Armenia declares state of emergency
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian President Robert Kocharyandeclared a state of emergency in the capital on Saturday asriot police battled opposition protesters, in which at leastone person was killed.
Witnesses said many people were injured in the clashes,which flared up when police tried to disperse demonstratorsprotesting at a presidential election they say was rigged.
Footage shot by a freelance cameraman working for Reutersshowed police shooting tracer bullets into the air from behinda line of buses. Demonstrators, armed with metal rods andsticks, pelted police with Molotov cocktails, setting carsablaze.
Television pictures also showed a body being driven fromthe scene on the roof of a car, held in place by demonstratorshanging on to the side of the vehicle.
"They attacked peaceful demonstrations in parts ofYerevan," opposition official Alexander Arzumanian toldReuters. "But the people are very resolute and they willstruggle for their rights... There are a lot of woundedpeople".
One demonstrator said one person was killed by a tracerbullet "which must have ricocheted as police were shooting inthe air to disperse an opposition rally being held nearby".
A statement from the presidential press service saidKocharyan had signed a decree declaring a state of emergencyuntil March 20 "to prevent a threat to constitutional order".The measure bans all rallies and protests and imposescensorship on the media.
Several thousand opposition supporters had been protestingdaily in Yerevan's Freedom Square since former premier SerzhSarksyan, a Kocharyan ally, was elected president on February19. Official results declared Sarksyan the winner in the firstround but the opposition alleged ballot-stuffing andintimidation.
The main challenger, former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan,was put under house arrest in the capital on Saturday.
The crowd of at least 5,000 opposition supporters massed inan area near the mayor's office after a 10-day sit-in wasbroken up by baton-wielding police in the early hours.
Later sporadic shooting erupted from the area and thiscorrespondent saw red and yellow tracer rounds in the sky.
A protester in the crowd, reached by mobile telephone,said: "They (the police) shot in the air to scare us. They havefired tear gas. But people are standing firm. There arethousands of people standing here with us."
Hundreds of policemen in full riot gear cordoned off thearea where several embassies are located.
Some protesters near the mayor's office held crowbars andmetal rods. Some decanted fuel from the buses into bottles.
Disputed presidential elections sparked mass unrest in twoother former Soviet republics, Georgia and Ukraine, thatultimately toppled two long-serving leaders.
The unrest risks destabilising Armenia, an ex-Sovietrepublic of 3.2 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.
Armenia, a poor, landlocked and ancient Christian nation,is Moscow's closest ally in the volatile Caucasus region.
COUP ATTEMPT?
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe,referring to police action against the earlier sit-in, said it"condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators" andurged the authorities "to use maximum restraint."
Police said they moved in after receiving information acoup was being prepared. They said they had seized pistols andgrenades. The opposition denied the charges and said it wasusing only peaceful means.
"I am deeply convinced that even if Sarksyan stays on, hewon't be a legitimate president," Ter-Petrosyan said.
Police said they had used force after protesters startedthrowing stones and metal rods at them. "Calls for a violentcoup were heard," the police statement said.
Armenia's Health Ministry said 31 people, including sixpolicemen, had been admitted to hospital after the clashes.
Armenia is still officially at war with its Muslimneighbour 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.
(Writing by Dmitry Solovyov and Michael Stott; Editing bySami Aboudi)