Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305020056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
"Fascists!" yelled several dozen young men as protesters charged the barricades set up by police to keep them from straying from their officially approved route. "Yeltsin is a Judas!"
White-helmeted riot police, protected by shields and backed by water cannons, defended their line of trucks and buses with a vengeance, beating back the column of several thousand demonstrators until, after more than an hour, the crowd dispersed.
The clash, less than a week after President Boris Yeltsin won a resounding vote of support in a nationwide referendum, heralded a new offensive by Communist and nationalist opposition leaders who refuse to acknowledge his victory.
"These wild revolutionaries could actually repeat the 1992 Los Angeles riots in Moscow," said television news anchorman Mikhail Ponomarev.
As evening fell Saturday, remnants of the crowd of protesters gathered at the Russian Parliament building, setting up a makeshift barricade of trucks and scrap metal and calling for an emergency session of the legislature and Yeltsin's resignation.
One deputy, Gennady Sayenko, promised a chance for revenge on May 9, when Russians traditionally celebrate victory in World War II with parades and marches.
"We have to answer force with force," Sayenko declared through a megaphone.
Yeltsin's spokesman, Vyacheslav Kostikov, said the president was "deeply concerned and indignant about the actions of these political provocateurs" and had ordered an investigation.
Kostikov accused the protesters of purposely "creating mass unrest," but Yeltsin and the Moscow leadership that support him had ordered police to stand tough against the surging demonstrators. Past opposition protests have repeatedly marched along unsanctioned routes, but authorities had always let them pass rather than provoke violence.
An official statement from the Parliament blamed Yeltsin for the bloodshed, saying his referendum had deepened the schism in Russian society and hinting that he purposely provoked the clash to find an excuse to clamp down on his opposition.
Leonid Mamushkin, a cane-toting veteran of World War II who got caught in the fighting, also blamed Yeltsin.
"We Soviet people are used to going to a demonstration on May Day. So what? What would have been so terrible if they let us through?" he asked. "Why beat people? They talk about rights and freedom. We have nothing, no freedom. Why beat people?"
In front of Mamushkin's apartment building lay the debris of a pitched battle: hundreds of bricks and granite blocks, blood stains, and a small circle of rocks and steel bars inscribed with white chalk: "On this spot on May 1, a participant in a peaceful demonstration was killed."
Actually, no reports of deaths were confirmed, but doctors and health officials said about 70 protesters were hospitalized and at least 70 policemen were injured. The worst reported injuries involved a policeman and a protester who were crushed by vehicles maneuvering in the chaos of the fight. The policeman was in critical condition Saturday night.
by CNB