FOUR PEOPLE SET THEMSELVES ON FIRE IN ARMENIA TO PROTEST LAW ENFORCERS’ INACTION

Associated Press Worldstream
December 7, 2006 Thursday

Three teenagers and their grandmother set themselves on fire in
the Armenian capital Thursday to protest what they said was law
enforcement agencies’ inaction in investigating a relative’s death,
a family member said. Two of them were injured.

The protesters poured gasoline on themselves and set themselves on
fire in front of the president’s office in Yerevan, the teenagers’
great uncle Surian Avdalian told The Associated Press.

The elderly woman and her 14-year-old grandson were wounded and
hospitalized with burns, Avdalian said. The other two grandsons
were unharmed.

The four were members of the small Yazidi community, who were
protesting what they called official inaction in last month’s
beating death of the children’s father, which they said was not
being investigated, Avdalian said. They argued that the case was not
being probed because of discrimination against the Yazidi, a Kurdish
ethnic group.

Officials would not comment on the incident.

About 50,000 Yazidi live in Armenia.