NewsCentralAsia, Asia
Aug 10 2004
First World Hegemony and Mass Mortality – from Bengal to Afghanistan
and Iraq
Dr. Gideon Polya
The world has now been confronted for a dozen years by the continuing
devastation of strategically-located, oil-rich Iraq by Anglo-American
armies and their allies. Afghanistan has been devastated by a quarter
century of war intimately connected with First World rivalries and
both Russian and US desires for Indian Ocean access to Central Asia.
These extensions of what was once called the `Great Game’ between
Britain and Russia have had an appalling human cost.
Using United Nations population statistics for the period 1950 to the
present it has been possible to calculate the `excess mortality’ (or,
essentially, the avoidable mortality) for every country in the world
for this period. `Excess mortality’ is simply the difference between
the ACTUAL deaths in a country and the deaths EXPECTED for a
decently-run, peaceful country with the same demographic
characteristics. The results are startling and horrifying. The total
post-1950 `excess mortality’ has been 5.2 million for Iraq, 16.2
million for Afghanistan, 550 million for the Muslim world, 1,230
million for the non-European world – and 54 million in total for all
the countries of Europe, North America and Australasia.
The French have a saying `Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’
(the more things change, the more they stay the same). We can go back
in history and see that the same greed, violence, racism, dishonesty
and criminal immorality involved in continuation of First World
hegemony in the world today is closely mirrored in the European
expansion into the non-European world over the last 500 years.
Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British and French expansion into the
Americas brought disease that, in addition to egregious violence,
wiped out millions and destroyed sophisticated civilizations. The
subsequent slave trade from Africa transported 15 million to America
but associated deaths in Africa may have been much greater. While
knowing of the deadly transmissibility of disease in the Americas (23
million victims) and from the medieval Black Death (24 million
victims), the Europeans happily devastated Australasia and the
Pacific through disease in the 19th century (1-2 million victims).
The Europeans carved up Africa in the 19th century and imposed
horrendous colonial regimes. Thus the Belgians butchered some 10
million Congolese in exacting rubber supplies; colonial wars
slaughtered millions more. The Europeans left a crippled continent in
the 1960s.
Two hundred and fifty years ago Bengal was a prosperous province of
the Muslim Mughal Empire in India. Bengal led the world in its
agriculture, civil administration and textiles. The textiles were so
fine it was said that you could pass a sari of Dacca silk through a
wedding ring. However in the mid-18th century the East India Company
turned its attention seriously to Bengal and the British set up a
trading post called Fort William at the site of what is now Calcutta.
Steady pressure from the British (as well as from the French, Dutch,
Portuguese and Danes) eventually elicited Bengali resistance and in
1756 the Muslim Nawab (or Prince) of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah,
captured Fort William.
British-Bengali machinations may have meant that the Nawab was merely
supposed to besiege Fort William and then a palace revolution would
secure `régime change’ in favour of the British. In the event, Fort
William was taken and all school children in the British Empire were
subsequently told the dreadful story of the Black Hole of Calcutta –
how, supposedly, 146 British prisoners were incarcerated overnight in
a small prison cell in captured Fort William and in the morning only
23 survivors (including the one woman) emerged alive. This story is
believed by many historians to have been greatly exaggerated. However
for a quarter of a millennium it has very successfully demonized
Indians and, by extension, all non-Europeans who resisted European
hegemony.
In 1757 the British returned with a vengeance, bribed important
Bengali princes to withhold their troops and, at the Battle of
Plassey, Robert Clive won a stunning victory over numerically vastly
greater Bengali forces. Siraj-ud-daulah was hunted down, captured,
chopped into pieces and demonized forever. A key plotter was Mir
Jafar and he was rewarded by being made the next Nawab by the British
(just as the US helped install the Shah in Iran and Saddam Hussein in
Iraq)..
After the British had installed their puppet Nawab they set about
taxing the Bengalis. Taxes that formally would go successively
through collectors, zamindars and the Nawab to the Mughal Emperor to
pay for civil administration now started to flow to the East India
Company and its officers. Robert Clive returned to Britain in 1767 as
its richest man. In responding to Parliamentary cross-examination in
1773 about his excessive wealth from the down-trodden Bengalis, Clive
declared `By God, Mr Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at
my own moderation’. The vast wealth flowing from India with the East
India Company and its returning officers (the so-called `nabobs’, a
corruption of `nawab’) helped fund the Industrial Revolution and 2
centuries of British global domination that has variously devastated
peoples and cultures on 6 continents.
Unfortunately the British exceeded themselves and a mere 12 years
after the Battle of Plassey a temporary food shortage in Bengal
translated inexorably into the man-made Great Bengal Famine of
1769-1770 that killed 10 million Bengalis, one third of the
population. Over-taxed Bengalis who could not meet the escalating
price of grain simply starved. The East India Company, concerned
about its diminishing profits, sent Warren Hastings out to Calcutta
to reorganize taxation of the half-starved, surviving Bengalis.
