YEREVAN, OCTOBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia's justice system has problems, judges are not independent, in many cases investigation bodies take evidence obtained under duress as a basis for accusation. The CE Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg, who visited Armenia for examining the human rights situation in the country and submitting a report to the Council of Europe, expressed this preliminary opinion at the October 11 press conference. He said that from the viewpoint of speech freedom, there are two problems in Armenia: first, it is necessary to remove articles on insulting and defamation from the RA Criminal Code. The second problem is that the mass media outlets (especially state media) do not present opinions of all sides to the necessary extent. T. Hammarberg visited penitentiary institutions but refrained from speaking about his meetings with prisoners. He noted that he met with persons deprived of elementary living conditions: those who suffered as a result of the 1988 earthquake and refugees who came from Azerbaijan to Armenia 15 years ago. The problem of residents of Yerevan's Kentron urban development zone will also be included in his report. In response to the question about adoption of the resolution on the Armenian Genocide by US congressmen, the CE Commissioner for Human Rights said that it is important that the history not be forgotten, and the future generation know what happened in the past - this is a direction of developing the country and improving relations between nations.

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