From Armenia in brief: March 1 special commission asks for extension to present report

Published: Saturday October 18, 2008

Yerevan - The special parliamentary commission set up to investigate the bloody events of March 1 has asked parliament to extend its deadline beyond October 25. According to various media outlets, secretary of the ARF faction and member of the commission Artashes Shahbazian at a press conference said that the commission requires more time to present its findings to parliament. He said that a separate fact finding group must be created which would require more time to present the facts to the commission.

The fact-finding mission, according to Mr. Shahbazian, will be made up of one representative from the parliamentary coalition and one representative from the opposition, Heritage Party faction, one representative from the nonparliamentary opposition, and the human rights ombudsperson.

The ARF member said that the fact-finding mission, which will have complete access to all the information from the investigation process and will also be able to independently collect the necessary data, will make an important contribution to the final report of the commission.