth, Address, and Nature of 
Injuries.  Post has interpreted "Nature of Injuries" to mean cause 
of death. 
 
¶3. (NOTE:  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.  END NOTE.) 
 
--------------------------- 
UNOFFICIAL NUMBERS, DETAILS 
--------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) According to media reports by independent or opposition 
news outlets (mainly print and internet), three out of the eight 
victims randomly appeared at the scene of March 1-2 clashes, and 
were not opposition protesters but passersby who happened upon the 
wrong place at the wrong time.  Similar reports also declared that 
all eight of the March 1-2 victims died from weapons wounds (seven 
from gunfire and one from shrapnel, the origin of which could have 
been either a gun or a grenade). 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
STATE OF EMERGENY'S MEDIA BAN FUELS RUMOR MILL 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶5. (SBU) One of the restrictions imposed by the State of Emergency 
that President Kocharian decreed late on March 1 restricted what 
media could publish to only state-supplied information (ref A). 
Due to the effective media ban this produced, rumors began to spread 
even before the clashes ended early on March 2.  These included a 
higher death count (anywhere from 20-50); the death of a 12-year-old 
child at the hands of security forces on Freedom Square early on 
March 1; a government cover-up to hide the higher death toll, 
including allegations that victims' families had been coerced or 
bribed by authorities to falsify additional victims' dates and 
causes of death.  (NOTE:  The father of the 12-year-old girl came 
forward on April 3 to publicly deny his daughter had been killed. 
She is alive and well.  END NOTE.)  One of the most conspiratorial 
rumors making the rounds is that the authorities planned the deaths 
 
YEREVAN 00000304  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
in advance in order to justify the state of emergency, crack down on 
the opposition without having to worry about legalities, and 
discredit the entire opposition movement, in particular its 
leadership headed by ex-President Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP).  This 
rumor has it that concealed snipers were used to kill the 
protesters, whose deaths justified the authorities imposing a state 
of emergency to prevent further loss of life. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
YOUTUBE VIDEOS, NO NATIONAL MOURNING FUEL RESENTMENT 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Resentment against the authorities' heavy-handed tactics on 
March 1-2 continues to find outlets through hard-to-watch videos 
being anonymously placed on the YouTube website.  On March 7, the 
first posted video showed riot police shooting in the direction of 
presumed protesters, contradicting initial claims by Armenia's 
Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepian that police did not use lethal 
force against protesters.  Hovsepian immediately denounced the video 
as a fabrication, and appealed to the UN office in Yerevan for 
expertise in assessing its authenticity. 
 
¶7. (SBU) More recently, on April 1 a troubling second video appeared 
on YouTube showing an unmarked security service vehicle with a 
trailer hideously running over an apparent protester at high speed. 
It is hard to visualize how the victim could have survived the 
impact, but the Prosecutor General's Office again refuted the 
authenticity of the video, claiming no Yerevan hospital received 
such a casualty the night of the clashes.  None of the injuries 
reportedly sustained by the eight acknowledged dead appear to match 
the possible trauma the victim would have experienced. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Another bone of contention expressed mainly by 
oppositionists and their supporters has been the perceived lack of 
sensitivity by authorities in mourning the eight killed in the March 
1-2 clashes.  Pro-opposition media reported President Kocharian's 
attendance at the police captain's funeral and wondered out loud why 
he didn't do the same for the other seven victims.  Some in the 
opposition camp called for a public day of mourning, which never 
materialized.  As previously reported, wives of jailed 
oppositionists tried to lay flowers in honor of the dead at Freedom 
Square the day of the state of emergency's lifting (March 21), but 
police prevented them from entering the square.  Some of the 
opposition protesters who participated in the silent protest later 
that evening held candles in remembrance of the dead. 
 
---------------------- 
NO SMOKING GUN, THOUGH 
---------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) In spite of the rumors making the rounds in Yerevan and the 
regions, and the resentment they have spawned, to date no concrete 
evidence of additional victims has surfaced.  In addition, very few 
media have reported on the details of the deaths or the victims 
themselves.  None of the victims' families has gone public with 
anti-government allegations.  And very few of the victims' families 
have made any public statements at all.  Rumors nevertheless 
continue to proliferate that families of unidentified March 1-2 
victims were pressured or bribed by the authorities to remain 
quiet. 
 
