By Margarita Antidze
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia's opposition ended a standoffwith riot police in the capital Yerevan on Sunday after thegovernment declared a state of emergency and mobilised the armyin response to the worst unrest in a decade.
Earlier, police fought pitched battles with oppositionsupporters who had held daily protests since a February 19 pollthat the opposition said was rigged in favour of Prime MinisterSerzh Sarksyan to become president. At least one person waskilled.
About 2,000 protesters remained after those clashes in asquare in the centre of Yerevan armed with metal rods andMolotov cocktails as army trucks headed towards the capital.
But the crowd melted away after a message was read out fromLevon Ter-Petrosyan, the protest leader and defeated challengerin the election, urging his supporters to go home.
"I do not want any victims and clashes between police andinnocent people. That is why I am asking you to leave," saidthe message from Ter-Petrosyan, a former president who sinceSaturday has been barred by police from leaving his home.
He said in his message he would be holding negotiationswith the government, reversing a previous stance that talkswere out of the question unless the election result wasoverturned.
A hard-core of about 60 protesters initially refused to gohome and set fire to police jeeps abandoned after the earlierclashes. But a few minutes later all the protesters had gone,leaving the square strewn with debris.
Armenia is a former Soviet republic of 3.2 million peoplein a Caucasus mountains region that is emerging as a keytransit route for oil and gas supplies from the Caspian Sea.
The violence was the worst since 1998, when a mass uprisinghad forced Ter-Petrosyan to resign.
FAULT LINE
Sarksyan's opponents accused him of stealing victorythrough ballot-rigging and intimidation. Sarksyan denied thisand Western observers said the vote had been broadly fair.
The main political fault-line is that Ter-Petrosyan'ssupporters accuse outgoing President Robert Kocharyan ofrunning a crony state where only those with ties to the rulingelite have access to business opportunities and decent jobs.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europeissued a statement saying it "condemned the use of forceagainst peaceful demonstrators".
When the violence erupted on Saturday, demonstrators armedwith metal rods and sticks pelted police with Molotovcocktails, setting cars ablaze. At one point police fired theirweapons into the air, sending tracer fire through the nightsky.
Television pictures showed a body being driven from thescene on the roof of a car, with protesters hanging on to thesides of the vehicle to hold it in place. Shops in the centreof the city were looted.
Kocharyan said some demonstrators had fire arms andgrenades and were planning to launch a coup d'etat. Theopposition rejected this, saying police had attacked a peacefulprotest.
"If participants in the disorder fire at police, I have nochoice but to resort to the army's help," Kocharyan said inremarks broadcast on television. "And I am obliged to safeguardthe safety of our citizens."
The state of emergency, effective until March 20, bans allprotests and imposes censorship on the media. Kocharyan said hewas introducing the restrictions "to prevent a threat toconstitutional order".
(Writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Ralph Gowling)