Hastings succeeded and indeed greatly extended British control in
India. However his rapacious excesses (from the robbery of the Begums
of Oudh to famine in the Gangetic plain) led to his impeachment by
Parliament after his return to England and a protracted trial.
Hastings was acquitted in 1795 in what has been Britain’s only war
crimes trial of a major colonial administrator. He has been lionized
by British historians as a great founder of Empire.
Two centuries of British rule in India saw recurrent famines that
killed scores of millions. Further, the British railways, irrigation
canals and shipping spread cholera (endemic to Bengal) throughout
British India at the cost of an estimated 25 million lives in the
19th century. The British taxation system deprived indigenous Indian
institutes of support (noting that education is vital in the war on
disease and want). The Bengal textile industry was destroyed and
Britain exported textiles to India. Well-watered, warm Bengal with an
energetic population is a part of the sub-continent that should never
suffer famine. Nevertheless Bengal suffered repeated famine in the
1860s and 1870s and at the turn of the century.
Of course Bengal was part of an empire `on which the sun never sets’.
The British traded Bengali opium to China for tea and silver, this
trade precipitating the 19th century China Opium Wars and the
subsequent Tai Ping rebellion that took 20-100 million lives
In 1918-1919 Indian soldiers returning from World War 1 brought
influenza to India (this causing 17 million deaths). Indeed the
global influenza death toll of some 40 million greatly exceeded the
military casualties of World War 1 (8 million). However in the middle
of World War 2 the price of rice begin to rise in Bengal for a
variety of reasons (cessation of supplies from Japanese-occupied
Burma, small seasonal losses from fungal infection and storm damage,
the divide-and-rule granting of food supply autonomy to Indian
provinces, sequestration of some rice stocks and decreased grain
imports via Indian Ocean shipping because of shipping losses in the
Atlantic). However, as analysed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen,
Calcutta was experiencing a war-time boom and effectively sucked food
out of a food-producing countryside. Those who could not afford rice
at 4 times the normal price simply starved under a callous British
administration.
The death toll from the man-made Bengal famine was 4 million as
compared to the deaths from the Jewish Holocaust (6 million), the
Namibian genocide (0.1 million), the Rwandan Tutsi genocide (1
million), the World War 1 Armenian Holocaust (1 million), the Polish
(6 million), Soviet (20 million) and Chinese (35 million) losses in
World War 2, the Chinese Great Leap Forward (16-30 million victims)
and the millions who died in the Russian, Chinese and Ukrainian
famines between the World Wars, the Soviet Gulags and Pakistan-Indian
Partition.
In an astonishing collective act of racist white-washing, the Bengal
famine has been largely expunged from British historical writing.
History ignored yields history repeated and the Bengalis have
continued to suffer: post-Independence Partition massacres and
displacements in 1947, US-backed West Pakistan invasion in 1971 (3
million dead, 0.3 million women raped, 10 million refugees) and
further famine and murderous US-backed régime change (1974). However
the biggest killers in Bengal since 1950 have been deprivation,
malnourishment, disease and illiteracy – the post-1950 `excess
mortality’ has been 51 million in Bangladesh (present population 150
million) and about 27 million in West Bengal (population about 80
million).
What can be learned from this sorry tale? The biggest message is that
ignoring or white-washing mass mortality simply allows unimpeded
continuance or repetition. Indeed Bengal is now facing a devastating
prospect of inundation from global warming-induced sea level rises.
The US and Australia, variously linked with Bengal’s previous
man-made disasters, refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol while being
among the world’s worst greenhouse gas polluters. In the past month
over two thirds of Bangladesh has been under water from international
monsoon run-off. Afghanistan and Iraq simply illustrate the same
sorts of First World impositions that devastated Bengal for over a
quarter of a millennium in the interests of profit, power and
imperial satisfaction – manipulation, corruption of indigenous
leaders, régime change, vilification and demonization of indigenous
opponents, militarization, debt, economic distortion, economic
exclusion, divide-and-rule, support for intra- and international war,
sanctions, invasion, occupation, extirpation of undesired indigenous
opponents, installation of unelected governments and inclusion into a
new order of global, violence-backed hegemony. Of course, just like
the mythology of the Black Hole of Calcutta, the demonization of
Indians and the asserted nobility of British civilization and Pax
Britannica, today we have the non-existent weapons of mass
destruction, the demonization of Muslims and the violent and
massively deadly imposition of an Anglo-American vision of `freedom’.
Sensible analysis of the horrendous mass mortality in the world over
the last half century indicates that the First World imposes war for
profit and that war kills massively – but mainly through deprivation
and malnourishment-exacerbated disease that sweeps away 20 million
people a year or 60,000 a day and overwhelmingly in the non-European
world. It is the IGNORING of horrendous global mass mortality that is
the fundamental cause of this continuing tragedy.
About the author: Dr Gideon Polya is a Melbourne-based scientist and
writer. Over a 4 decade scientific career he published some 130
works, most recently a huge, pharmacological reference text
“Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds’ (Taylor &
Francis/CRC Press, London & New York, 2003).

