Tuesday, 06 April 2004

ARMENIAN POLICE IGNORE ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS DURING OPPOSITION RALLY

Published in News Digest

By empty (4/6/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

As a number of uniformed police passively watched, a number of journalists and cameramen were blatantly assaulted and injured in an organized attack by unknown assailants during an opposition rally on 5 April, according to RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau and Arminfo. The journalists were attacked after they were observed filming several coordinated incidents involving groups of men disrupting and threatening opposition supporters. Police units observed the disruptive acts, which included the pelting of opposition speakers with eggs and throwing firecrackers into the crowd, but failed to react.
As a number of uniformed police passively watched, a number of journalists and cameramen were blatantly assaulted and injured in an organized attack by unknown assailants during an opposition rally on 5 April, according to RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau and Arminfo. The journalists were attacked after they were observed filming several coordinated incidents involving groups of men disrupting and threatening opposition supporters. Police units observed the disruptive acts, which included the pelting of opposition speakers with eggs and throwing firecrackers into the crowd, but failed to react. The police further remained passive as the groups of men attacked several cameramen and photographers, destroying or seizing their video equipment. National Unity Party leader Artashes Geghamian, himself repeatedly pelted with eggs as he addressed supporters, claimed in a later RFE/RL interview that the assailants \"were bodyguards of three or four business tycoons close to Kocharian.\" The only police action throughout the day was limited to blocking all roads leading into the capital, preventing larger numbers of opposition supporters from attending the rally, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau reported. (RFE/RL)
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The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.

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