Police break up opposition protest in Azerbaijan

About 20 people protested outside a government building in the capital, Baku, over rises in utilities prices and payments for apartment maintenance in the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic, which stopped importing Russian natural gas after Moscow demanded it pay more than twice the previous price.

Protesters faced a force of more than 100 police called to the area after authorities refused to give the opposition coalition Azadliq, or Freedom, permission to demonstrate.

Police moved in after protesters reached an area between two groups of officers, wielding truncheons and ripping posters from their hands. Police then rounded up a second, smaller group of demonstrators nearby.

A Baku police official Samir Seydli said 10 to 15 people were detained and that some could face jail terms of several days.

Azerbaijan's government sharply raised domestic prices for electricity, water and gas earlier this month after announcing it would not buy natural gas this year from Russia, balking at Moscow's demand that it pay US$235 (?180) per 1,000 cubic meters of gas — up from US$110 (?85). Azerbaijan imported about 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia in 2006 to cover domestic consumption.

President Ilham Aliev has maintained a tight grip on Azerbaijan since succeeding his father in a 2003 presidential vote that observers said was flawed. Western nations, while eager for close ties with the Caspian Sea nation because of its oil riches and strategic location, have expressed concern over suppression of the opposition and limits on freedom of speech. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune /