US embassy cable - 04YEREVAN842

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000842 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN; DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, AM 
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST LEAVES HOSPITAL; ALLEGES 
GOVERNMENT ROLE IN BEATING 
 
REF: YEREVAN 765 
 
1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
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SUMMARY 
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2. (SBU) Prominent human rights activist Mikhail 
Danielyan discharged himself from the hospital April 4, 
and remains at home recovering from the March 30 
beating by unknown assailants.  Danielyan offered no 
new information regarding the attack, but told us he 
strongly feels that it was "government-ordered."  He 
hypothesizes that he was a "test-case" for the 
authorities to determine international response to 
their heavy-handed tactics against the opposition. 
President Kocharian has charged Procurator-General 
Aghvan Hovsepian with personally overseeing the 
investigation into the attack.  End Summary. 
 
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IMPROVED CONDITION 
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3. (SBU) We visited human rights activist Mikhail 
Danielyan at his home April 7.  Danielyan told us that 
he had discharged himself from the hospital April 4, 
choosing to convalesce at home rather than "suffer 
further" in the hospital.  He was lucid, and the 
injuries sustained to his face had largely healed. 
Danielyan said that doctors told him he did not have a 
concussion as initially thought, but he told us he 
still had "terrible headaches" and had trouble sleeping 
and concentrating. 
 
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CRITICISM OF INVESTIGATION'S PACE 
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4. (SBU) The day after the attack, President Kocharian 
publicly announced that Procurator-General (PG) Aghvan 
Hovsepian would personally head the investigation of 
the Danielyan beating.  An official in the PG's office 
told us April 8 that a full investigation had been 
launched, with local police interviewing witnesses. 
Danielyan told us that he had spoken with authorities 
only once since his initial statement to the police. 
Danielyan claims that his recent meeting with an 
official from the PG's office was merely a formality. 
He complained that he had not been examined by a 
medical official from the PG's office, as required by 
Armenian law  (Note:  The official in the PG's office 
told us that Danielyan had received written 
notification from the Forensic Department of the PG's 
office requesting the examination, but Danielyan had 
not responded.  End Note.) 
 
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"TEST-CASE" FOR AUTHORITIES? 
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5. (SBU) Danielyan maintained that he could not 
identify his assailants, but they were of the "gray, 
thuggish" variety.  Despite any direct evidence, 
Danielyan is sure that the authorities organized the 
attack.  He believes that the authorities were seeking 
to incapacitate him during the planned opposition 
campaign to unseat the government.  Danielyan alleges 
that his beating was a "test-case" to see if Western 
embassies would protest the government's heavy-handed 
tactics.  According to Danielyan, failure to do so 
emboldened the police and other security forces to take 
similar action against opposition supporters. 
 
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COMMENT: LACK OF EVIDENCE LEAVES ROOM FOR SPECULATION 
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6. (SBU) Danielyan is now convinced that his beating 
was in fact not directly related to the Echo newspaper 
article in which he made comments that could be 
considered pro-Azerbaijani (see reftel).  Certainly not 
one to ever shy away from broader conspiracy theories, 
Danielyan now maintains that the article provided a 
pretext for the assault that leaves him bedridden for 
the start of the opposition's campaign to unseat 
President Kocharian.  We tend to doubt this 
explanation; however, there is little evidence for any 
theory.  What is certain, however, is that Danielyan 
will be forced to take a much less active role in 
personally monitoring the demonstrations than he did 
last year, when he assisted numerous people detained 
during the opposition protests of the election results. 
He will need to rely on his staff at the Helsinki 
Association to follow through in his absence. 
ORDWAY