By Hasmik Mkrtchyan
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's opposition vowed on Saturdayto hold new rallies after truncheon-wielding police broke upits 10-day protest over a presidential election it says wasrigged.
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.
"We were asleep," said one of the protesters who had beenkeeping overnight vigil on the square. "They came and theystarted to beat us up. They had truncheons," said the man, whoshowed Reuters his broken finger. He declined to give his name.
A spokesman for Ter-Petrosyan said riot police moved in at7.30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Saturday. "They came, they beat peopleup and they removed everyone," said Arman Musinyan.
Police said they moved in after receiving information aviolent coup was being prepared. In a statement, they said theyhad seized pistols and grenades.
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 brought down the status quo.
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 state ofemergency," a combative 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," policesaid.
Ter-Petrosyan's headquarters said a dozen people were beingtreated in hospitals, including one policeman. It said nineopposition activists had been arrested and five unaccountedfor.
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, editing by)
