Armenia hostage drama ends as gunmen surrender

YEREVAN, OCT 28: Dozens of hostages held by gunmen in the Armenian parliament building were released on Thursday with the hostage takers ...

YEREVAN, OCT 28: Dozens of hostages held by gunmen in the Armenian parliament building were released on Thursday with the hostage takers deciding to surrender, the presidency said.

The gunmen, who killed eight politicians including premier Vazgen Sarkissian after storming the parliament on Wednesday, were disarmed and taken to the Armenian security service building in Yerevan, a spokeswoman said. Government spokesman Shagen Karamanukian said that all 41 captives had been freed.

Earlier, a column of around 50 vehicles, including a bus, was seen leaving the parliament building. It was not immediately clear who was inside. The announcement came after Armenian President Robert Kocharian said that he had guaranteed he would spare the lives of gunmen in exchange for their surrender and the release of the hostages.

In an address on public television, Kocharian said he had guaranteed the hostage takers quot;their lives and a just and fair trial.quot;

On Wednesday, four gunmen charged into the Parliament at 5.15 pm local time as most of the country8217;s ministers were attending a debate. They opened fire indiscriminately, announcing they were staging a coup d8217;etat. Eight politicians including Sarkissian, 40, were killed, Interfax news agency quoted the Armenian President8217;s office as saying. However, it was not the final toll. Russian and Armenian media said there were several wounded, some of them in serious condition.

Leader of the hostage takers Nauny Unanian told A1 television on Wednesday that the attack on the legislature was aimed at triggering a popular revolt. quot;In this country, it is not possible to create a political organisation,quot; he said, adding, quot;The people have no way to go.quot;

Unanian, a former journalist who had taken part in the National Liberation Movement from 1988 and is an ex-member of the nationalist Dashnaktsutiun party, maintained that his men had only fired at Sarkissian and that other shots that had claimed victims had been fired in reply, probably by bodyguards.

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The President8217;s office confirmed the deaths of the premier, parliamentary speaker Karen Demirchian, his deputies Yury Bakshian and and Ruben Miroyan Emergencies Minister Leonard Petrosian. The others killed were MPs Mikael Kotanian, Armenak Armenakian and Henry Abramian. Armenian journalist Konstantin Petrosyan, who was in parliament during the attack, quoted one of the gunmen as saying, quot;We have come to avenge those who have drunk the blood of the nationquot; before demanding a film crew be sent to the building and announcing they were carrying out a coup.

Sarkissian was appointed Prime Minister by Kocharian on June 11 after serving as defence minister and joint leader of the Unity coalition that won parliamentary elections two weeks earlier. As defence minister, he played a key role in the political crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic-Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan, that led to the resignation of Kocharian8217;s predecessor Levon Ter-Petrossian in February 1998.