Author: Chmshkian Vicken

SURVEY PINPOINTS ETHNIC WINNERS AND LOSERS IN ‘MELTING POT’ BRITAIN – ARMENIANS BEST
Robert Winnett and Holly Watt

The Times, UK
Sept 10 2006

Found: migrants with the mostest

ARMENIAN immigrants and their descendants are the most successful
ethnic group in the country, according to an analysis of "melting
pot" Britain.

They are followed by the Japanese, Dutch and Greek Cypriots among the
groups who are economically and socially most successful. Bangladeshi
Muslims and migrants from Sierra Leone and Syria have fared worst.

The new analysis places the 42.2m adults registered to vote in
mainland Britain in 200 ethnic groups – on the basis of a person’s
surname and first name.

The information is linked to a marketing database to rank the
socioeconomic status of each group. The system, Origins Info, is
used by hospitals, retailers and charities to tailor their services
to individual ethnic groups.

Its developers claim it is reliable even though most married women
adopt their husband’s name and some immigrants may have changed their
surname to avoid discrimination.

Richard Webber, a professor of spatial analysis at University College,
London who developed Origins Info, said: "The patterns that this
analysis have uncovered are striking. We are hoping it will prove a
valuable tool for government and business."

The system can also be used to identify where different ethnic groups
live and the ethnic composition of the professions.

It reveals that Ripley in Derbyshire is the "most English" place in
England with 88.58% of residents having an English ethnic background.

The most diverse area is south Tottenham, in north London, which is
home to 113 ethnic groups from Bretons to Vietnamese.

Southall in west London has the least English gene pool – just 17.82%
of residents in the area nicknamed "little India" are of English
ethnic origin.

Ian Smith, 63, a carpenter, who has lived in Southall since 1978, said:
"Of the 90 or so houses in my street I would say there are fewer than
10 English families. Most are Sikhs but there are now more Somalis
and quite a few Poles.

"Sometimes I do feel slightly intimidated because it can feel like
a foreign country at times. But we get on well with our neighbours
who are both Sikhs."

The analysis shows the persistence of ethnic clusters decades after
the group first arrived in Britain. Greek Cypriots are concentrated
in Broxbourne and Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire and Margate in Kent,
Italians can be found in Bedford and Waltham Cross and the Dutch in
Plockton in the Scottish Highlands and Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales.

Cardiff has a high concentration of Maltese residents because it was
the port where many disembarked after naval service during the 1940s
and 1950s. The Chinese are in Oxford, Harlow and Milton Keynes and
Hispanics in Eastbourne, Crawley and Ascot. In Wales, English border
areas have been colonised by those with a Welsh background.

Overall, there is a disproportionately high number of immigrants
in business, law and medicine. An analysis of doctors, using data
provided by the Medical Directory, found the proportion of medics
with northern Indian roots is more than 10 times higher than for the
population as a whole. Spaniards and Romanians are also significantly
"over-represented" as doctors.

Similarly, Russians, the Dutch and Nigerians are over-represented
among barristers.

A disproportionate number of company directors are from immigrant
stock. The Japanese, Russians and people from the Nordic countries
are heavily over-represented among the country’s 5.3m directors and
partners. The English are one of the least commercially minded races,
according to this measure.

One in four restaurants is run by a Muslim and one in four chemists
by an Indian or a Sri Lankan.

Danny Sriskandarajah, head of migration, equalities and citizenship
at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a Blairite think tank,
said immigrant groups often had enduring characteristics. "There’s
something unique and special about people prepared to break the ties
with home. Throughout history, only a tiny percentage of people moved
any sort of distance. A few entrepreneurial, adventurous types have
the wherewithal and motivation to move."

Of the 2,651 people of Armenian descent in Britain, more than 1,600
run businesses and a high proportion live in expensive parts of
west London.

Among the most successful is Bob Manoukian, property developer and
former agent for Prince Jefri of Brunei. He has a family fortune of
£300m, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.

Other successful people with Armenian roots include David Dickinson,
presenter of the BBC’s Bargain Hunt, and Ara Palamoudian, chairman
of the Armenian community & church council of Great Britain.

He said: "Armenians have always tried to be self-sufficient and not to
be a burden on any country. It could be the history of the Armenian
people, the way their lives have been over centuries. They had to
find shelter around the world."

