VZCZCXRO7706
RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHYE #0599/01 2101410
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281410Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7831
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000599 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC CASC PGOV EINV KJUS AM
SUBJECT: ROAD RAGE ATTACK ON DUTCH BUSINESSMEN EMBLEMATIC 
OF GROWING CONCERN 
 
YEREVAN 00000599  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) BUSINESSMEN ASSAULTED:  On Saturday, July 12, two 
pedestrians, Hans Boon and Jurgen Dolstra -- Dutch nationals 
who are senior executives of the semi-privatized postal 
corporation Haypost -- were attacked and beaten by two 
motorists in a road rage incident.  The incident occured at 
about 10:30 pm.  The two Dutch businessmen were crossing a 
major downtown Yerevan thoroughfare when a speeding car 
passed in front of them so closely as to nearly run them 
down.  Boon later told poloff that the car passed so closely 
in front of him that he was forced to jump violently backward 
to avoid being struck, and he believes he may have 
inadvertantly kicked the side of the car in the process.  The 
motorists, apparently believing that one of the two men had 
deliberately kicked the vehicle as it passed, returned and 
attacked Boon and Dolstra -- punching both men in the face, 
and reportedly kicking Boon repeatedly in the torso as he lay 
on the ground.  The two victims were hospitalized for two 
nights.  The two attackers, identified by police as Samvel 
Edwardi Hovhanissian and Yuri Igori Ohanian, were estimated 
by Boon and Dolstra to be in their late twenties. Boon is 52 
years old, and Dolstra is 48.  Hohvanissian and Ohanian's 
initial claim that Boon and Dolstra attacked them first seems 
implausible, given the age disparity between the two sides. 
Emboffs know the two victims socially, though not closely, 
and would not expect either to start a fight.  Hovhannisian 
and Ohanian are free pending trial on charges of 
"hooliganism," with a mximum penality of 5 years 
imprisonment. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) WOE TO THE VICTIM:  Authorities' response to the 
incident left much to be desired.  The entire incident 
happened within sight of a group of police officers.  All 
four men were taken together (with victims and attackers 
crammed side by side in one van) to the main downtown police 
station (Kentron district), where all four were required to 
sit together for hours awaiting police processing.  Boon and 
Dolstra received no medical care for their injuries, police 
were unable to communicate with them in either Dutch or 
English, and police refused to allow them to place any calls 
from their cellular telephones.  Boon finally was able to 
call one of his senior Haypost aides, who finally reached one 
of the top officials of the Ministry of Transport and 
Communication -- Haypost's regular government partner -- to 
intercede with police on Boon and Dolstra's behalf.  A 
Haypost employee also came to the police station to interpret 
for the Dutch executives.  A call to the police station by 
the Transport and Communication minister (or possibly a 
deputy, this is unclear) finally thawed the semi-hostile, 
uncommunicative, and uncooperative attitude shown by police; 
the two men were able to give their statements through the 
interpreter and an ambulance was called to take them to the 
hospital for medical treatment.  The two attackers had been 
let go earlier, under the pretense that the police station 
was "closed" for the weekend and there was no way to arrest, 
charge, or hold them until Monday morning.  The defendants 
were later summoned back to the police station on Tuesday, 
July 15, charged and released pending trial. 
 
¶3. (SBU) DIP CORPS RESPONDS:  Boon reported the incident to 
the (non-resident) Dutch Ambassador, coincidentally in 
Yerevan at the time, who raised the case during his meeting 
with the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, news of the attack spread 
quickly around Yerevan's small expatriate community, and 
became the talk of the diplomatic corps, many of whom 
expressed concerns to various GOAM officials.  Polchief, 
joined by the French DCM, took an opportunity at the French 
Bastille Day reception to raise the issue with the 
international cooperation director of the Prosecutor 
General's office, who duly provided a follow-up report from 
the city prosecutor.  These inquiries, as well as Haypost's 
political connections, seem to have ensured some law 
enforcement follow-up, after police initially seemed to take 
the Armenian attackers' side over that of the foreigners. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) A WORRISOME TREND?:  We have had a growing 
perception in recent months of an elevated risk of road 
rage-type incidents, despite the fact that Armenia remains 
overall a relatively quite safe place for expatriates.  A 
sizeable minority of Armenian drivers are habitually quite 
aggresive and erratic in their driving habits, and may engage 
fellow drivers and pedestrians in machismo-laden tests of 
will, which can escalate into physical violence.  Another 
incident not long ago involved an embassy security officer, 
in a diplomatic-plated vehicle.  The emboff reflexively 
sounded his horn when another vehicle swerved in front of him 
at high speed.  Angered by the horn, at the next stoplight, 
the offending driver jumped out of his car and came to 
confront the emboff, attempting to open emboff's locked car 
door.  Press accounts periodically detail road rage-type 
incidents when they involved prominent political or crime 
 
YEREVAN 00000599  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
figures or their bodyguards, and post hears privately of 
additional such incidents that never make the papers.  One 
such unpublished example reported to polchief by a media 
representative involved a road rage confrontation between a 
police captain and an oligarch's bodyguards, in which the 
lone police officer was reportedly beaten up by the thugs 
after a traffic incident.  That incident was allegedly 
mediated politically, without recourse to law enforcement 
action.  In another case, AmCit tourists in a hired taxi had 
their vehicle clipped by a speeding Mercedes, whose occupants 
then vented their pique by beating the elderly taxi driver 
and threatening the AmCits.  In another incident, an AmCit 
bicyclist had a vodka bottle thrown at his head by the 
drunken occupants of a passing car, when he declined to join 
them for a drink. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Post intends to work with CA on the possibility of 
including a statement in the Consular Information Sheet 
urging American citizens to be careful of road rage 
incidents.  Post also will remind AmCits about the need for 
proper car insurance, in the wake of a separate incident of 
an uninsured AmCit being sued following an accident. 
PENNINGTON