Armenia opposition calls rally after police crackdown
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's opposition called on itssupporters to hold a new protest on Saturday, hours afterpolice with batons broke up its 10-day protest over apresidential election it says was rigged.
Several thousand opposition supporters had been protestingdaily in Yerevan's Freedom Square since Prime Minister SerzhSarksyan was elected to replace his ally Robert Kocharyan aspresident in a February 19 vote.
Riot police moved into the square early on Saturday afterauthorities warned they were losing patience with the protestsled by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia's first president afterindependence from the Soviet Union who ran against Sarksyan.
Several hours later, hundreds of opposition supporters werepouring into a diplomatic area off the city centre fallowing acall from Ter-Petrosyan's headquarters to hold a peacefulrally.
Police said they moved in to disperse the 10-day sit-inafter receiving information a violent coup was being prepared.In a statement, they said they had seized pistols and grenades.
One of Ter-Petrosyan's top allies dismissed this. "Thisinformation totally contradicts the reality," StepanDemirchayn, leader of the opposition People's Party, toldReuters. "We use only peaceful means, and Ter-Petrosyan hasreiterated this."
A Reuters correspondent saw two police cars with smashedwindows and flat tyres near the venue of the planned oppositionrally.
The protests had risked destabilising Armenia, an ex-Sovietrepublic of 3.22 million people in the Caucasus mountains thatis now emerging as a key transit route for oil and gas suppliesfrom the Caspian Sea to world markets.
Disputed presidential elections sparked mass unrest in twoother former Soviet republics, Georgia and Ukraine, thatultimately toppled two long-serving leaders.
TENSE STAND-OFF
"Permission or no permission (from the authorities), wewill all the same press ahead with protests, because ralliesand marches can only be banned when there is a state ofemergency,"
Ter-Petrosyan told reporters.
"I am deeply convinced that even if Sarksyan stays on, hewon't be a legitimate president," he said. "I have no doubt thepeople won't tolerate this."
Police said in a statement they had moved in after beingtold that opposition protesters had been waiting to receive"large amounts of firearms, grenades, metal rods and truncheons... to stage provocations and stir up mass disturbances".
Police said they had used force after protesters startedthrowing 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."
Ter-Petrosyan's headquarters said a dozen people were beingtreated in hospitals, including one policeman. It said nineopposition activists had been arrested and five wereunaccounted for.
Landlocked Armenia is still officially at war withneighbouring Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.Oil and gas pipelines operated by a BP-led consortium runthrough Azeri territory a few km (miles) from the conflictzone.
Ter-Petrosyan launched the protests after alleging Sarksyanhad used ballot-stuffing and intimidation to steal victory.Western observers called the vote broadly fair.
At their peak the protests gathered tens of thousands ofpeople, though numbers have fallen off in the past few days.Protest organisers said they would go on until the authoritiesbacked down and called a fresh election.
(Writing by Christian Lowe and Dmitry Solovyov)