Centre for Public Opinion and Democracy, Canada
Aug 10 2004
Armenians Plead For New Economic Policies
(CPOD) Aug. 10, 2004 – Many citizens of Armenia are unhappy with the
way their elected officials are pursuing financial strategies,
according to a poll by the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies (ACNIS). 48.4 per cent of respondents believe
their government is not pursuing an economic policy that supports the
development of enterprise and investments.
Armenia’s national currency – the dram – has gained strength in the past
few months. While Central Bank officials believe the fluctuation is a
result of incoming United States dollars, finance and economy
minister Vardan Khachatrian admitted that the phenomenon could be the
result of speculation.
Most Armenians would like to boost their country’s financial profile.
32.6 per cent of respondents believe the country should pursue closer
economic ties with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – a
coalition encompassing 12 former Soviet republics – while 13.9 per cent
favour cooperation with the European Union (EU).
President Robert Kocharyan was re-elected to a new four-year term in
March 2003 in an election marred by fraud allegations.
Polling Data
Do you think Armenian authorities pursue an economic policy that
supports the development of enterprise and investments?
Yes
22.0%

No
48.4%

Difficult to answer
28.6%

In your view, Armenia should have the closest economic relations
with…
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
32.6%

European Union (EU) member states
13.9%

Countries of the region, including Turkey,
Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran
7.0%

Countries of the American continent,
particularly the United States and Canada.
2.7%

All of them
35.3%

Source: Armenian Center for National and International Studies
(ACNIS)
Methodology: Interviews with 1,127 Armenian adults, conducted from
Jun. 20 to Jul. 12, 2004. No margin of error was provided.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Aug 10 2004
AZERBAIJAN, EGYPT: COOPERATION EXPANDING
[August 10, 2004, 20:11:42]
Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Azerbaijan Cihan Amin
Mohammad Ali on 10 August met the foreign minister of Azerbaijan
Republic Elmar Mammadyarov on the occasion of ending of her
diplomatic mission.
Ambassador Cihan Amin Mohammad Ali expressed gratitude for rendered
assistance during her activity in the Republic and for efficient
cooperation, noting that the friendly and brotherly relations between
Azerbaijan and Egypt would further expand, the foreign ministry said.
Ms. Cihan Amin Mohammad Ali stated that she is eyewitness of
development of the people of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani statehood
during her four years of activity here.
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated that he adheres strengthening and
expansion of the friendly and business relations, effective
cooperation between the two countries. Noting that the Arab Republic
of Egypt is an influential country in the Islamic world, the Minister
expressed gratitude that Egypt supports fair position of Azerbaijan
in the international organizations, in particular, in the
Organization of Islamic Conference, in fair settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict.
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov wished to ambassador Cihan Amin Mohammad
Ali success in her future diplomatic activity.

