VZCZCXRO7578
RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHYE #0665/01 2380525
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 250525Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7924
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000665 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL KDEM KPAO BBG AM
SUBJECT: RFE/RL BUREAU CHIEF ASSAULT LATEST IN A SERIES OF 
INCIDENTS 
 
YEREVAN 00000665  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The acting Yerevan bureau chief of RFE/RL was 
lightly injured in an assault August 18 by a man who proclaimed 
anti-RFE/RL sentiments during the attack.  CDA met with RFE/RL 
officials August 20 to discuss the incident, and the general 
situation of RFE/RL in Armenia, which had seemed to be improving. 
This incident follows the August 12 beating of opposition reporter 
Lusine Barseghian, and May/June assaults on opposition-related youth 
activists.  END SUMMARY. 
 
ASSAULT ON RFE/RL PROGRAMMING TURNS LITERAL 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Acting Yerevan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty bureau chief 
Hrach Melkumian was assaulted in a well-traveled, downtown Yerevan 
park on the evening of August 18 while walking home from the office 
not long before sunset.  The assailant called out to Melkumian by 
name, Melkumian turned and allowed the man to approach, whereupon he 
was abruptly attacked bare-handed.  The assailant continued hitting 
Melkumian for several minutes, all the while uttering harsh 
statements about RFE/RL's content, alleging the radio station is too 
pro-oppositional.  Passers-by declined to intervene, nor did police 
stationed at a busy intersection no more than 30 yards away. 
Melkumian eventually was able to escape the scene.  When he returned 
some minutes later in search of his eyeglasses, which had been lost 
in the scuffle, he was startled to find his attacker still at the 
scene, sitting and speaking calmly into a mobile telephone. 
Melkumian went to the police station to record a complaint, and was 
later accompanied to the scene of the attack by two police officers, 
hoping to catch sight of the attacker, who by that time had left. 
Melkumian was treated for minor injuries at the local hospital. 
President Serzh Sargsian publicly condemned the attack on Melkumian 
and ordered police to investigate, and the Prosecutor General 
announced that a criminal case had been launched. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Post obtained from Melkumian the basic outline of the 
story on August 19, and Melkumian visited the embassy August 20, 
calling on CDA with two RFE/RL managers coincidentally visiting from 
Prague to interview candidates for the bureau chief position. 
(Melkumian is ordinarily based in Prague, where he works for the 
Armenia Liberty service, but has filled in as temporary Yerevan 
bureau chief since May.  Melkumian was previously the Yerevan bureau 
chief for many years before being promoted to the Prague position.) 
After a brief discussion, CDA and RFE/RL visitors agreed that the 
incident seemed clearly to be a targeted attack by an individual 
sympathetic to the ruling Armenian regime, but beyond that it is 
impossible to say. 
 
RFE/RL'S UPS AND DOWNS IN ARMENIA 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The discussion moved on to RFE/RL's ongoing search for a 
new bureau chief, which RFE/RL hoped to have wrapped up within three 
weeks.  RFE/RL managers acknowledged that the Yerevan bureau has 
lately been roiled by competing personality cliques mirroring the 
political polarization in Armenian society, with some staff 
sympathetic to the opposition and others with family ties to the 
ruling party.  The hope is that new leadership of the bureau may be 
able to bridge this divide, though the Prague-based management 
opined that such divisions are not unusual in newsrooms in most 
Western capitals.  (COMMENT:  This glib assertion understates the 
level of bitter acrimony and politically-motivated back-biting that 
has plagued the Yerevan bureau since the 2007/2008 election cycle, 
but this probably amounts to RFE/RL seeking to keep its dirty 
laundry private.  END COMMENT) 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Prague managers insisted that there was never any merit 
to government claims of bias during the election campaign, and if 
there were, RFE/RL could obviously never fire editorial staff under 
outside political pressure, and that any perceived improvement in 
the balance of RFE/RL coverage was simply a result of an ongoing 
RFE/RL push to improve rigor, balance, and professionalism across 
the board.  Nonetheless, the Prague managers were pleased at their 
perception that Armenian authorities seemingly had ended their 
crusade against RFE/RL, and noted the service had even been 
complimented on a story by President Sargsian's press spokesman. 
RFE/RL is also once again invited to government press conferences, 
which had stopped during the earlier period of acrimony between the 
government and RFE/RL.  Poloff commented that it was former 
President Kocharian, and not then-PM Serzh Sargsian, who harbored a 
particularly sharp personal animus against RFE/RL.   The RFE/RL 
managers thanked CDA for the embassy's steadfast support and 
advocacy with GOAM officials during the rocky period.  We noted that 
long-planned billboard advertisements of the Armenia Liberty Service 
would soon appear across Armenia, funded by FSA assistance funds, 
and that one purpose of this was to signal the U.S. Government's 
backing for the RFE/RL network.  (COMMENT:  Again, our RFE/RL 
colleagues seemed a bit more anxious to hide dirty linen than speak 
frankly.  Our impression is that the Armenia Liberty service had 
aired at least a few programs that leaned a little far toward the 
opposition, and RFE/RL management spotted a genuine problem with 
 
YEREVAN 00000665  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
editorial controls and political balance, which they moved to 
correct.  Our billboard campaign will not make any explicit 
reference to the U.S. Embassy, but our government interlocutors know 
that we are paying for the billboards.  END COMMENT) 
 
OTHER RECENT ASSAULTS 
--------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Several other assaults in recent months reveal the 
continuing ferment underlying the political situation.   On August 
12, Lusine Barseghian, of the strongly pro-LTP newspaper Haykakhan 
Zhamanak (Armenian Times) was ambushed outside her parents' 
apartment building, and was briefly hospitalized for injuries 
sustained from kicks and punches.  The assailants soon fled as 
passers-by began to gather.  Opposition newspapers all decried the 
incident as the handiwork of pro-government thugs seeking to 
intimidate the strident Haykakhan Zhamanak staff. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Two opposition-linked youth activists were assaulted in 
May and June, while a prominent human rights NGO leader was attacked 
by a known pro-government agitator.  On May 21, Mikhael Danielyan, 
who heads the well-known and reliable Helsinki Association human 
rights NGO, was attacked with an air pistol that fires tear gas 
capsules by a thuggish pro-government activist, Tigran Urikhanian. 
Urikhanian was questioned by police, but never charged despite clear 
witnesses to the attack.  On May 28, Arsen Kharatian, a leader of 
the pro-Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP) opposition youth movement Sksel 
(Start), was assaulted by several other youths in downtown Yerevan, 
and hospitalized with moderate head injuries.  On June 25, another 
opposition youth activist, Narek Hovakimian, from the pro-LTP Hima 
(Now) movement, was pummeled by a small group of young men unknown 
to him, and was hospitalized with injuries to his head and abdomen. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) These incidents of physical assault represent a continuing 
pattern of harassment and danger for journalists and activists 
perceived as hostile to the current authorities.  None of these 
cases has been solved by police.  The public statements by the 
president and prosecutor general were welcome signs that authorities 
are taking this most recent incident seriously.  It seems to us 
unlikely that these incidents were all just random attacks by angry 
individuals -- our experience is that the pro-government circles do 
not inspire such passionate loyalty as to arouse supporters to 
spontaneous outbursts of partisan enthusiasm.  Rather, these 
incidents seem likely to have been directed by someone in the 
pro-governmental constellation, but determining precisely who is 
behind them is of course more difficult. 
 
PENNINGTON