44 LAW-ENFORCEMENT EQUIPMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
type cartridge with their plastic guiding caps were removed from Gor Kloyan’s,
Armen Farmanayan’s corpses and a gas grenade of ‘Cheremukha-7’ type cartridgefrom Tigran Khachatryan’s corpse. Meanwhile, it was already revealed that on 1
March 2008 4 non-commissioned officers of the Police Troops of the Republic of
Armenia used ‘KS-23’ type carbines—considered as firearms for special purposes—
in Mashtots, Gr. Lusavorich, Leo and Paronyan Streets of Yerevan city. The expert
examination carried out at ‘Special Equipment and Communication’ Research and
Production Association State Institution of the Ministry of Interior of the Russian
Federation revealed that the use of ‘Cheremukha-7’ type cartridges in an open space
is not prohibited but firing it directly at a human being is prohibited.113
Following these incidents, prosecution proceedings were launched against
four police officers for misusing riot-control equipment. The head of a special
parliamentary committee investigation into the police response to the protests
called for the criminal prosecution of the police officers involved. According
to media reports, he also cited the fact that the Russian manufacturer of the
Cheremukha-7 system had clearly stated that it should not be fired at pointblank range.114
Subsequently, a number of programmes appear to have been implemented to
more clearly define what law-enforcement equipment may be used and the
scenarios where such deployments may be authorized. The USA promised to
help to train relevant Armenian security personnel in crowd-control
management and Armenian soldiers deployed to Kosovo have received
training in dealing with crowd-control situations.115 In 2011 the OSCE
published two guidebooks on police conduct, the use of force and negotiation
techniques as part of the ongoing police-reform programme in Armenia. The
scenarios where such equipment can be used are shown in box 6.1.116
The regulations state that stun guns or spark arrestors may be used in a
number of scenarios, mainly during arrest or during public-order situations. As
previously stated, the utility of electric-shock devices in public-order
situations is highly questionable. The use of devices whose primary purpose is
in the application of direct contact electric-shocks should be prohibited in any
law-enforcement or corrections situation. Projectile electric-shock devices
employing a neuromuscular incapacitation capability should only be deployed
by specially trained officers. While it is unclear what types of electric-shock
device are currently deployed by Armenian law-enforcement personnel,
publicly available images appear to show Russian-manufactured stun batons,
as well as a projectile-firing attachment, being displayed as part of a
113
UN Human Rights Committee (note 111). It should be noted that the Armenian Government also
claimed that demonstrators and police both used the KS-23 system as well as ‘ball grenades’.
114 Asbarez.com (2009), Armenian Police ‘Mishandled March 2008 Rally’, 23 Jan. 2009,
<http://asbarez.com/59990/armenian-police-mishandled-march-2008-rally/>.
115 Barber, C. (2014), Multinational Soldiers Train for Aerial Rapid Response in Kosovo, US Army,
12 Mar. 2014, <http://www.army.mil/article/121864/Multinational_soldiers_train_for_aerial_rapid_
response_in_Kosovo/>.
116 Armenian Police (note 100).
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