 us extends freeze in armenia road funding the us millennium challenge corporation mcc has again refused to unblock some of its promised economic assistance to armenia indicating that the authorities in yerevan have still not addressed its concerns about the status of democratic governance in the country armenia was due to receive us 2365 million in additional us government assistance under the bush administration s millennium challenge account mca program designed to promote political and economic reforms around the world most of the sum was to be spent on rebuilding and expanding the country s irrigation networks another 67 million was set aside for reconstruction of about 1000 kilometers of rural roads last may the mcc which runs the aid scheme blocked the release of the first 75 million installment of the fiveyear aid package earmarked for road construction expressing serious concern about the armenian government s harsh postelection crackdown on the opposition mcc executives and other us officials have since repeatedly reiterated those concerns the move led the armenian government in july to allocate 17 million worth of its own funds to the planned road construction that got underway later in the summer a government statement on wednesday quoted ara hovsepian head of the mcc office in yerevan as saying that most of the sum has already been spent on roadworks in rural regions of the country hovsepian said he and armenian government officials expect the mcc s governing board to disburse about 7 million in the first quarter of next year but meeting in washington on thursday the mcc board again decided to keep the 75 million payment on hold the board reiterated its concerns about the status of democratic governance in the country and underlined its expectations that the government of armenia fulfill commitments to implement substantive reforms it said in a statement the board noted that it would again review armenia s performance and examine continued collaboration with the country during its march meeting according to us deputy assistant secretary of state matthew bryza washington remains seriously worried about the continuing imprisonment of dozens of opposition members arrested following the disputed presidential election of february 19 it should be clear to everyone for armenia s sake that there are no political prisoners bryza told rfe rl on thursday the accusation that armenia holds political prisoners shouldn t even surface all these cases should be resolved quickly and everyone ought to be released he said meanwhile a deputy chairman of president serzh sarkisian s republican party of armenia hhk expressed dismay at washington s refusal to resume mca funding to yerevan this decision was really unexpected razmik zohrabian told rfe rl on friday i hoped for a different decision but what can we do democratic developments are continuing and maybe they will allocate the sum in march zohrabian acknowledged some shortcomings in the development of democracy in armenia but said the sarkisian administration has made considerable progress in eliminating them but vahagn khachatrian an armenian opposition leader strongly disagreed there are still political prisoners serious problems with democracy and human rights and the mcc s stance is not accidental he said  