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  • Armenian police disperse protest

    Armenian police disperse protest

    The Age, Australia
    March 1 2008

    Armenian police on Saturday dispersed opposition protestors from the
    capital Yerevan's Freedom Square, sweeping away a tent camp after 11
    days of non-stop demonstrations against alleged vote rigging.

    Hundreds of riot police cleared the square by Yerevan's opera house of
    a hard core of some 1,500 protesters, who had been camping there ever
    since the February 19 presidential election in which Prime Minister
    Serzh Sarkisian defeated opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian.

    Police refused to comment on the fate of the protesters and chased
    media away from the square as army trucks arrived to take away the
    makeshift tent camp.

    According to Ter-Petrosian's headquarters, the opposition leader
    narrowly evaded arrest when police and anti-riot units swarmed through
    and surrounded the square.

    Ter-Petrosian, a former president of this mountainous ex-Soviet
    republic, vowed defiance.

    "Today at 3:00 pm (1100 GMT) we will try to continue our peaceful
    protest action," he said in a statement.

    Police could be seen beating some protestors and appeared to haul
    away others, although there was no immediate information about the
    number of arrests. Several dozen people could be seen hurling abuse
    at the officers.

    Ter-Petrosian ran on an anti-corruption platform and alleges massive
    vote fraud in the election.

    Earlier this week he had described the protests, which attracted tens
    of thousands of people at their peak, as "a pure, classic bourgeois
    democratic revolution."

    The Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
    in Europe (OSCE) have called for restraint. OSCE observers said
    earlier that the election "mostly" met international standards.

    However, the opposition claimed major fraud in the poll count and
    accused Sarkisian of using state resources to promote his candidacy,
    while activists campaigning for Ter-Petrosian across the country were
    beaten up.

    Though both the round-the-clock tent camp and massive daytime rallies
    remained peaceful, the authorities had been warning that their patience
    was wearing thin.

    Earlier President Robert Kocharian, who backed Sarkisian in the
    election, described the protests as an attempt at an illegal power grab
    and promised the government's response would be "decisive and firm."

    Sarkisian has tried to reach out to opponents and on Friday signed a
    coalition deal with the third-placed candidate, Artur Baghdasarian,
    who heads the Rule of Law Party, which drew instant angry criticism
    from the protesters.

    Sarkisian also said that a deal could soon be made with another
    opposition leader, Vahan Hovannisian, who heads the nationalist
    party Dashnaktsutiun.
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