On November 2 a working debate on the theme “The Activities Carried out by the Law Enforcement Bodies in the Sphere of Struggle Against Crime and the Estimation of the Situation of That Sphere took place at the Standing Committee on Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs. The MPs, high-ranking authorities of the Police, National Security Service, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the representatives of the law enforcement organizations participated in that debate.

Mr. Aramays Grigoryan, head of the Committee, noted that according to the proposal of the ARF faction the Committee launched an enlarged working debate, aiming to inform the Parliament about the activities implementing by the law enforcement bodies in the sphere of the struggle against crime and the situation of that sphere. According to him all the other issues, which will stimulate to make the struggle against the crime more effective and operative.

The main speaker Ararat Mahtesyan, Deputy Chief of the Police of Armenia, noted that recently some political figures and means of mass media often use terms criminal and criminalization, connecting them with the present situation of Armenia. The index registered in our country during 9 months of 2006 is 7529 criminal cases; it means that it has grown becoming sound with the index of 2004. As to the level of the crime it is calculated according to the quantity of the crimes, which fall to 100000 resident of the present country: for 9 months of the current year it is about 6 times less than the average index of the CIS countries, and at the same time it is less than 9 times in the Russian Federation, 6,6 times - than in Belаrus, 4,4 times - than in Georgia, it is less than 3 times than in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, 2,6 times - than in Moldova, etc. Mr. Mahtesyan noted that our republic always advantageously differed at crime level from the former republics of the USSR as well as from present CIS almost all countries. The differences of crime levels are especially striking in comparison with a number of the European countries, especially we have lower result in comparison with Finland - 55 times, with Latvia - almost 9 times, with Bulgaria - 6,5 times, with Romania - 4,7 times.

The quantity of murders and attempts of murder fluctuated from 127 up to 79 in 2000-2005, 74 cases were registered during 9 months of 2006. Almost the same picture is also in the case with robberies. If6800 thefts were committed in average in the republic in 1991-1993 then about 2700 cases were registered in 1994-2005. The index, registered in 2005 is the lowest for last 10 years. Similar tendencies were registered in robbery. The indices of the crime disclosure were also high: it fluctuated within the limits of 83-85 % during the last 9 years, which is considered one of the highest indices in the CIS member-states. Mr. Mahtesyan noted that the above-mentioned indices allow insisting that the criminogenic situation in Armenia is stable and is controlled. The independent experts as well as the foreign visitors and tourists, who arrive in the republic, share this opinion.

Mr. Vahan Hovhannisyan, Vice President of the National Assembly, noted that in the country where the law enforcement bodies are not capable to work effectively, everything done by the government seems in vain, because how many social programs are carried out, people should not be defenseless, and the other security systems are not so visible for them. According to him, it is obvious that the opportunities of the police are insufficient for ensuring this efficiency, as there are personnel losses: today not the best youth goes to work in police. Successful lawyers try to find work in private sector, as the salary is much higher. As Mr. Hovhannisyan ensured, it is not enough to listen only to the report of the police, as the police is only a circle of that chain. The institutions realizing preventive measures, the Prosecutor’s Office, the court, rehabilitation system, which are also in half-dead situation are parts of this chain. As he said, giving evidence is considered unworthy business, and people do not give evidence not to earn labels. The laws of the zone start to dominate in army, at school. In this situation either public organizations should manage to break this wall in the sense of educating the society or will be deviated to the field of political speculations. He is convinced that the cooperation is necessary for rooting the habit to respect the right in the society. Today the public atmosphere is extremely negative, and everyone is guilty for it.

Mr. Gagik Kostandyan, member of the Committee, considered necessary the adoption of the law on Operative Investigation for making effective the work of the police. Mr. Gagik Kostandyan also considers necessary the increase of the policemen’s salary and noted that together with Mr. Aramayis Grigoryan they will include this issue into the agenda. Mr. Gagik Kostandyan expressed hope that the situation of criminal executive establishments of the police will be also regulated after the replacement of its head.

Mr. Hrayr Karapetyan, head of ARF faction, speaking about the anti criminal movement, expressed an opinion that it is not a movement: the movements should not begin before elections and end after them. As MP is convinced, the law enforcement bodies as well as the MPs, journalists and NGOs have a lot of things to do in the formation of the public atmosphere.

At the end of the debate Mr. Mahtesyan emphasized the importance of such debates, noting that a number of positive changes are envisaged by the forthcoming legal reforms, which will assist the law enforcement bodies to struggle more effectively against the criminality.

Summarizing the debates Mr. Aramayis Grigoryan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs, noted that they are not going to limit their works within the working debates and after analyzing the results of the debates and taking effective steps the enlarged debates will be organized where the representatives of the state and judicial bodies as well as the representatives of the NGOs, who have a relation to this sphere, will be invited.