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Armenian Police Defend Use Of Force

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  • Armenian Police Defend Use Of Force

    Armenian Police Defend Use Of Force
    By Astghik Bedevian

    Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
    March 1 2008

    The Armenian police defended on Saturday the forcible break-up of the
    eleven-day peaceful opposition demonstration in Yerevan, portraying
    the use of force as a preemptive action against "mass riots" allegedly
    planned by opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian.

    A spokesman for the national Police Service, Sayat Shirinian,
    said Ter-Petrosian and his associates distributed on Friday "large
    quantities" of metal bars, firearms and even hand grenades to the
    protesters camped in the city's Liberty Square. "There was information
    that they planned to take provocative actions and provoke mass riots
    in the capital on March 1," he said at a news conference.

    Shirinian claimed that the protesters ignored police warnings to
    vacate the square and themselves attacked hundreds of riot police,
    interior troops and other security forces that were sent there early
    in the morning.

    Ter-Petrosian and some eyewitnesses asserted, however, that the
    security forces did not issue any warnings before charging towards the
    crowd at about 7 o'clock in the morning. The former Armenian president,
    who was in the square throughout the melee, to leave said he urged
    the crowd to stay calm and not resort to violence moments before they
    were indiscriminately hit by truncheons and electric-shock equipment.

    Both the police and senior government officials had repeatedly warned
    that the non-stop protest was not sanctioned by municipal authorities
    and can therefore broken up at any moment. However, the United States
    urged the authorities in Yerevan on Thursday not to use force.

    Shirinian said that the police arrested "more than a dozen" opposition
    activists and are now hunting for other "participants and organizers
    of the disorder." He also said several law-enforcement officials were
    injured during the police operation but could not give any numbers.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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