Azerbaijan condemned for crackdown

· Protesters baton-charged by riot police in Baku
· Use of force 'unjust and unprovoked', says US

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow, Monday November 28, 2005
The Guardian

The US and Britain yesterday strongly condemned the president of oil-rich Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, for using riot police to violently break up an opposition protest on Saturday afternoon. An estimated 10,000 people gathered in Victory Square, on the outskirts of the capital, Baku, to protest against the results of parliamentary elections on November 6 which international observers said were marred by fraud.

Two hours' protest time had been allotted by the police, but when that expired some demonstrators intent on remaining in the square staged a sit-in. Three minutes later they were baton-charged by riot police.

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The violence forced Washington to castigate one of its main regional allies, another volte-face in its strategic support for authoritarian regimes in the former Soviet Union. Before the poll, US officials had suggested Mr Aliev was reforming towards fair elections, but after the vote they were forced to condemn its fraud. Yesterday, as fears of further unrest grew, the US embassy urged both sides to "remain calm and exercise restraint ... in this tense, post-election period." It added that it deplored "this unjust an unprovoked use of [police] force against citizens exercising their right to free assembly", and urged the government to punish those responsible for the violence.

The Foreign Office said it was "very disturbed by reports of the use of excessive force by the police in Baku". The condemnation and unrest invigorated an opposition which has not benefited from the overt western support that has fuelled protest-led regime changes in neighbouring Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the last two years. Ali Kerimli, one of the leaders of the opposition bloc, Azadlyg (Freedom), told the Guardian: "We can say that this is the beginning of changing the regime in Azerbaijan. Each time they have used force against us, it has ended in our favour."

Mr Kerimli said Azadlyg was requesting permission for a repeat protest this Saturday. It was not clear how many people were injured, although television pictures showed at least two women protesters unconscious. Mr Kerimli said he was attacked after he and his security detail moved to join the sit-down. He said he and an opposition leader, Lala Shovket, were hit several times on the head with a truncheon before his security team extracted him from the square. "They wanted to punish those who did not vote for the government," he said, adding that teargas and water cannon were also used by police in "prepared violence against their own people".

Running battles between police and protesters ensued, protesters responding to police attacks with a volley of sticks and stones, which bounced off police shields. The crowd was quickly dispersed, however. A European diplomat at the rally said those who got hit "were those not able to run quickly enough, frankly". She said it was "quite clear beforehand there was going to be trouble" and described the protest as a last-ditch attempt by an opposition "that really has no base of support that can do any serious damage".

The diplomat expressed surprise at how President Ilham Aliev had used violence against a slight threat, adding it was perhaps born of a post-Soviet mentality that feared "if you don't show strength you will not be in power for long afterwards".

Backstory

After the death of his father Heydar, Ilham Aliev was elected president in October 2003, in the first dynastic succession in the former Soviet Union. The election was marred by fraud and violence. This month's election was preceded by months of effort by Mr Aliev to bolster his democratic credentials and ease relations with the west, who value Azerbaijan for its oil and as a transit route for energy. Days before the vote he arrested key cabinet figures for involvement in an alleged coup attempt. The election was again marred by fraud and condemned by the US and the European Union.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1652164,00.html