WikiLeaks-Armenia No 78
2008-03-20
C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 000248
SUBJECT: DETAILS ON LTP’S DE FACTO HOUSE ARREST
Classified By: Charge d’Affaires Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4 (b,d).
¶1. (C) Poloff has been able — through weekly weekend hikes in the adjacent park — to keep an eye on the de facto house arrest of former President Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP). To our knowledge, LTP has only once been allowed out since March 1, and this was to address the Constitutional Court March 5. Police surrounding the building have dwindled, but not disappeared. On March 2, the security presence numbered some 30 security personnel, whom poloff witnessed diligently searching all vehicles entering and exiting the premises. By March 9, the number was cut in half, and uniformed police had replaced the National Security Service as the agency in charge. There was just one police car blocking the front access road, and a police van blocking the road at the back — near a small police encampment that had sprung up in the back woods. By March 16, the police vehicle at the back gate had been eliminated, replaced by large stone blocks barricading the back gate, arranged to stop the gate from opening as well as block any pedestrian attempt to slip through the large gap under the gate. The police roadblock remains at the front gate, as does the small encampment keeping watch at the back.
¶2. (C) Access to the park requires driving practically right up to the police roadblock in front of LTP’s gate. These police routinely respond initially with wariness at being approached on this lightly-trafficked road, but the sight of poloff’s two small children piling out of the car for an afternoon in the woods immediately eases their minds, with the officers offering smiles and sweets to the boys.
¶3. (C) Our own two visits to LTP inside his house since March 1 (with U.S. flag flying from the fender) have each resulted in several minutes’ wait in front of the police roadblock, as police radio superiors for permission to let us pass. This lends credibility to the LTP assertion that authorities not only do not let him leave, but also restrict who is allowed inside. Initially, only LTP, his family members, and his executive assistant (who has no real political role, but functions as a major domo), were reportedly let in, though other political allies have been admitted more recently. LTP’s political ally, former National Security Minister David Shahnazarian, has been consistently allowed inside as a family member; his daughter is married to LTP’s son, and that couple lives in LTP’s house, with their young children.
PENNINGTON
