NO SIGN OF NEGOTIATIONS IN ARMENIA STANDOFF: OSCE
By James Kilner
Reuters
March 3 2008
UK
YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenia’s main opposition group and the government
are unlikely to start negotiations soon to end a standoff which
triggered rioting that killed eight people, a European envoy said on
Monday after he met both parties.
Soldiers patrolled Yerevan’s streets after President Robert Kocharyan
imposed emergency laws on Saturday following clashes between police and
protesters — the worst civil violence in Armenia since independence
from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The protesters accuse Kocharyan’s ally and Prime Minister Serzh
Sarksyan of rigging a presidential election last month. Opposition
leader and former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan blamed police brutality
for the violence.
"In all likeliness this kind of dialogue between Ter-Petrosyan and
the government at the moment is not possible," Heikki Talvitie,
a special envoy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE), told reporters after being asked if the two sides
would start negotiations.
"But let’s not exclude it from the future," he added.
Armenia is a country of around 3.2 million people on the edge of
A U.S. State Department spokesman said Washington was sending
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza to help "facilitate
discussions" between the government and opposition. But he stressed
Bryza would not carry out "formal mediation".
"This is a situation where we need to see both the parties work with
one another, engage in dialogue, not violence," the spokesman said.
EMERGENCY LAWS
Ter-Petrosyan has told his supporters not to rally during the 20-day
emergency laws which ban meetings but he has also said he is prepared
to continue the protests afterwards.
"He’s very determined, very charismatic," a Western diplomat said.
"He’ll find it difficult to step back from this now."
Kocharyan and Sarksyan have presided over a period of economic growth,
but detractors accuse their government of corruption and nepotism.
Ter-Petrosyan was Armenia’s first president after it broke away from
the Soviet Union, and although street demonstrations forced him to
resign in 1998 he is still loved by many who want an alternative to
the current government.
Witnesses saw police fire tracer rounds above the heads of protesters
and lob tear gas into the crowd on Saturday. Protesters armed with
metal bars and petrol bombs torched cars and looted shops.
The emergency laws ban public meetings and restrict media reporting.
Armoured personnel carriers were still guarding the main square on
Monday, but traffic has returned to the streets and shops were open.
"It was very bad on Saturday," Sahak, a 25-year-old unemployed man,
said as he watched workers hammer together a broken metal shelf in
a looted supermarket.
"But we now really hope that is all over."
Sarksyan officially won 53 percent of the vote and Ter-Petrosyan
won 21.5 percent, in an election the OSCE described as flawed but
sufficient for Armenia to fulfil its international obligations.
Diplomats expect a harsher follow-up report from the OSCE this week.
(Additional reporting by Margarita Antidze and Hasmik Lazarian;
editing by Andrew Roche)