Armenian police disperse protest
The Age, Australia
March 1 2008
Armenian police on Saturday dispersed opposition protestors from the
capital Yerevan’s Freedom Square, sweeping away a tent camp after 11
days of non-stop demonstrations against alleged vote rigging.
Hundreds of riot police cleared the square by Yerevan’s opera house of
a hard core of some 1,500 protesters, who had been camping there ever
since the February 19 presidential election in which Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian defeated opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian.
Police refused to comment on the fate of the protesters and chased
media away from the square as army trucks arrived to take away the
makeshift tent camp.
According to Ter-Petrosian’s headquarters, the opposition leader
narrowly evaded arrest when police and anti-riot units swarmed through
and surrounded the square.
Ter-Petrosian, a former president of this mountainous ex-Soviet
republic, vowed defiance.
"Today at 3:00 pm (1100 GMT) we will try to continue our peaceful
protest action," he said in a statement.
Police could be seen beating some protestors and appeared to haul
away others, although there was no immediate information about the
number of arrests. Several dozen people could be seen hurling abuse
at the officers.
Ter-Petrosian ran on an anti-corruption platform and alleges massive
vote fraud in the election.
Earlier this week he had described the protests, which attracted tens
of thousands of people at their peak, as "a pure, classic bourgeois
democratic revolution."
The Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) have called for restraint. OSCE observers said
earlier that the election "mostly" met international standards.
However, the opposition claimed major fraud in the poll count and
accused Sarkisian of using state resources to promote his candidacy,
while activists campaigning for Ter-Petrosian across the country were
beaten up.
Though both the round-the-clock tent camp and massive daytime rallies
remained peaceful, the authorities had been warning that their patience
was wearing thin.
Earlier President Robert Kocharian, who backed Sarkisian in the
election, described the protests as an attempt at an illegal power grab
and promised the government’s response would be "decisive and firm."
Sarkisian has tried to reach out to opponents and on Friday signed a
coalition deal with the third-placed candidate, Artur Baghdasarian,
who heads the Rule of Law Party, which drew instant angry criticism
from the protesters.
Sarkisian also said that a deal could soon be made with another
opposition leader, Vahan Hovannisian, who heads the nationalist
party Dashnaktsutiun.