Police disperse public meeting, beat journalists

The police used force against participants in the public meeting in the Gelebe Square in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, earlier today.

The united Azerbaijani opposition which included the Azadlyg and New Politics blocs and the National Unity movement demanded that the results of the recent parliamentary elections should be cancelled and a new campaign should be conducted, Caucasian Knot's correspondent reports.

Once the time allocated for the meeting by the city government was over, a rapid response police regiment and soldiers of the interior troops who had encircled the square in advance began to disperse the crowd.

"Today's dispersal of the public meeting of the opposition is an operation for the merciless suppression by the government of its own people," Mr Ali Kerimli, leader of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party, said at a press conference at the party headquarters.

Opposition leaders say dozens of people were wounded in the meeting. "They used force against a peaceful procession without any warning," said Mr Kerimli.

During the dispersal, violence was also used against Mr Kerimli himself and Ms Lala Shovket, an opposition leader too. The square was in blood with hundreds of pairs of footwear of beaten people strewn all over it. About ten journalists also became victims of police violence and sustained various injuries.

The government used the interior troops, riot police, and various military units. "Now the world has witnessed dictatorship in Azerbaijan which is impossible to reform. I believe that now western diplomats will not be able to speak about reforming this government," said Mr Kerimli.

National Unity leader Ms Lala Shovket added that the opposition would continue its fight against the ruling regime in spite of the police action.

Mr Panakh Guseinov, head of the Azadlyg bloc, said that the Azerbaijani police had begun to disperse participants five minutes before the end of the government-authorised public meeting. This means that authorities had planned this action in advance.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Azerbaijan has resolutely condemned the police violence against oppositionists in Baku this morning.

"The police action was legal," Mr Yashar Aliyev, deputy chief of the Baku police, commented on the operation for dispersal of today's authorised meeting of the opposition. He added that leaders of the opposition had been warned against appeals to "anti-constitutional actions." Mr Aliyev disagreed with remarks made by some journalists that the action had been peaceful. The opposition had prepared provocations, according to him. Mr Aliyev also said that oppositionists had beaten 17 police officers.

Six women from among participants in the public meeting were hospitalised. Detained were 29 demonstrators, including Mr Avaz Temirkhan, acting chairman of the Liberal Party of Azerbaijan.

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