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Armenian Prosecutor 'Alarmed' By Human Trafficking

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  • Armenian Prosecutor 'Alarmed' By Human Trafficking

    ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR 'ALARMED' BY HUMAN TRAFFICKING
    By Karine Kalantarian and Anna Saghabalian

    Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
    June 7 2006

    A senior prosecutor dealing with human trafficking admitted on
    Wednesday that transport of Armenian women for sexual exploitation
    abroad has reached "alarming" proportions but denied that Armenian
    law-enforcement authorities are too lenient towards traffickers.

    Armen Boshnaghian, a member of an anti-trafficking task force at
    the Armenian Prosecutor-General's Office, said prostitution rings
    operating in the country are making "large-scale criminal revenues."

    "I would say that the phenomenon is an alarming reality in Armenia,"
    he told RFE/RL. "Some steps have been taken to counter it. They are
    only the first steps. They are just the beginning of a very long and
    difficult road."

    In an annual global report on the problem released on Monday, the
    U.S. State Department said Armenia remains a "major source and, to a
    lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls
    trafficked for sexual exploitation." The department placed Armenia
    on its human trafficking "watch list" for a second consecutive year,
    saying that Yerevan's stated crackdown on the practice has made
    little progress.

    The U.S. report also said that despite a reported increase in the
    number of trafficking-related criminal cases opened by Armenian
    prosecutors only a handful of individuals were imprisoned on relevant
    charges last year. "While the government increased implementation of
    its anti-trafficking law, it failed to impose significant penalties
    for convicted traffickers," it said.

    Boshnaghian disagreed, insisting that in fact 15 persons convicted of
    involvement in trafficking were handed jail sentences in 2005. He did
    acknowledge that Armenian courts are not tough enough on traffickers,
    but said Armenia's "lenient" Criminal Code is primarily to blame
    for that.

    The prosecutor also dismissed U.S. claims that the Armenian authorities
    are reluctant to punish law-enforcement officials allegedly cooperating
    with prostitution networks that recruit and send young women abroad,
    mainly to the United Arab Emirates. He argued that an Armenian police
    officer was fired and prosecuted on related charges last year.

    The State Department report noted that another member of the Armenian
    anti-trafficking unit, Aristakes Yeremian, was implicated by an
    investigative journalist in extorting bribes from Armenian pimps and
    prostitutes in Dubai. The Prosecutor-General's Office said earlier this
    year that it has investigated the allegations and found them baseless.

    John Miller, a senior State Department official in charge of tracking
    the problem around the world, insisted on Wednesday that there is a
    public perception in Armenia that corruption among law-enforcement
    officials seriously hampers the fight against human trafficking. "The
    lack of public trust [in law-enforcement bodies] is a serious obstacle
    to progress in this area," Miller told Armenian journalists in a
    video conference from Washington.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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