NKR MFA NOT GOING TO COMMENT ON SABINE FREIZER'S STATEMENTS

Yerkir
07.02.2006 11:40

YEREVAN (YERKIR) - The NKR Foreign Ministry is not going to comment of the statements by International Crisis Group Caucasus Project Director Sabine Freizer, who said that "Nagorno Karabakh is the most militarized territory in the world," since the NKR Defense Army numbers 20 thousand people. "Calling NKR the most militarized territory Ms. Freizer first, exaggerates the figures and second, proceeds from the number of military per head.

She is wrong in both cases," NKR MFA member told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

The Ministry thinks that any statements made on the threshold of the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents in Rambouillet February 10-11 may negatively tell upon the negotiations on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.

AZERI OFFICERS GO TO JAIL FOR BRIBERY, COVERING UP CRIME

Trend news agency
6 Feb 06

Baku, 6 February, Trend correspondent E. Cavadov: The trial of the commander of a military unit in Tovuz District [western Azerbaijan], Rahim Mammadsarifov, and a division commander in the same unit, Rufat Badirxanov, ended at the Court for Serious Crimes on 6 February. The trial was presided over by judge Mehdi Asadov.

It was found out that that soldier from the same unit Zaur Veyisov [who was arrested in June 2005] had been recruited by the Armenian special services. He shared 1,000 dollars, which he had been paid, with the aforementioned officers in the unit and leaked information on the number of the personnel and weapons to the enemy.

After receiving the money, the commanders transferred Veyisov to another unit in order to cover up the crime. However, the special services detected the crime in April 2005.

The guilt of the officers' was proved. Badirxanov was sentenced to six and Mammadsarifov to five years in prison.

KARABAKH LEADER APPOINTS NEW PROSECUTOR

Arminfo, Yerevan
6 Feb 06

Stepanakert, 6 February: The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR], Arkadiy Gukasyan, today relieved Mavrik Gukasyan of the post of prosecutor-general of the NKR due to his retirement. The head of the NKR presidential administration, Armen Zalinyan, has been appointed prosecutor-general, the presidential press service has told Arminfo.

Under another presidential decree, the secretary of the NKR Security Council, Karen Baburyan, has been named the head of the presidential administration. Today NKR president Gukasyan introduced the newly-appointed prosecutor-general, Armen Zalinyan, to the employees of the prosecutor's office.

[Passage omitted: Gukasyan urged the new prosecutor to implement reforms]

10 ARMENIAN WOMEN UNDERGO TRAFFICKING IN TURKEY

Interesting Panorama.am article on Armenian women being trafficked into neighboring Turkey posted February 3,2006.

Today in "Hayeli" club the experts in trafficking were trying to find an answer to the question whether Armenia is an "exit", "entrance" or a "transit" country from the point of view of trafficking. The head of "Hope and Assistance" public organization Yenock Shatvorian thinks that the situation in Armenia has changed a great deal in recent years, and what is most important it has changed for the better. If 2 year ago Armenia was in the list of countries of 3rd category where nothing or almost nothing was done to struggle against trafficking, at present even Law bodies are included in the struggle against "white slavery".

The aide of the head of the Investigation Board of Chief Procurators' Office Marsel Matevosian says that according to the 123 article of Criminal Codex (trafficking) 20 criminal cases have been instituted in 2003, and in 2004 and 2005 the number of cases increased which is explained by a more active work of law bodies.

As a result of criminal cases instituted last year 182 victims of trafficking have been registered 36 of which underwent sex exploitation in Armenia, 136 in United Arabian Emirates and 10 in Turkey. Judging by this statistical data the head of scientific-educational centre of the Procurators' Office Artak Haroutyunian states that Armenia is mostly an "exit" country, yet at some extent it can also be listed
among "transit" countries.

Anti-Trafficking Awareness Finally Hits America

The world is finally catching on to our anti-trafficking efforts…check out the Press Release and visit Frontline Online for more info.


Click here for the preview clip.

On Feb. 7, America’s PBS documentary film program FRONTLINE will present a unique hidden camera look at this world of sexual slavery, talking with traffickers and their victims, and exposing the government indifference that allows the abuses to continue virtually unchecked. Sex Slaves also follows the remarkable journey of one man determined to find his trafficked wife by posing as a trafficker himself to buy back her freedom.

An estimated half-million women are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. The women are kidnapped -- or lured by traffickers who prey on their dreams of employment abroad -- then they are "exported" to Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere, where they are sold to pimps, drugged, terrorized, locked in brothels, and raped repeatedly. In Eastern Europe, since the fall of communism, sex trafficking has become the fastest growing form of organized crime, with Moldova and Ukraine widely seen as the centers of the global trade in women and girls.

Documentary Contributors: Felix Golubev & Simcha Jacobovici / Producer: Ric Esther Bienstock

Ex-Human Rights Defender Denied Parliament Access

RFE/RL Armenia Report - 02/03/2006
By Anna Saghabalian

The leadership of Armenia's parliament refused on Friday to allow Larisa Alaverdian, the recently sacked human rights ombudsperson, to present a report detailing her activities last year to the National Assembly.

Under Armenian law, such a report has to be released by the defender on an annual basis. Alaverdian, who was relieved of her duties last month, insists that she has the exclusive right to draw up and publicize the document because she occupied the post in 2005. In an open letter to parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian, she asked for a permission to address the parliament.

Baghdasarian's office responded that only a serving ombudsperson can do that. Alaverdian's successor is expected to be elected by the parliament next week. Leaders of its pro-government majority have already decided to give the job to Armen Harutiunian, President Robert Kocharian's chief constitutional lawyer. Harutiunian would have five months to issue a report on his predecessor's activities.

Alaverdian, meanwhile, said on Friday that she will publish her own report anyway. She confirmed that it will strongly criticize the Armenian authorities' human rights record. `To put it mildly, I don't see an increase in the level of human rights protection in Armenia,' she told RFE/RL.

30 CRIMINAL CASES ON TRAFFICKING INSTITUTED IN ARMENIA IN 2005

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. 30 criminal cases on facts of trafficking were instituted in Armenian in 2005. As Marsel Matevosian, Deputy Head of the RA Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, informed at the February 3 conference that the number of such crimes is increasing year after year. Thus, there were 20 criminal cases examined by the investigation bodies in 2003, 35 in 2004, whereas there were 40 criminal cases in 2005 as a result of resumption of cases suspended and quashed before.

M.Matevosian mentioned, that according to the cases examined in 2005, the number of victims of trafficking, that underwent sexual exploitation made 182 persons. As a result of trafficking 36 of them suffered from sexual exploitation in Armenia, 136 in United Arab Emirates, 10 in Turkey. It was also mentioned that 172 of them were citizens of the Republic of Armenia, 3 of Russian Federation, 4 of Ukraine and 3 of Uzbekistan.

According to Artak Haroutiunian, Chief of the Chair of the Scientific-Research Center of the RA Prosecutor General's Office, different manifestations of trafficking are observed in different regions. Cases of prostitution or sexual exploitation are spread in the Muslim countries, and cases of men obligatory work are spread in the European countries. A.Haroutiunian mentioned that the peculiarities of the trafficking manifestation typical to the Eastern countries are typical to Armenia.

It was also mentioned that a 2006-2008 program of measures of struggle against trafficking at the level of the CIS countries was made up, within the framework of which an agreement will be signed in the future.

PRESENTATION OF A MANUAL "HOW TO STRUGGLE AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN COMMUNITIES" TAKES PLACE IN YEREVAN

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Feb 3 2006

YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. Presentation of a manual "How to struggle against trafficking in communities" took place in Yerevan.

According to the Coordinator of the Yerevan mission of the International Organization for Migration Hrachya Kazhoyan, the manual is for the population of the regions of Armenia, since residents of rural areas make the significant part of the victims of trafficking.

"We increased awareness among the population of the regions of Armenia by demonstrating a theatre performance "Burning candles", which describes the bitter fate of Armenian women, who became the victims of trafficking", he said.

According to him, already 10 thsd citizens of Yerevan, Gyumri, Charentsavan, Vanadsor, Yeghegnadsor and Goris saw the drama.

However, Kazhoyan found difficult to say the number of citizens of Armenia, who underwent trafficking.

Publication of the manual is funded by the British Council, UNDP, as well as the Agency of Development and Cooperation of Switzerland.

The mission of the International Organization for Migration in Armenian has been acting since 1993. The main goal of the mission is to contribute to the rehabilitation process of the victims of trafficking, as well as increasing awareness among the population of Armenia.

According to the data of the UN, annually 4 mln people become victims of trafficking. Illegal turnover of that criminal sphere makes over $10 bln. A.H.-0--

ARMENIA'S STATE FOREIGN DEBT TO MAKE 1,215.9 MLN USD THIS YEAR

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. This year the RA state foreign debt will amount to 1,215.9 mln USD against 1,161.1 mln USD last year. The 2006 program of the RA monetary and credit policy envisages to attract about 107.5 mln USD in 2006. The debt servicing payment will make 60.7 mln USD. According to the program, the net current value of the RA foreign debt will make 7,752 mln USD in the year under review. The concessional loans will make up 99% of the loans attracted.

