AMBASSADOR PRESSES TIP POINTS WITH DEPUTY PRIME

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000823

SIPDIS

EUR/PGI FOR JODY BUCKENBERG, G-TIP FOR AMB MARK LAGON AND
JENNIFER DONNELLY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCOR KCRM KJUS KWMN SMIG AM
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR PRESSES TIP POINTS WITH DEPUTY PRIME
MINISTER

YEREVAN 00000823 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: AMB Marie L. Yovanovitch, reasons 1.4 (b/d).


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SUMMARY
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1. (C) During her introductory call on Deputy Prime Minister
Armen Gevorgian, the Ambassador pressed the GOAM to prosecute
official complicity in trafficking of persons (TIP).
Gevorgian pledged that the GOAM would strengthen its
anti-trafficking efforts now that he has been appointed to
chair the GOAM's ministerial Council to Combat Trafficking,
and that he sought a continuation of open, honest
communication with the Embassy on TIP. The Ambassador raised
the 2006 case of an Uzbek trafficker who escaped Armenia with
the help of corrupt officials, and stressed that prosecuting
those responsible would show the GOAM's seriousness on TIP.
While Gevorgian countered that the case had been settled with
the firing of the officials, he undertook to look into it
again at the Ambassador's request. END SUMMARY.

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THE ZAKHARYANTS TRAFFICKING CASE
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2. (C) The Ambassador called October 6 on Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Territorial Administration Armen
Gevorgian, who also was appointed several months ago to chair
the GOAM's new ministerial council to combat trafficking in
persons. The Territorial Administration Ministry oversees
regional and local government, as well as the GOAM Migration
Agency. The Ambassador pressed the GOAM to show more
seriousness in dealing with official complicity in
trafficking. She raised the February 2006 escape of Anush
Zakharyants, a convicted Uzbek trafficker of Armenian
lineage, who escaped from an Armenian prison with the
assistance of corrupt prison administration officials and
border guards.


3. (C) The Ambassador appealed to Gevorgian to reexamine the
case and prosecute and convict the corrupt officials for
their deeds. Prosecution of the case, added the Ambassador,
would constitute concrete evidence of President Sargsian's
strongly worded commitment to combat official corruption that
featured prominently in his address to parliament on October

2. The Ambassador also noted that the GOAM would likely be
judged on its progress in the case in the TIP Tier Two Watch
List interim assessment in November. If unaddressed, the
case could result in Armenia dropping to Tier Three with the
issuance of next year's TIP report in April.

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"FIRINGS ARE PUNISHMENT"
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4. (C) Gevorgian pushed back on the handling of the
Zakharyants case, reminding that the corrupt officials had
been fired from their positions and contending that this
constituted appropriate punishment. Arguing that "firings
are a form of convictions," Gevorgian stated that the corrupt
head of the Armenian prison service had been promptly
relieved of his duties as a result of his role in the escape.
He said that several months following his removal from
office, the prison service director was also sentenced jail
time for his role in a criminal scheme unrelated to the
Zakharyants case. Gevorgian also said that the two border
guards who had been approached by the prisons director to
allow Zakharyants to flee the country likewise lost their
jobs for complicity in the case.


5. (C) Gevorgian assured the Ambassador that he had recently
looked into the case himself, in response to a request
submitted by Emboffs at Gevorgian's July 4 TIP meeting with
international donors and diplomatic representatives. (NOTE:
On August 11, the Embassy received a courtesy copy of the
inquiry Gevorgian initiated, which was conducted by an
anti-corruption official from the Armenian presidency. The
inquiry's results confirmed that the head of prison
administration and the two border guards were dismissed from
their jobs as a result of the incident. END NOTE.)


6. (C) The Ambassador acknowledged the administrative
sanctions that had been meted out, but argued they still did
not appropriately reflect the magnitude of the crime
represented by trafficking. She reiterated that U.S. and
international standards in such cases required a more
substantive response, and hoped that Gevorgian would take a

YEREVAN 00000823 002.2 OF 002


second look at the case. She emphasized that the proper
response to this case was in Armenia's own interests as well,
that it would serve as a powerful deterrent to would-be
traffickers and help prevent the victimization of
unsuspecting Armenian women and men.


7. (C) Sticking to his position that the job firings in the
Zakharyants case appeared to him to be sufficient closure,
Gevorgian nonetheless undertook to reexamine the case at the
Ambassador's request. He said he would look again at the
results of the recent inquiry. The Ambassador thanked the
Deputy Prime Minister, and said she would send a letter to
the Secretary of the Ministerial Council to Combat
Trafficking detailing outstanding USG concerns with the
handling of the official corruption in the case.


8. (C) Separately, Polchief had pushed the relevant MFA
director, Dziunik Aghajanian, hard on the unresolved
Zakharyants case, pointing out that the lack of criminal
prosecution in this case remained the single biggest stain on
Armenia's TIP record. He noted that not only was there no
criminal prosecution, we had not seen evidence of a vigorous
Armenian effort to locate and recapture Zakharyants.
Aghajanian insisted the government had and continued to do
all it could to track Zakharyants down. Polchief
acknowledged that the new ministerial council, of which
Aghajanian heads the secretariat, seemed to be making
positive strides in fleshing out the institutions needed to
deal with TIP properly, such as its national referral
mechanism, shelter, and prevention programs, and welcomed the
government's commitment to appropriate funds for the anti-TIP
fight in the prevention, protection, and prosecution areas.
He suggested that the GOAM provide us better information of
the details of their efforts to recapture Zakharyants.

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TRYING OUR BEST
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8. (C) Alluding to his recent appointment as the first ever
chair of the new ministerial Council to Combat Trafficking,
Gevorgian conceded the GOAM had a long way to go to
strengthen its anti-trafficking efforts. Citing bureaucratic
shortcomings, Gevorgian confided that the GOAM often had to
rely on foreign-supplied information for its own trafficking
cases. He thanked the Embassy for sharing information on the
Zakharyants case, as well as recent information on a
potential new case of trafficking that the Embassy raised in
August, which he said law enforcement agencies were currently
looking into. Gevorgian also confessed that the GOAM lacks
real statistics on trafficking, and reiterated his thanks to
the Embassy for sharing information with Armenian authorities
on potential TIP cases. He assured the Ambassador that he
would do his utmost to invigorate GOAM efforts on TIP, and
said he sought to continue the open, transparent
communication the GOAM has had with the Embassy on TIP to
date.

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COMMENT
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9. (C) Two years have elapsed since former Ambassador Evans
first raised the Zakharyants case with the authorities. If
it were not for persistent USG intervention, the GOAM likely
would have done little or nothing to punish the implicated
officials. We have continually reminded the GOAM that the
punishment meted out in the case does not match the crime,
and that no further action on the case risks dropping Armenia
from the Tier Two Watch List, where it has stagnated four
years running, to Tier Three. We believe the Deputy Prime
Minister now understands the issue from our perspective, and
we shall follow up with his deputies on the Ministerial
Council to Combat Trafficking to push for action.
YOVANOVITCH