CLOUDINESS SURROUNDING ARMENIA'S MARCH 1-2 DEATH TOLL

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.

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OFFICIAL NUMBERS, DETAILS
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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.)

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UNOFFICIAL NUMBERS, DETAILS
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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).

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STATE OF EMERGENY'S MEDIA BAN FUELS RUMOR MILL
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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

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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.

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YOUTUBE VIDEOS, NO NATIONAL MOURNING FUEL RESENTMENT
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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.

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NO SMOKING GUN, THOUGH
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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.

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THE SOLE LAW ENFORCEMENT CASUALTY
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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.)


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AT THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME
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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.

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UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
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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

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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.

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LITTLE KNOWN
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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.

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THE STILL GRAVELY INJURED
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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.

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COMMENT
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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