29/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - Ambassador Maurizio Pavesi, who heads the OSCE office in Baku, deplored police violence against demonstrators at the authorised opposition rally on 26 November in which over 400 demonstrators were injured. In a press release on 28 November, the ambassador stresses that “the principle of defending public order cannot be used to justify police violence, in particular when the demonstrators have not actually disturbed the public order but are in violation of administrative decisions”. The demonstrators had held an unauthorised sit-in in the square. The opposition contests the way the last elections were held. The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, René van der Linden, also deplored such incidents and called on Azerbaijan authorities to refrain from all use of force against peaceful demonstrators.