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MOTOR PROTEST ACTIVISTS REPORT 'POLICE PRESSURE'
http://www.armenianow.com/society/human_rights/51419/armenia_motor_protest_activists_police_visits
HUMAN RIGHTS | 17.01.14 | 13:08
Photolure
A local pressure group opposing the controversial pension reform
has claimed that police have been visiting the homes of or making
phone calls to a number of participants in yesterday's action with
an apparent aim of putting pressure on them.
Dozens of motorists on their cars drove in circles around the main
square in the Armenian capital Yerevan Thursday morning in order to
draw attention, by creating traffic congestion, to a bigger public
rally scheduled for Saturday. This upcoming rally is to be held as part
of the campaign against the enactment of a controversial law under
which all workers in Armenia aged below 40 must pay five percent of
their salaries to privately owned pension funds in addition to social
security taxes paid by their employers.
The participants of Thursday's "automobile protest" kept Yerevan's
Republic Square, where the Armenian government is located, clogged
in traffic for an hour and a half, informing passers-by through
loudspeakers about the January 18 event.
Some of the police officers, who unsuccessfully tried to regulate the
traffic in the area, were noticed to have been writing down in their
notebooks the numbers of the license plates of the cars participating
in the action. The drivers, meanwhile, insisted that they did not
violate any of the traffic rules even if they were responsible for the
traffic jam and, therefore, could not be penalized for their actions.
Still on Thursday the Police's press service explained that the
policemen on duty in the area were simply doing their job.
The activists who left messages on the Facebook account of the "I'm
Against" group said the police officers who visited or called them
inquired about other road incidents not related to the January 16
protest, but added that they were sure they were targeted purposefully
for taking part in the event.
http://www.armenianow.com/society/human_rights/51419/armenia_motor_protest_activists_police_visits
HUMAN RIGHTS | 17.01.14 | 13:08
Photolure
A local pressure group opposing the controversial pension reform
has claimed that police have been visiting the homes of or making
phone calls to a number of participants in yesterday's action with
an apparent aim of putting pressure on them.
Dozens of motorists on their cars drove in circles around the main
square in the Armenian capital Yerevan Thursday morning in order to
draw attention, by creating traffic congestion, to a bigger public
rally scheduled for Saturday. This upcoming rally is to be held as part
of the campaign against the enactment of a controversial law under
which all workers in Armenia aged below 40 must pay five percent of
their salaries to privately owned pension funds in addition to social
security taxes paid by their employers.
The participants of Thursday's "automobile protest" kept Yerevan's
Republic Square, where the Armenian government is located, clogged
in traffic for an hour and a half, informing passers-by through
loudspeakers about the January 18 event.
Some of the police officers, who unsuccessfully tried to regulate the
traffic in the area, were noticed to have been writing down in their
notebooks the numbers of the license plates of the cars participating
in the action. The drivers, meanwhile, insisted that they did not
violate any of the traffic rules even if they were responsible for the
traffic jam and, therefore, could not be penalized for their actions.
Still on Thursday the Police's press service explained that the
policemen on duty in the area were simply doing their job.
The activists who left messages on the Facebook account of the "I'm
Against" group said the police officers who visited or called them
inquired about other road incidents not related to the January 16
protest, but added that they were sure they were targeted purposefully
for taking part in the event.