Armenian Police Defend Use Of Force
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
March 1 2008

The Armenian police defended on Saturday the forcible break-up of the
eleven-day peaceful opposition demonstration in Yerevan, portraying
the use of force as a preemptive action against "mass riots" allegedly
planned by opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian.

A spokesman for the national Police Service, Sayat Shirinian,
said Ter-Petrosian and his associates distributed on Friday "large
quantities" of metal bars, firearms and even hand grenades to the
protesters camped in the city’s Liberty Square. "There was information
that they planned to take provocative actions and provoke mass riots
in the capital on March 1," he said at a news conference.

Shirinian claimed that the protesters ignored police warnings to
vacate the square and themselves attacked hundreds of riot police,
interior troops and other security forces that were sent there early
in the morning.

Ter-Petrosian and some eyewitnesses asserted, however, that the
security forces did not issue any warnings before charging towards the
crowd at about 7 o’clock in the morning. The former Armenian president,
who was in the square throughout the melee, to leave said he urged
the crowd to stay calm and not resort to violence moments before they
were indiscriminately hit by truncheons and electric-shock equipment.

Both the police and senior government officials had repeatedly warned
that the non-stop protest was not sanctioned by municipal authorities
and can therefore broken up at any moment. However, the United States
urged the authorities in Yerevan on Thursday not to use force.

Shirinian said that the police arrested "more than a dozen" opposition
activists and are now hunting for other "participants and organizers
of the disorder." He also said several law-enforcement officials were
injured during the police operation but could not give any numbers.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress