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At Least Eight Killed In Armenian Post-Election Unrest

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  • At Least Eight Killed In Armenian Post-Election Unrest

    AT LEAST EIGHT KILLED IN ARMENIAN POST-ELECTION UNREST

    Radio Liberty
    March 2 2008
    Czech Republic

    At least eight people were killed and hundreds of others injured
    in the violent standoff between security forces and thousands of
    opposition protesters in Yerevan that ended early Sunday following
    a state of emergency declared by President Robert Kocharian.

    The Armenian police reported the death toll, citing information
    received from the Ministry of Health. A police statement issued early
    in the morning did not identify any of the victims, suggesting that
    all of them were protesters.

    Five of them were identified by Armenia's Office of the
    Prosecutor-General later in the day.

    The law-enforcement agency said it is investigating the circumstances
    of their deaths. It added that 33 police officers and interior
    troops were hospitalized from the scene of the opposition protest
    with various injuries. Health Minister Harutiun Kushkian put the
    total number of people treated in hospitals on Saturday at 230.

    The standoff ended at around 4 a.m. local time after the top
    opposition leader, Levon Ter-Petrosian, urged his supporters to go
    home, citing the state of emergency imposed by Kocharian. "I do not
    want any victims and clashes between police and innocent people. That
    is why I am asking you to leave," Ter-Petrosian said in a message read
    out to more than 2,000 people that barricaded themselves outside the
    Yerevan mayor's office.

    According to Reuters news agency, most of the crowd headed away from
    the square but a group of around 60 people refused to go home and set
    fire to abandoned police vehicles. Some of them accused the former
    Armenian president of being a traitor. Gunshots in downtown Yerevan
    could be heard after that.

    "We will continue our political struggle for democracy and rule of
    law," Ter-Petrosian's election campaign office said in a separate
    statement. An official there said riot police did not attack the
    dispersing crowd or arrest any of the former president's associates
    who organized the rally on Saturday.

    The police statement did not report any high-profile arrests. But it
    said law-enforcement authorities are taking measures to identify and
    arrest organizers and participants of the "mass riots."

    The rally began spontaneously at Saturday noon after Ter-Petrosian
    was placed under de facto house arrest following the break-up of his
    supporters' non-stop sit-in Yerevan's Liberty Square. Thousands of
    people had been keeping overnight vigils there in protest against
    the official results of the February 19 presidential election that
    gave victory to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. Ter-Petrosian, who
    was Sarkisian's main challenger, rejects those results as fraudulent.

    The opposition leader appealed to his supporters in the early hours of
    the morning as Armenian army units backed by light tanks and armored
    personnel vehicles moved into the city center to help riot police
    disperse his supporters who occupied a major street junction outside
    the Yerevan municipality and the French Embassy in Armenia.

    The troops took positions near the area shortly after Kocharian
    declared emergency rule late Saturday. He pointed to violent clashes
    that broke out between the protesters and riot police on one of
    several streets leading to the site of the protest at approximately
    9:10 p.m. local time

    "They are using weapons and we are obliged to ensure the security
    of our citizens," Kocharian told a late-night news conference. He
    claimed that opposition supporters provoked the violence by firing
    gunshots and wounding eight police officers.

    An RFE/RL correspondent at the scene did not see any demonstrators
    carrying weapons and reported that security forces fired tracer bullets
    in the air for more than 40 minutes in an apparent bid to scare away
    more than 10,000 people barricaded there at that time. One eyewitness
    said he saw two protesters shot dead on the spot.

    Buoyed by their leaders, the demonstrators responded to the clatter
    of automatic gunfire with "Levon! Levon!" and "Victory! Victory!"

    chants. "Everyone must stay where they are," Nikol Pashinian, one of
    the opposition leaders, told them. "Don't move."

    "Dear people, they are simply trying to spread panic," said another
    speaker, Miasnik Malkhasian. "So please don't panic."

    As Pashinian and Malkhasian spoke, riot police charged towards the
    crowd but were repelled and forced to flee the scene by groups of
    men wielding metal bars and sticks and throwing stones. Several
    police vehicles were set on fire in the process. Some of the angry
    protesters went on to loot a nearby food supermarket and burned down
    cars parked nearby.

    Opposition leaders who organized the rally disavowed and condemned
    these actions, blaming them on government "provocateurs." "We have
    nothing to do with that," said Pashinian. "The authorities themselves
    are destabilizing the situation."

    In a separate address to the nation, Kocharian said the violence
    was the main reason why he decided to declare the 20-day state of
    emergency. The extraordinary move means that all rallies and other
    public gatherings will be banned in Yerevan until March 20. It also
    places serious restrictions on press freedom, with local media outlets
    allowed to report only official news communiques.

    There were conflicting reports about the number of opposition
    activists and other protesters arrested since Saturday morning. The
    Prosecutor-General's Office said 55 people were detained during the
    unrest, while police claimed to have arrested more than 40 participants
    of the looting overnight.

    But according to Human Rights Watch, the number of detainees may have
    exceeded 100 during the break-up of the Liberty Square sit-in alone.

    The New York-based watchdog condemned the Armenian authorities the
    use of "excessive force" against peaceful demonstrators.

    "The Armenian government should refrain from using violence and
    make clear that it won't tolerate excessive use of force by police,"
    Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch,
    said in a statement. "A political crisis doesn't give the government
    carte blanche in how it responds to demonstrators."

    Stepan Demirchian, a top opposition leader and Ter-Petrosian ally,
    the former president would have averted bloodshed had the authorities
    allowed him to leave his house and address the protesters. "Things
    would not have ended like that if Levon Ter-Petrosian had been allowed
    to join his people," he said. "The people would have calmed down."

    The authorities claimed on Saturday that Ter-Petrosian was never placed
    under house arrest, a measure which is not allowed by Armenian law.
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