Chief of Police of Armenia: Policemen did not plan to disperse the
rally at Liberty Square and had no arms as the authorities had told
them not to apply force

2008-03-07 20:18:00

ArmInfo. Today the chief of the police of Armenia, Gen. Hayk
Harutiunyan met with Chairman of the PACE Ad Hoc Committee on
Monitoring Presidential Election in Armenia John Prescott.

The PR Department of the Police reports Harutiunyan to tell Prescott
about the Mar 1-2 events in Yerevan.

He said that the police did their best to avoid undesirable outcome.
Throughout the pre-election period Levon Ter-Petrossyan carried out
aggressive propaganda. It was the key cause of the Mar 1 disorders.
The police did not plan to disperse the rally. They just tried to check
up the information that there were lots of weapons in the square. They
tried to search "the camp" of the protesters but the latter attacked
them. The policemen had no arms as the authorities had told them not to
apply force.

For his part, John Prescott thanked Hayk Harutyunyan for the detailed
report on the events and expressed his condolence over a police
officer’s death on March 1, adding that he and his delegation are aware
of his feat. Prescott stressed that the PACE mission confirmed the
report on the presidential election. He expressed pity that some
political forces quote those places of the report which they find
beneficial to quote. He also pointed out the significance of the
Constitutional Court’s decision on the presidential election and
expressed hope that the authorities will do their best to remove the
atmosphere of mistrust.