UEFA.com
Aug 10 2004
Minasyan takes U21 role
Vardan Minasyan has been named coach of the Armenia Under-21 side,
just one week before the start of their UEFA European Under-21
Championship qualifying campaign.
Rapid rise
Injury brought Minasyan’s playing career to an end last season,
whereupon he took an assistant coaching role at FC Pyunik. Before the
start of this season Minasyan took charge of the Armenia U19s, before
subsequently being asked to replace Mihai Stoichita as head coach at
Pyunik.
New challenge
A man in demand, Minasyan will now combine his job at Pyunik with his
U21 duties. Armenia’s qualifying campaign starts on 18 August away to
F.Y.R. Macedonia. Finland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic,
Romania and Andorra are their other Group 1 opponents.

Times of Oman, Oman
Aug 10 2004
Fatma storms into quarters

By Our Sports Reporter
MUSCAT – Oman’s talented Fatma Al Nabhani sailed into the
quarterfinals of the 20th International Tennis Federation Junior
Championship, which began in Damascus on Monday.
According to information received from the Oman Tennis Association,
Fatma Al Nabhani, who is seeded seventh in the tournament, defeated
Syria’s Ranim Mkahal 7-5, 6-3 to book her place in the last eight
round.
She will now take on Egypt’s Rana El Derwy in the quarterfinals.
Second-seeded El Derwy got the better off Line Ghannam of Syria 6-1,
6-0.
Top seed Wing Yau Ven Chang of Hong Kong sailed into the
quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Syria’s Dalia Hosamo and will
take on Syria’s Dima Al Saadi, the eighth seed in the next match.
Al Saadi survived a second set scare before beating Ukraine’s
Valentyna Romanenko 6-1, 7-6 (9-7).
The others to reach the quarterfinals were fourth-seeded Lara Al
Samman of Syria, fifth-seeded Manushak Khanyan of Armenia and third
seeded Doris Waari of Romania. Al Samman beat Syria’s Lara Tlass 6-0,
6-0, Manushak beat Syria’s Sara Makee 6-3, 6-3 and D. Waari defeated
Mira Tlass 6-1, 6-0.
Meanwhile, the Oman Tennis Association has sent three players with a
coach for an external camp in Burundi. The camp will last until
August 23.
The three players are Sharifa Al Bakry, Muhatassin Al Fadhi and Sabra
Al Bakry. Madny Al Bakry accompanies the trio as coach.

Eurasianet Organization
Aug 10 2004
IRAN-AZERBAIJAN RELATIONS: ON A BETTER FOOTING AFTER KHATAMI’S BAKU
VISIT
Shahin Abbasov: 8/10/04
A recent visit by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Azerbaijan
seems to have put bilateral relations on a better footing. However,
the Iranian leader’s trip did not succeed in resolving the
fundamental issue separating the two nations: the territorial
division of the Caspian Sea.
Khatami held talks in Baku with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham
Aliyev, and other top officials during his August 5-7 visit. It was
the Iranian chief executive’s first trip to neighboring Azerbaijan
since his election in 1997 – evidence of the chill that has marked
bilateral ties since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Besides the Caspian question, the issue of ethnic Azeris in Iran has
been a significant source of tension. Geopolitics has also come into
play: Azerbaijan has been wary about Iran’s strong economic and
political ties with Armenia, while Tehran has been suspicious of
Baku’s close relationship with the United States.
Upon his arrival in Baku, Khatami spoke of “great opportunities and
tremendous potential for the development of bilateral relations.”
Aliyev expressed similar sentiments, and accepted an invitation to
make a state visit to Iran at a time to be determined. The most
significant development to arise from Khatami’s visit was an Iranian
commitment to allow Azerbaijan to open consular offices in Tabriz, a
hub for ethnic Azeris living in northern Iran.
There are an estimated 30-35 million Azeris in Iran, most of them in
northern areas of the country. The pending opening of an Azerbaijani
consulate in Tabriz has generated hope in Baku that the Iranian
government is adopting a more tolerant stance towards ethnic Azeris
in Iran.
In addition, Khatami reiterated Iran’s commitment to Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity, effectively signaling that Tehran supported
Baku’s negotiating position in the stalled Nagorno-Karabakh peace
talks. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
In a follow-up development, Iran’s Export Development Bank extended a
$75 million loan to improve the power grid in the Azerbaijani exclave
of Nakhichevan, which straddles the Iranian frontier, the Bilik
Dunyasi news agency reported.
Azerbaijan, in turn, has expressed support for Iran’s participation
in a transit system connecting Europe and Asia, known as TRACECA.
Baku additionally endorsed the creation of a tripartite railway and
road network, involving Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. Such projects
could potentially be of enormous economic benefit for Iran by opening
new export routes.
As widely anticipated, Khatami’s visit was unable to produce a
breakthrough on the Caspian Sea question. Iran and Azerbaijan have
long been unable to agree on a formula to divide the sea. The
bickering at some points has even threatened to turn violent. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The lack of a deal has
hampered the development of the region’s ample natural resources.
[For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
During his Baku visit, Khatami tried to stir hope that a near-term
breakthrough was possible. Yet no participants in the stalemated
Caspian Sea talks have given any indication of making a significant
concession. Iran believes the five Caspian littoral states should
receive equal 20 percent shares of the sea. Azerbaijan, along with
Kazakhstan and Russia, favor a formula that would leave Iran with
roughly a 13 percent share. Turkmenistan’s stance in the process has
proven hard to pin down.
Despite the lack of progress on the Caspian issue, state-controlled
media in Azerbaijan generally trumpeted Khatami’s visit as a success.
“There is great potential to develop Azerbaijani-Iranian relations in
all fields,” said a headline in the August 7 edition of the official
Khalq Gazeti.
Some observers say that bolstering bilateral ties marks a pragmatic
step for both sides. Azerbaijan of late has expressed frustration
with Western institutions, in particular the OSCE Minsk Group, over
the lack of progress on a Karabakh settlement. [For background see
the Eurasia Insight archive]. Closer Azerbaijani-Iranian ties, or at
least the appearance of such, could be a way to get Minsk Group
members, especially the United States, to push harder for a Karabakh
settlement, some Azerbaijani officials believe. The Bush
administration has been keen to promote Iran’s diplomatic isolation.
[For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. “Rapprochement with
Iran would allow Azerbaijan to create great potential for political
maneuvering vis a vis the West,” said a commentary published by the
Zaman newspaper.
Other Azerbaijani experts, meanwhile, feel that Iran desperately
needs friendlier relations with Baku. “Khatami realizes very well
that from a geopolitical point of view, Iran is currently in a
situation with no prospects,” said a commentary published by the
Zerkalo daily. [See related story] “Iran is sliding into a dangerous
area of geopolitical isolation.”
Editor’s Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance contributor to
EurasiaNet. He also serves as the deputy editor-in-chief of the Echo
newspaper in Baku.

Agence France Presse
Aug 10 2004
Armenian-claimed enclave conducts military exercises

AGDAM, Azerbaijan (AFP) Aug 10, 2004
The armed forces of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
Tuesday ended a military exercise on the borders of Azerbaijan that
Armenian Defense Minister Serj Sarkissian said was aimed at keeping
the peace.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in the heart of
Azerbaijan, was the scene of a civil war in the 1990s that ended with
a ceasefire in 1994 that left the enclave in Armenian hands. The war
displaced a million civilians and left some 35,000 people dead.
Azerbaijan still claims the territory.
Sarkissian, who watched the maneuvers, said “these exercises are
aimed at keeping the peace.” He added it was important to keep a
regional power balance.
“The armed forces of Armenia are the guarantors of the security of
Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said. “It is nobody’s secret that the army of
Nagorno-Karabakh cannot assure the defense of the territory on its
own.”
The Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces mustered some 2,000 men and a few
helicopters and artillery pieces for the week-long exercise.
“The threat of war exists as long as the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
is not resolved,” said Armenian army chief of staff Mikael
Arutiunian.
The exercises followed a statement by President Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan that his country would make no compromises with Armenia
over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
The statement appeared to mark a hardening of Azerbaijan’s stance
over the conflict.
“We cannot react positively to calls on us to make compromises. On
questions of our territorial integrity we will never make any
compromises,” Aliyev said last month.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Aug 10 2004
Third Volume Of Armenian-french Relations In Ottoman Documents
Published
ANKARA – The Prime Ministry Directorate General of State Archives
published the third volume of the book entitled ”Armenian-French
Relations in Ottoman Documents”.
The book includes a number of documents proving collaboration of
Armenian people with France against Turks between 1920 and 1922.
Prime Ministry State Archives Director General Yusuf Sarinay
undertook project management of the book.
The book also includes a number of documents both in French and
Ottoman languages proving extreme maltreatment committed by Armenians
who were among French soldiers against civilians in the places
occupied by French soldiers.
Among the documents, there is an urgent telegraph about killing of
two Muslim woodcutters by Armenian soldiers in southern province of
Maras.
The book also gives place to several documents saying that Armenian
soldiers attacked Muslim civilians in southern provinces of Antep,
Urfa and Maras.

