TROOPS PATROL TENSE ARMENIAN CAPITAL
By Avet Demourian
Associated Press Online
March 2, 2008 Sunday 9:49 PM GMT
Hundreds of troops flooded Armenia’s capital Sunday to enforce a
state of emergency after clashes between opposition activists and
government forces left eight people dead and more than 100 injured.
The bloodshed over the results of last month’s presidential election is
the worst political crisis to hit this volatile former Soviet republic
in nearly a decade. A European envoy rushed to Armenia to mediate
the conflict, while the U.S. urged both sides to exercise restraint.
President Robert Kocharian declared the 20-day state of emergency
Saturday night following a day of violence between police and
demonstrators who claim the Feb. 19 election was fraudulently won by
Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian.
Police fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse thousands of
demonstrators Saturday after using clubs earlier in the day to break
up a tent camp where hundreds of protesters had stayed for more than
a week.
Seven civilians and one officer were killed and at least 131 protesters
and troops were wounded, officials said.
Authorities accused some protesters of shooting at police. Health
Ministry spokeswoman Russian Gevorkian said 16 troops had suffered
bullet wounds, the Interfax news agency reported. The opposition
denied using weapons.
The demonstrators support opposition candidate and former president
Levon Ter-Petrosian, who finished a distant second to Sarkisian in
the election’s official results.
Ter-Petrosian was being prevented from leaving his residence by
government forces, though no charges had been filed against him, He
called on his supporters to go home and refrain from further protests
while the emergency order is in place. He vowed to continue efforts
to force a new election once it is lifted and has appealed to the
nation’s Constitutional Court to overturn the results.
"We shall not retreat. Acting within the law, within the framework of
the constitution, we shall struggle to the end, until the removal of
this hateful and criminal regime, this bandit and kleptocratic regime,"
Ter-Petrosian told reporters in his house in central Yerevan.
Hundreds of soldiers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault
rifles patrolled streets littered with burned cars, broken shop
windows and looted kiosks.
Several major streets were closed. Troops were warning residents by
loudspeaker not to gather in groups.
Police said the protesters were plotting a violent coup. Opposition
spokesman Arman Musinian, however, claimed the grenades and pistols
later shown on Armenia’s state television stacked carefully in the
bushes surrounding the tent camp had been planted.
Some 15,000 protesters regrouped later in the day, only to be broken
up again by police. Groups of angry demonstrators then marched around
town, looting shops and setting cars ablaze.
At least 55 people were detained during the day’s unrest, said Sona
Truzian, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor general’s office. Fifteen
were later formally arrested. Ter-Petrosian said all those arrested
were his close allies.
The bloodshed raised concerns about stability in this country,
which borders Iran and lies on a transit route from the energy-rich
Caspian Sea region to Western consumers. Europe’s leading security
organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
was sending an envoy to Armenia to mediate the crisis.
The European Union said its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana,
spoke by phone with Kocharian and asked his special representative
to go to Yerevan and meet with all parties.
The State Department said a top official for the region, Daniel Fried,
spoke with Sarkisian. The U.S. is calling on both sides to restore
order, show restraint and resume a political dialogue.
The opposition says Sarkisian stole the election by resorting to
vote-buying, ballot stuffing and pressuring media to skew coverage
in his favor. Several opposition members said they were beaten on
election day to prevent them from monitoring the vote. The government
denies any wrongdoing.
International election observers issued an overall positive assessment
of the election, but noted serious flaws, especially during the
vote count.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, had been
due to fly to Armenia Sunday to meet religious leaders but postponed
his visit because of the crisis, the Vatican said in a statement. He
will visit Azerbaijan later this week as planned.
AP reporter Maria Danilova in Moscow and Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki,
Finland, contributed to this report.