Riot police break up Kiev protest

Opposition leader Julia Tymoshenko, centre, was among the protesters who clashed with riot police

KIEV, Ukraine -- Armed riot police have clashed with anti-government protesters in Ukraine after tens of thousands of people held a demonstration calling for the resignation of President Leonid Kuchma.

Police were called in to dismantle a makeshift camp of more than 160 tents set up by some of the demonstrators outside the presidential palace in the Ukraine capital, Kiev, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Among those who clashed with the riot police was opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Julia Tymoshenko, who accused the police of beating many of the 1,500 people guarding the tents.

"They started to beat people left and right, peaceful people who were tired and half asleep," Tymoshenko told The Associated Press.

At one point, she said the protesters seized control of tear gas tanks. She said about 50 people from the tent camp had been arrested, although the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported that about 20 protesters were detained.

Tymoshenko said the protesters would return later on Tuesday to wait for Kuchma's return from a trip to Austria.

Earlier on Monday, the capital was the scene of the country's biggest demonstrations since Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Protesters representing an array of opposition groups, from Communists to pro-western reformers, called for new elections.

The march coincided with the disappearance two years ago of investigative journalist Georgit Gongadze, whose headless and mutilated corpse was found several weeks later.

Kuchma, who has been president since 1994, has been accused by the opposition of being linked to the death. Opposition leaders also accuse the president of harassment and curbing press freedom and civil liberties.