OSCE raps police action at Armenia opposition rally
By Hasmik Lazarian
Reuters, UK
March 1 2008
Sat Mar 1, 2008 1:17pm EST
YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenia’s opposition called on its supporters to
hold a new protest on Saturday, hours after baton-wielding police
broke up its 10-day sit-in, drawing a rebuke from Europe’s main
democracy and security watchdog.
Several thousand opposition supporters had protested daily in Yerevan’s
Freedom Square since Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan was elected to
replace his ally Robert Kocharyan as president in a February 19 vote,
seen as rigged by the opposition.
Riot police moved into the square early on Saturday after authorities
warned they were losing patience with the protests led by Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s first president after independence from the
Soviet Union who ran against Sarksyan.
Several hours later, hundreds of opposition supporters were pouring
into a diplomatic area off the city centre fallowing a call from
Ter-Petrosyan’s headquarters to hold a peaceful rally.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it
"condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators".
"I urge the authorities to use maximum restraint," OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, said in
a statement.
"I am troubled that there are reports of casualties. I urge the
authorities to release those detained, and I again call on the
government and the opposition to engage in dialogue."
Police said they moved in after receiving information a coup was
being prepared. In a statement, they said they had seized pistols
and grenades.
One of Ter-Petrosyan’s top allies dismissed this. "This information
totally contradicts the reality," Stepan Demirchayn, leader of the
opposition People’s Party, told Reuters. "We use only peaceful means,
and Ter-Petrosyan has reiterated this."
A Reuters correspondent saw two police cars with smashed windows and
flat tires near the venue of the planned rally.
The protests had risked destabilizing Armenia, an ex-Soviet republic
of 3.22 million people in the Caucasus mountains that is now emerging
as a key transit route for oil and gas supplies from the Caspian Sea
to world markets.
Disputed presidential elections sparked mass unrest in two other
former Soviet republics, Georgia and Ukraine, that ultimately toppled
two long-serving leaders.
"Permission or no permission (from the authorities), we will all
the same press ahead with protests, because rallies and marches can
only be banned when there is a state of emergency," Ter-Petrosyan
told reporters.
"I am deeply convinced that even if Sarksyan stays on, he won’t be
a legitimate president," he said. "I have no doubt the people won’t
tolerate this."
Police said they moved in after being told that opposition protesters
had been waiting to receive "large amounts of firearms, grenades,
metal rods and truncheons."
Police said they had used force after protesters started throwing
stones and metal rods at them.
"Calls for a violent coup were heard," the statement said. "The
situation in the capital is fully under control."
Armenia’s Health Ministry said 31 people, including six police
officers, had been admitted to hospital after the clashes, Russian
news agency reported.
Landlocked Armenia is still officially at war with neighboring
Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Oil and gas
pipelines operated by a BP-led consortium run through Azeri territory
a few km (miles) from the conflict zone.
Ter-Petrosyan launched the protests after alleging Sarksyan had used
ballot-stuffing and intimidation to steal victory. Western observers
called the vote broadly fair.
(Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