--------------------------------- 
THE SOLE LAW ENFORCEMENT CASUALTY 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Age 32, police captain Hamlet Tadevosian was the only 
reported law enforcement casualty.  According to information from 
the Prosecutor General's Office, he died from injuries sustained 
from shrapnel piercing his abdominal area.  According to official 
press reports, he died using his body to cover a hand-grenade thrown 
by an opposition protester.  On March 6, President Kocharian 
posthumously awarded him the "Battle Cross" order, second degree, 
and promoted him to the rank of Major. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Mikael Danielian, director of the local human rights NGO 
Helsinki Association, told Emboff he heard reports that Tadevosian 
died from gunshots and not from a grenade explosion -- this in spite 
of the fact his family did not question the official cause of death 
in a March 28 interview with the opposition Haykakan Zhamanak 
(Armenian Times) daily.  (NOTE:  One of the authorities' allegations 
has been that protesters were armed with and using grenades in the 
March 1-2 clashes.  Although the authorities to date have yet to 
definitively prove this claim, the official version of Tadevosian's 
death would give their allegation greater credence.  END NOTE.) 
 
 
YEREVAN 00000304  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
------------------------------------ 
AT THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶12. (SBU) Age 31, Zakar Hovhannisian died from gunshot wounds 
sustained in the abdominal area.  According to independent media 
reports, he left his home March 1 to look for neighbor Davit 
Petrosian, who allegedly had gotten stuck downtown in the area of 
the demonstrations.  Hovhannisian apparently did this in order to 
deter Petrosian's worried wife from going to the area herself to aid 
her husband.  But both Hovhannisian and Petrosian were subsequently 
killed in the clashes.  Wounded and unconscious, Hovhannisian was 
reportedly taken to a nearby hospital where doctors unsuccessfully 
operated on him.  He died without regaining consciousness. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Age 33, Davit Petrosian died of gunshot wounds to his 
back.  On March 27, the 168 Zham (168 Hours) pro-opposition 
newspaper published an interview with Petrosian's widow in which she 
insisted that Petrosian was indifferent to politics and was simply 
in the wrong place at the wrong time.  She recounted that her 
husband was walking home from his jeweler's work when he learned 
about the growing unrest and decided to ascertain the welfare and 
whereabouts of a policeman friend.  She grew alarmed when Petrosian 
stopped answering his phone calls at around 10 pm.  Petrosyan was 
taken to a nearby hospital, where he was unsuccessfully operated on 
and died without regaining consciousness. 
 
¶14. (SBU) According to what doctors told his wife, Petrosian died of 
a bullet wound to his kidney, and irreparable damage had been done 
to other vital organs, including his liver, diaphragm and lungs. 
Mikael Danielyan told Emboff he suspected the bullet used to kill 
Petrosian had a shifted center of gravity, since it had entered 
Petrosian's right kidney through his back but exited his chest area 
from the top of his left lung.  Mikaelian also related that  doctors 
had detected a strong rubber odor from the wounds, suggesting a 
rubber bullet was the culprit. 
 
¶15. (SBU) Age 28, Grigor Gevorgian died from a gunshot wound to his 
head.  On March 21 the independent "Armenia Now" online news service 
published an interview with Gevorgian's family.  They claimed that 
Gevorgian was a passerby who had appeared on the scene as he went 
out to pick up his salary from a gas station and run other errands. 
His wife last heard from him when he was on a downtown street in the 
vicinity of the clashes trying to get home.  His attempts apparently 
failed when police blocked all nearby streets, preventing passage in 
or out, and ordering passersby at gunpoint to stay where they were. 
Gevorgian's widow said she talked to her husband for the last time 
at approximately 9:00 pm. 
 
¶16. (SBU) When recovering her husband's corpse in the morgue, 
Gevorgian's widow said she was told her husband was felled by a 
sniper, and that his brain had been exploded by the bullet's impact. 
 According to the widow, some family friends who served in the 
Karabakh war confirmed the sniper shot, given the location of the 
wound on Gevorgian's crown.  On March 2, a newscast on Armenian 
public TV aired an interview with Gevorgian's uncle where he heaped 
scorn on LTP.  However, on March 6, Gevorgian's uncle told the 
pro-opposition Zhamanak Yerevan (Yerevan Times) daily that those who 
interviewed him presented credentials from an opposition media 
outlet, and that his words were cut and taken out of context.  He 
acknowledged, however, that when he spoke out against LTP, he was 
doing so in response to a report which he had received that his 
nephew had been killed by a mob of opposition protesters. Only later 
did he learn that his nephew had been killed by bullet fire. 
 
-------------------- 
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS 
-------------------- 
 
¶17. (SBU) Age 29, Gor Kloyan died from injuries caused by shrapnel 
penetration from an unspecified weapon in the pelvic area. 
According to an interview with his family published March 21 by 
"Armenia Now," Kloyan had left home March 1 without announcing his 
destination to anybody.  His family then learned about his fate 
around midnight from Hospital Number 3, where he had been taken 
after suffering shrapnel wounds to his leg.  With his aorta 
irrevocably damaged, doctors failed to save his life.  His family 
told the media that he never attended any rallies, and in fact was a 
member of the governing Prosperous Armenia political party.  He also 
served as a proxy for Serzh Sargsyan at one of the polling stations, 
and worked for his campaign as a truck driver.  The family expressed 
disappointment that none of the ruling political parties sent 
condolences for their loss. 
 
¶18. (SBU) Age 34, Armen Farmanian sustained life-ending injuries to 
 
YEREVAN 00000304  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
his skull by "foreign bodies."  On March 22, the pro-opposition 
Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times) daily published an interview with 
his family, who appeared dumbfounded that Farmanian could have 
appeared at the scene of the clashes.  Both of his brothers work for 
law enforcement bodies.  Human rights activist Mikael Danielyan, who 
remains in close touch with the widow, told Emboff that Farmanian 
was struck by a bullet in the back of his head.  According to 
Danielian, the coroner said that the bullet had split into three 
parts in Farmanian's skull, something he said he had never seen 
before in his line of work. 
 
------------ 
LITTLE KNOWN 
------------ 
 
¶19.  (SBU) Age 23, Tigran Khachatryan died from injuries sustained 
to his skull by "foreign bodies."  A March 6 report that appeared on 
InfoArmenia.org -- one of numerous news websites and web blogs 
created by opposition supporters to circumvent the state of 
emergency-imposed information blockade, and allegedly maintained by 
the Association of Investigative Journalists - confirmed that 
Khachatrian died from gunshot wounds to the head. 
 
¶20. (SBU) Age 47, Hovhannes Hovhannisian (47) is reported to have 
died from injuries caused by gunshot wounds on the right of his 
back.  Nothing else has been reported about this victim. 
 
------------------------- 
THE STILL GRAVELY INJURED 
------------------------- 
 
¶21. (U) According to an April 3 press release from the  Ministry of 
Health, Yerevan hospitals are still treating five victims from the 
March 1-2 events, including four civilians and one security service 
personnel.  No further details were provided.  But on March 25, 
RFE/RL published an article describing the condition of those 
wounded during the March 1-2 events who were still receiving care in 
local hospitals. 
 
¶22. (SBU) Age 19, policeman Tigran Abgarian suffered a perforating 
gun wound, and his spinal cord in the neck area was damaged.  His 
condition on March 25 was listed as grave.  The Embassy confirmed 
with his hospital on April 4 that his perilous condition remains 
unchanged. 
 
¶23. (SBU) Age 26, the civilian Ruben Torosyan also received a 
perforating gunshot to his head.  (NOTE:  Information obtained from 
the Prosecutor General's Office indicates he is a resident of one of 
the areas where the March 1-2 clashes took place.  END NOTE.) 
Torosyan was initially pronounced dead on March 1, but later 
proclaimed to be  alive. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶24. (SBU) 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. 
 
PENNINGTON