30 protesters detained on Eurovision eve

27 May 2012, 9:40 am   -   Source: AFP
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An opposition supporter is detained by Azerbaijani police officers. (AAP)

An opposition supporter is detained by Azerbaijani police officers. (AAP)

Police in Azerbaijan detained about 30 people after a group of opposition protesters held a small rally in central Baku at last night's Eurovision Song Contest final.

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The gathering on a busy promenade beside the Caspian Sea in the glitzy capital was called by the Public Chamber opposition alliance which brings together the main opposition parties in the energy-rich country.

But police grabbed about 30 protesters from the crowd of several dozen people as they shouted "Freedom!", putting them in vans, an AFP correspondent reported.

One young woman screamed as she was shoved into a vehicle.

The busy public place filled with journalists and observers, including some representatives of Europe's security body OSCE, as police officers struggled to identify more protesters in the crowd.

"I must say I did not expect them to crack down like this," said one of the observers Anders Nielsen of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, who came on a visit to Baku during Eurovision.

"What we are truly seeing here is a totalitarian regime that cracks down on anything that looks like opposition," he told AFP.

Azerbaijan has pulled out all the stops to put on the international Eurovision song contest decorating its Caspian capital with contest insignia and constructing the glamorous Crystal Hall venue.

But the festivities have been overshadowed this week by arrests of dozens of opposition supporters who have seized on the opportunity to draw attention to the country's rights record and issues like political prisoners.

 

Eurovision 2012 , Azerbaijan

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Your Comments

Mr

Baku - from Perth, 1 year

Mr. Frank, I would suggest you better start learning English first and then go and share whats in your stupid mind in Oz media. I can see that you have never been to Azerbaijan!

Mr

MrFrank Clemenkowff - from Townsville, 1 year

It was absolute a disaster to guve ASEBYJAN where the Eurovision is been help becouse of the shocking things the government have done to there own people and ciitensen of the city of Bycu. I hope that thy never get the the Olympic games becouse can you inmargen what they will do to there own citensen of the city's where they going to construct all the buildings. Itwas very bad in China kiking the pour people out of there homes and demolise the structures. Never again must that happend again

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