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Emergency Order Empties Armenian Capital's Streets

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  • Emergency Order Empties Armenian Capital's Streets

    EMERGENCY ORDER EMPTIES ARMENIAN CAPITAL'S STREETS
    By Sabrina Tavernise

    New York Times
    March 3 2008
    NY

    YEREVAN, Armenia - Tanks blocked central streets in the capital of
    this tiny mountain country on Sunday, a day after Armenian authorities
    clashed with demonstrators in a violent confrontation that left at
    least eight people dead and more than 130 wounded.

    The government imposed a state of emergency, and for the first
    time since a contested Feb. 19 presidential election, the streets
    and central squares of this ancient city were empty of the crowds
    of protesters.

    Any attempt at demonstrating "will immediately result in adequate and
    strict reaction by the armed forces," Gen. Seyran Ohanyan, Armenia's
    top military commander, said in a statement.

    Levon Ter-Petrossian, the opposition leader who has led the crowds,
    and whose failed candidacy was the reason for the protests, said that
    he would not encourage his supporters to defy the curfew, and that
    the government had won by closing down his only outlet to the public.

    "They're happy with themselves," said Mr. Ter-Petrossian, speaking
    to reporters in his 1930s mansion on the edge of Yerevan. "They got
    what they wanted."

    Lines of military police officers moved in on the demonstration
    late Saturday night, firing rubber balls and tear gas canisters,
    and shooting bullets into the air. It was not clear how many of the
    deaths were caused by bullet wounds.

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian blamed the Armenian government for what he described
    as a "slaughter." Seven civilians were killed and only one security
    officer, according to the Foreign Ministry. Of the 131 injuries,
    72 were police officers and 59 were civilians, Agence France-Presse
    reported, citing the Health Ministry.

    The casualties prompted statements of concern by the State Department,
    the European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for
    Human Rights.

    It was clear by early afternoon Saturday that after 10 days of peaceful
    protests, the demonstrators, who had been beaten by police officers
    in the morning, were spoiling for a fight. Men were yanking bricks
    out of sidewalks, barricading streets with city buses, and assembling
    gasoline bombs. By evening, a four-or-five-block area had become an
    encampment run by agitated young men wielding metal poles and bricks.

    Even before police officers moved in, a group of protesters set
    fire to a police jeep after it bumped into a woman, and when a fire
    truck arrived to put out the blaze, someone pitched a rock through
    its windshield.

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian accused the government of sneaking provocateurs into
    the crowd. "It's their people," he said. But he acknowledged that some
    of his supporters might have joined in. Looters who dragged cognac,
    cakes, fruit and even food scales from the Yerevan City grocery store
    on Saturday seemed to strongly support him.

    "I'm fighting for honesty," said a man in his 50s, holding a stolen
    beer in one hand and a lemon in the other. "Levon Ter-Petrossian is
    for the people."

    Fifteen people were arrested.

    The emergency decree dealt a particularly paralyzing blow to the
    opposition because local television stations, controlled by Prime
    Minister Serge Sargsyan and President Robert Kocharian, virtually
    ignored the daily rallies, which often drew tens of thousands of
    protesters. "Losing the square means losing the connection to the
    people," Mr. Ter-Petrossian said. "Now they have taken this away
    from us."

    According to the emergency decree, local news media are barred
    from disseminating information given by any source other than the
    government.

    CNN segments about Armenia were clipped from television programming,
    and many Web sites were closed. Only journalists from foreign news
    organizations could attend Mr. Ter-Petrossian's briefing.

    Mr. Ter-Petrossian's state-financed security detail had orders not
    to allow him out of his house, but Armenia's foreign minister said
    he was free to leave if he agreed to forgo the security.

    Armenian authorities have used violence against political opposition
    several times over the past 13 years. In 1995, for example, during
    Mr. Ter-Petrossian's tenure as president, at least one opposition
    figure died in police custody after his political party was shut down,
    according to Human Rights Watch.

    On Sunday afternoon, city workers swept shards of glass and towed
    burned shells of cars off central streets, still sticky from looted
    food and gasoline fires, as passers-by came to gape at the damage.

    "It's shameful," said a 27-year-old economist surveying the wreckage.

    "They did it for themselves. Not for the people."
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