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  • Eight killed in Armenian protests

    Eight killed in Armenian protests

    http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breakin g/2008/0302/breaking28.htm
    March 2, 2008

    Eight people were killed and 33 police injured in Armenia's capital
    during overnight protests, which ended after the government declared
    a state of emergency and mobilized the army.

    The state of emergency, effective until March 20, followed the worst
    unrest in a decade, sparked by opposition protests against a February
    19th presidential election they said was rigged.

    Police fought pitched battles with opposition supporters who have
    held daily protests since Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan was elected
    president.

    The state of emergency bans protests and imposes censorship. Outgoing
    President Robert Kocharyan said he introduced the restrictions "to
    prevent a threat to constitutional order".

    He accused demonstrators of firing weapons and grenades and planning a
    coup d'etat. The opposition rejected this, saying police had attacked
    a peaceful protest.

    A police statement said the deaths were under investigation, adding:
    "We don't know if they were policemen or protesters."

    About 2,000 protesters stayed on in a square in the centre of Yerevan
    armed with metal rods and Molotov cocktails as army trucks headed
    towards the capital of the former Soviet republic, lying in a Caucasus
    mountains region emerging as a key transit route for Caspian Sea oil
    and gas supplies.

    But the crowd melted away after a message was read out from Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan, the protest leader and defeated challenger in the
    election, urging his supporters to go home.
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