Another Gang of Human Traffickers Sentenced

www.hetq.am
[January 30, 2006]

Armine (not her real name) from Hrazdan spent a year in Dubai as a sex slave in the control of the notorious pimp Anahit Malkhasyan, or Dbr Ano, who was wanted by Interpol. On October 3, 2005, Malkhasyan was killed in a car accident in Dubai under suspicious circumstances. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia closed the criminal case against her.

Armine has two children. Her husband left for Russia four years ago and has never returned or supported his family in any way since then. Armine moved back in with her parents, who were also in a difficult financial situation. Armine looked for a job in Hrazdan for a long time. Most of the people living here are unemployed; the town was built in Soviet times around several factories, which are now shut down. Finally, Armine was offered a high-paying job in Dubai by Gayane Mirzoyan. “Gayane Mirzoyan lived in our building. She told me and my friend over a cup of coffee that there was a high-paying job and asked if we would be interested. We both, Ruzan and I, were in a difficult situation and got excited. We didn't think about anything bad. She said, ‘You'll work either as bakers or as nannies.' So we agreed,” Armine told us in Dubai in February 2005. We tried many time to get Armine's passport from her boss, Anahit Malkhasyan, but without success.

The story of how Gayane Mirzoyan became a pimp is typical of the bosses exploiting Armenian women in Dubai and Turkey. Almost all of them used to work as prostitutes and then became bosses. Gayane Mirzoyan left for Dubai in 2001 to make money through prostitution. She worked under the supervision of Anahit Malkhasyan. A few months later the Dubai police arrested Anahit and deported her to Armenia. Anahit Malkhasyan suggested that Gayane, who was back in Yerevan, to recruit women and send to Dubai. Gayane began looking for women in need in her native town of Hrazdan. The jobs she offered were as a rule “working as waiters in various establishments or as baby-sitters.”

That was how she found Ruzan and Armine. Ruzan was divorced with three children.

At Drbo Ano's insistence, Gayane handed the women's passports over to Avetis Kiziryan. On March 17, 2004 Avetis transported the two women to Vardanants Odjakh a half-built hotel on Yerevan's David Bek Street (This hotel has been mentioned in two separate criminal cases instituted for trafficking in humans. According to our information, it is owned by the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, Khosrov Harutiunyan). The next day Avetis Kiziryan sent the women to Moscow. In Moscow, Vazrik Simonyan met them and saw them off to United Arab Emirates. The same year, Vazrik Simonyan was sentenced in Armenia for “assisting Armenian women organizing prostitution in the UAE.”

“We were met by Anahit at the Dubai airport. She took our passports on the spot saying that she should keep them and took us to an apartment where we saw other Armenian women. That's when we found out why we had been brought to Dubai. Anahit told us that she had spent $20,000 to bring us to Dubai and that we had either to pay her off or to engage in prostitution. I was beaten by an Arab man with a ponytail. His name was Ali; we Armenians called him Ponytail Ali. When you wound up in hands of Ali or his friends you were in trouble. They would do anything to you. And there was nothing you could do about it,” Armine recalled. It was under these conditions that Armine was subjected to sexual exploitation for a year in Dubai.

Some time after he sent Armine and Ruzan, Avetis Kiziryan also moved to Dubai. Known as Avo by the Armenian women in Dubai, he lived in Anahit Malkhasyan's apartment, as her lover and bodyguard. She never left the apartment without him.

In August 2005 Armine was arrested by the Dubai police and deported to Armenia.

On September 9, 2005 Avetis Kiziryan was charged with human trafficking, in accordance with Article 132 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. He was arrested upon his return to Armenia. Kiziryan had three previous convictions for various crimes. The last time he was sentenced in October 2004 in accordance with Article 38 (Complicity) and Article 268 (Maintaining dens of prostitution or pimping) of the Criminal Code but was released soon afterwards under uncertain circumstances.

Gayane Mirzoyan was also charged with violating Article 132 and a search for her was instituted. She was found and arrested on October 12, 2005.

On January 12, 2006 the Court of First Instance of the Kotayk Marz, Judge Nelli Galstyan presiding, sentenced Gayane Mirzoyan and Avetis Kiziryan to 4 years and 6 months imprisonment each.

Edik Baghdasaryan