RIA Novosti, Russia
Aug 10 2004
CSTO WILL NOT JOIN PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN SOUTH OSSETIA
MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) – The Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan) adopted a concept for peacekeeping activities, CSTO
Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told a press conference in
Moscow.
“We have adopted a concept for the CSTO’s peacekeeping activities,”
he said, “which stipulates the formation of peacekeeping potential by
common consent of CSTO member states.”
He said that the concept permitted peacekeeping contingents to be
trained according to a single system and for roles to be distributed.
“We plan to use this peacekeeping potential under the UN aegis in
CSTO territory and worldwide at the UN request,” he noted.
He stressed that the organization must not join the peacekeeping
operation in South Ossetia now. “Previous decisions must be
implemented to settle the conflict,” he added.
Mr. Bordyuzha said that the Georgian president’s statements were
“very contradictory.” “It is impossible to put them together to see
his [the Georgian president’s] position,” he said and added that
today, nobody wanted a repetition of when the Caucasus was hit by
Georgian-Abkhaz, Georgian-Ossetian, and Armenian-Azeri interethnic
conflicts ten years ago. “New politicians lack our experience but
they should understand that if a conflict is unleashed there is no
way back,” he emphasized.
Summing up the results of the recent exercises of the CSTO’s joint
rapid deployment forces in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the secretary
general said that his organization was concerned about the
developments in Afghanistan. “Presidential elections will be held in
Afghanistan on October 9 and,” he noted, “therefore, the remaining
Talibs and Al Qaeda terrorists have become active.”
“As for the situation in Central Asia, I am not concerned about it,”
he added.
Mr. Bordyuzha said that the strength of the joint rapid deployment
forces met the present-day tasks and that the forces were ready for
an operative response to regional developments.
According to him, the 11 battalions are perfectly trained and can
fulfill all tasks set by the CSTO leadership.
Presently, the CSTO command is ready to give a proper and rapid
response to the possible aggravation of the situation, Mr. Bordyuzha
said.
“We need 1.5-2 hours to make a decision on the use of force in case
of local aggravations,” he said. “Servicemen can be deployed in this
area in several hours.”
In his words, a plan of the joint rapid deployment forces’
development until 2010 has been worked out and stipulates common
equipment and armament for the armed forces and their transfer to the
contractual basis, the secretary general reported.
“In my opinion, the best way is to form a single brigade of rapid
deployment forces under single command. We hope to accomplish this
goal in the future,” he concluded.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zerkalo, Azerbaijan
Aug 10 2004
ANTI-ARMENIAN RHETORICAL `COMPETITION` CONTINUES IN BAKU
BAKU, 10.08.04. Azeri officials continue their barrage of threats,
demands and complaints directed at Armenia and NKR. Just in the last
week, spokesman for the Azeri Defense Ministry Ramiz Melikov promised
to do away with the Armenian state in `25 to 30 years` and
incorporate its territory into Azerbaijan. `This people has been a
nuisance for its neighbors and has no right to live in this region,`
Melikov said.
The Defense Ministry spokesman predicted that the `world Armenian
cabal` would face certain ruin. Not just yet, however, as the senior
official in the ruling New Azerbaijan Party Ali Ahmedov dismissed the
human rights criticism of the New York-based Human Rights Watch,
alleging that it was under Armenian influence.
Also last week, the Azeri government, which continually threatens to
unleash a new war in Karabakh, protested the holding of annual
maneuvers of the Karabakh Army. The Azeri Central Election
Commission, widely chastised for rubber-stamping the dynastic power
transfer in Azerbaijan last year, protested the holding of a
competitive municipal election in Karabakh. The state-controlled and
scandal-plagued Football Federation of Azerbaijan, in its turn
complained about the plans for holding a soccer competition in
Karabakh.
With aggressive rhetoric continuing unabated, a public opinion poll
conducted in 2003 and published last month found strong public
support for peace in both Azerbaijan and Armenia. 97 percent of
Armenians and 93 percent of Azeris surveyed said they desired peace,
while 74 percent of Armenians and 46 percent of Azeris want
inter-ethnic relations re-established. Significantly, there is
greater support for reconciliation among the Azeris displaced by the
war (80 percent) than the general population. The American University
in Washington, DC funded the study.