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OSCE raps police action at Armenia opposition rally

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  • OSCE raps police action at Armenia opposition rally

    OSCE raps police action at Armenia opposition rally
    By Hasmik Lazarian

    Reuters, UK
    March 1 2008

    Sat Mar 1, 2008 1:17pm EST

    YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's opposition called on its supporters to
    hold a new protest on Saturday, hours after baton-wielding police
    broke up its 10-day sit-in, drawing a rebuke from Europe's main
    democracy and security watchdog.

    Several thousand opposition supporters had protested daily in Yerevan's
    Freedom Square since Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan was elected to
    replace his ally Robert Kocharyan as president in a February 19 vote,
    seen as rigged by the opposition.

    Riot police moved into the square early on Saturday after authorities
    warned they were losing patience with the protests led by Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia's first president after independence from the
    Soviet Union who ran against Sarksyan.

    Several hours later, hundreds of opposition supporters were pouring
    into a diplomatic area off the city centre fallowing a call from
    Ter-Petrosyan's headquarters to hold a peaceful rally.

    The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it
    "condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators".

    "I urge the authorities to use maximum restraint," OSCE
    Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, said in
    a statement.

    "I am troubled that there are reports of casualties. I urge the
    authorities to release those detained, and I again call on the
    government and the opposition to engage in dialogue."

    Police said they moved in after receiving information a coup was
    being prepared. In a statement, they said they had seized pistols
    and grenades.

    One of Ter-Petrosyan's top allies dismissed this. "This information
    totally contradicts the reality," Stepan Demirchayn, leader of the
    opposition People's Party, told Reuters. "We use only peaceful means,
    and Ter-Petrosyan has reiterated this."

    A Reuters correspondent saw two police cars with smashed windows and
    flat tires near the venue of the planned rally.

    The protests had risked destabilizing Armenia, an ex-Soviet republic
    of 3.22 million people in the Caucasus mountains that is now emerging
    as a key transit route for oil and gas supplies from the Caspian Sea
    to world markets.

    Disputed presidential elections sparked mass unrest in two other
    former Soviet republics, Georgia and Ukraine, that ultimately toppled
    two long-serving leaders.

    "Permission or no permission (from the authorities), we will all
    the same press ahead with protests, because rallies and marches can
    only be banned when there is a state of emergency," Ter-Petrosyan
    told reporters.

    "I am deeply convinced that even if Sarksyan stays on, he won't be
    a legitimate president," he said. "I have no doubt the people won't
    tolerate this."

    Police said they moved in after being told that opposition protesters
    had been waiting to receive "large amounts of firearms, grenades,
    metal rods and truncheons."

    Police said they had used force after protesters started throwing
    stones and metal rods at them.

    "Calls for a violent coup were heard," the statement said. "The
    situation in the capital is fully under control."

    Armenia's Health Ministry said 31 people, including six police
    officers, had been admitted to hospital after the clashes, Russian
    news agency reported.

    Landlocked Armenia is still officially at war with neighboring
    Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Oil and gas
    pipelines operated by a BP-led consortium run through Azeri territory
    a few km (miles) from the conflict zone.

    Ter-Petrosyan launched the protests after alleging Sarksyan had used
    ballot-stuffing and intimidation to steal victory. Western observers
    called the vote broadly fair.

    (Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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