The US and Britain have strongly condemned Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev for using riot police to 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 Nov. 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.
The violence forced Washington to castigate one of its main regional allies, another about-turn in its strategic support for authoritarian regimes in the former Soviet Union.
Before the poll, US officials had suggested 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 and 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 British Foreign Office said it was "very disturbed by reports of the use of excessive force by the police in Baku."
OPPOSITION
The condemnation and unrest invigorated an opposition that has not benefited from the overt Western support that has fueled protest-led regime changes in neighboring Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the last two years.
Ali Kerimli, one of the leaders of the opposition bloc, Azadlyg (Freedom), said: "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 favor."
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.
Kerimli said he was attacked after he and his security detail moved to join the sit-in. He said he and an opposition leader 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 tear gas 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 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."
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