Epress.am News from Armenia
On Mar. 1, 2008, an overcrowded double decker bus in southern Guatemala crashed, killing at least 54 people and injuring dozens more, police said, making it one of the worst of the impoverished Central American country’s frequent road accidents, Reuters reported.
The bus, which had seats for 50 people but was crammed with 77 passengers, lost control on a bend and skidded into a ravine some 160 feet (50 meters) deep.
In rural Guatemala poor peasants frequently travel long distances on overcrowded, rickety buses to work as day laborers on large agricultural plantations. Deadly accidents are common on the dangerous, badly maintained roads.
In the early hours of the morning on Mar. 1, 2008, national police and military forces in Yerevan dispersed peaceful demonstrations that had been going on for 10 days non-stop in Liberty Square protesting the official results of the presidential election. Later that same day, people spontaneously gathered in the square in front of the Aleksandr Myasnikyan statue, across the street from Yerevan City Hall. In the evening, a state of emergency was declared and the army called in to quell the protests, who used “excessive force and violence” which resulted in the death of 10 people, including Samvel Harutyunyan.
Till today, no arrests or charges have been made in connection with Harutyunyan’s murder.