BRYZA: SUSPENSION OF U.S. ASSISTANCE MAT BE RECONSIDERED

What I thought the Secretary Rice said is that we are looking into suspending or beginning to implement limitations to some of our programs, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza said when commenting on Dr Rice's March 12 statement. "One thing that you saw was that letter that came from Millennium Challenge Corporation CEO, Ambassador John Danilovich that talked about the need to reconsider the MCC program in the current circumstances. We were also in the process of possibly limiting certain other flows of assistance money if the state of emergency was not lifted and if the freedoms in Armenia were not restored. But it sounds as perhaps those positive steps have been taken in terms of the lifting of the state of emergency and since the positive steps have been taken then there is no need for us to take negative steps on our side." "I hope very much that lifting of the state of emergency moves tensions in Armenia to a new phase, in which freedoms and democratic momentum in Armenia are restored and we get back on track with all of the items on our important agenda," he said. "The MCC has a broad scope to determine eligibility for aid. It aims to provide assistance in response to performance and reform. If the impression in Washington is that a country has wandered far away from democratic reforms, then by definition there needs to be some ratcheting back of the MCC program… I would rather not get into a speculative discussion about what might be too much, because I hope we have moved out of that whole set of problems. It seems that perhaps right now we are seeing the restoration of all the freedoms and now that question of suspending assistance could become moot, I hope. But it all depends on how fully the freedoms are restored," Mr Bryza said in an interview with The Armenian Reporter. The state of emergency imposed in Yerevan on March 1 was lifted on March 20.

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