TENTH ARMENIAN DIES AFTER VIOLENT RIOTS IN MARCH

Reuters
April 14 2008
UK

YEREVAN, April 14 (Reuters) – A tenth person has died of wounds
sustained when protesters clashed with police in the Armenian capital
last month, a health ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.

The 29-year-old man’s death on Friday brings to eight the number of
protesters killed in street battles on March 1 between demonstrators
armed with iron bars and stones and police wielding batons and firing
rubber bullets.

Two members of security forces also died. The health ministry
spokeswoman said the protester had died from wounds to his back or
neck from a heavy object.

She said 265 people were injured in the fighting and three more
protesters were still in a serious condition in hospital.

On Saturday the police said a member of the security forces had also
died on Friday from a gunshot wound to the neck sustained during the
March clashes.

Security forces accused demonstrators of carrying and using firearms.

The demonstrators, who accuse President Serzh Sarksyan of fixing a
Feb. 19 election, have denied this. (Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian;
Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Michael Winfrey)