Armenian protesters defy ban with rally to mark anniversary of killings
Opposition members died as they demonstrated against allegedly rigged
elections

Duncan Campbell
guardian.co.uk,
Friday 27 February 2009 14.08 GMT

A year after 10 people were killed in an anti-government protest in
Armenia, members of the opposition are due to defy a ban and take to
the streets of the capital, Yerevan, on Sunday.

The protest comes as seven men, including a former foreign minister,
are on trial for "usurping state power" in connection with last year’s
protest.

The Armenian National Congress (ANC), which consists of 18 parties and
a number of civic groups under the leadership of former president Levon
Ter-Petrossian, plans to hold a rally and march despite the
government’s prohibition of such protests in the former Soviet republic.

An ANC spokesperson said the event was designed to mark the first
anniversary of the demonstration during which police opened fire and
eight demonstrators, a police officer and an army cadet were killed.
The protest had been going for 10 days, expressing anger about the
allegedly rigged elections that brought the current government to power.

"In violation of the Armenian constitution, the authorities have
illegally banned both the rally and the march," said the spokesperson
for the ANC, the country’s major opposition grouping. "The ANC intends
to hold the rally and the march, in accordance with the law,
notwithstanding the government’s unconstitutional prohibition."

The march will also be in protest against a series of trials of
demonstrators resulting from last year’s events ` 58 people are in jail
as a result of the protests.

In the main trial after the protests, Alexander Arzoumanian, the former
foreign minister, and six others are in court in Yerevan charged with
usurping state power and organising a mass uprising, offences that
carry lengthy sentences.

John Prescott, the former British deputy prime minister, and Georges
Colombier, who are co-rapporteurs on Armenia for the parliamentary
assembly of the Council of Europe, have expressed concern about the
refusal of the authorities to allow the rally.

Human Rights Watch this week criticised the Armenian government over
the trials resulting from last year’s protests. "The Armenian
authorities’ response to the March 1 events has been one-sided," it
said in a report.