Azerbaijan to bar opposition from holding rally ahead of pipeline inauguration

AP Worldstream
May 20, 2005

Azerbaijan’s chief prosecutor said Friday that opposition parties will
be barred from holding a rally days before a ceremony inaugurating
a major U.S.-backed oil pipeline, citing the need for order ahead of
an event expected to bring high-level foreign participants.

Prosecutor-General Zakir Garalov said the country’s three biggest
opposition parties will be forbidden from holding a protest rally
on Saturday, four days before the ceremony marking the opening of
Azerbaijan’s portion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

The pipeline is being built by a consortium headed by Britain’s BP
and is to carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets. The pipeline
opening ceremony, whose invitees include four foreign presidents,
is scheduled for Wednesday.

“Those who, on the eve of the celebration, think they can violate
social order, are mistaken,” Gafarov said, adding that the parties
will be allowed to hold protests only after the event. “The interests
of the state are more important than interests of individual political
parties,” he told reporters.

Azerbaijan’s main opposition parties, Musavat (Equality), the
People’s Front Party and the Democratic Party, requested the
necessary permission to hold a rally in central Baku on Saturday,
but were rebuffed by the mayor’s office, which also cited the pipeline
celebration.

Musavat leader Isa Gambar called the authorities’ decision “ridiculous”
and said the rally would take place. Opposition leaders plan to
call for free and fair elections and freedom of speech and to urge
authorities to investigate the death of an opposition journalist.

The three parties said in statements that nearly 30 of their activists
have been detained over the past two days on charges of administrative
violations, and some have been sentenced to between five and 15 days
in prison.

Tension between the government and the opposition in tightly
controlled, oil-rich Azerbaijan has increased since an October 2003
election in which Ilham Aliev replaced his now-dead father, longtime
leader Geidar Aliev, as president in a vote the opposition said was
marred by fraud.