Picket continues
Different screams have been heard near the RA Government Reception House since 12 p.m. There are numerous people dressed in prisoners' clothes with handcuffs, photos of political prisoners and tricolor flags have been gathered at the place where the Forum for "Future of Democracy" is being held. They are there to draw the foreign guests' attention to the 13 political prisoners, the fact that none of the murders of March 1 have been revealed and that the "A1+" TV remains shut down.
The police didn't let citizens stand near the building and didn't give them the chance to hand the opposition's letters to the European guests. More and more people joined the crowd in front of building near the Ponchikanots. As a sign of protest, the youth had brought prison bars, which frustrated the police officers. A nearly 10-minute incident took place between demonstrators and the police and only after a little while did the pushing and shoving and insults end. There was a also a television placed behind the bars with the "A1+" logo on it.
"We have come to demand the immediate release of the political prisoners because none of the people in prison has committed a crime. Let the foreigners know that there is no democracy in Armenia," said one of the action participants.
President of the Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners and the Politically Persecuted Vardan Harutyunyan told "A1+" that they are not relying on the forum, but themselves and they are trying to take advantage of the forum to reach solutions more quickly. "We had over 170 political prisoners in April 2008 and even 13 political prisoners is too much. We hope that they will be released soon."
HAK member Vladimir Karapetyan was disappointed that like previous times, the authorities once again prohibited citizens of regions from entering Yerevan. "Before the police used to stand on the streets and prohibit. Now they are prohibiting public buses. We were informed that even taxis aren't able to come from Artashat."