Many Armenians fled to England after the first world war, during
which up to 1.5m died, amid allegations of genocide by the Turks.

Other waves arrived in the 1970s and 1980s.

,,20 87-2350633,00.html

–Boundary_(ID_nsJJHrDxo7iU+RI Lb6CXOQ)–

AZERI PRESSURE GROUP DENOUNCES VISIT TO ARMENIA

ANS TV, Baku
9 Sep 06

The Karabakh Liberation Organization [KLO] is protesting about a
meeting between young people from Azerbaijan and Armenia at a Gugark
camp in Lori Region. A statement from the KLO says that a group of
young men, led by rights activist [head of the Azerbaijani National
Committee of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly] Arzu Abdullayeva,
is attending the event designed to contribute to friendly relations
between Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Karabakh residents.

This runs against Azerbaijan’s national interests, the statement said.

Because many Azerbaijanis were killed at the same Gugark camp in 1988
and 32 people were murdered in a welded pipe. The KLO believes that
the Azerbaijani delegates of the so-called people’s diplomacy are again
serving Armenian policy and justify Armenia’s policy of occupation.

The KLO is urging them to end the people’s diplomacy and to reject
steps which run counter to Azerbaijan’s interests, the statement said.

WEIGHT-LIFTER TIGRAN MARTIROSIAN WINS GOLDEN MEDAL IN EUROPE
CHAMPIONSHIP

PALERMO, SEPTEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Tigran Martirosian (69 kg, Gyumri)
performed successfully on September 6 in the Europe Championship of
weight-lifting being held in the city of Palermo, Italy. He, fixing
150 kg and 173 kg correspondingly for pull and push, got 323 kg in
the biathlon and won the first place. Tehmine Karapetian (53 kg,
Gyumri) won the bronze medal as a result of the biathlon. And David
Muradian (62 kg, Ararat) and Aram Andrikian (77 kg, Sevan) completed
the top fives.

SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN BELIEVES HE HAS BEST DRAFT ON ELECTION CODE

Panorama.am
15:36 08/09/06

The leader of National Democrats, Shavarsh Kocharyan, claims he
has proposed the best Election Code. He was very amazed when the
opposition supported the coalition draft and was even more amazed
when the opposition stepped back.

Kocharyan believes the authorities will do everything to reproduce
themselves during the upcoming elections.

He hopes that the people, opposition and the international institutions
may overcome that barrier.

The leader of National Democrats has developed a complex program of
election observation costing $4 million. Kocharyan’s fellow Arshak
Sadoyan has also proposed a program that may require $2.5 million
investment. Kocharyan thinks that Sadoyan’s plan is unrealistic since
he believes electronic voting may also be discredited in a country
that has never over passed the threshold of free elections.

In Kocharyan’s words, today criminal elements are taking the lead
being tired of serving the authorities and willing to rule on their
own. Panorama.am/

FRENCH ENTERTAINER AZNAVOUR, 82, PLANS HIS NORTH AMERICAN SWAN SONG

San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Sept 6 2006

(09-06) 04:00 PDT Mouriès, France — He came to Ellis Island in 1948,
a French Armenian singer who once sold fake silk stockings to Nazi
soldiers, a struggling artist with no visa but big dreams of performing
in America.

Some six decades, 60 movies and 740 recorded songs later, Charles
Aznavour returns to the United States this month for a series of
concerts — including a Sept. 13 performance in San Francisco and a
later date at the Mountain Winery — billed as his farewell tour of
North America.

[ Listen/Download: Mp3 excerpt of Charles Aznavour’s "Yesterday When
I Was Young"]

The surviving icon of an era branded by Frank Sinatra, Marlene
Dietrich, Liza Minnelli and Ray Charles, Aznavour is among only a
handful of French entertainers to reach international stardom. He was
voted entertainer of the century in a 1998 Time magazine Internet poll,
beating out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan.

Even today, Aznavour remains a prolific writer and composer — still
mesmerizing and sometimes outraging audiences with his frank lyrics.

"Strictly speaking, his music is suited for the ’60s and ’70s," says
Philippe Rezzonico, music critic for the Quebec newspaper Le Journal
de Montreal, who has followed Aznavour’s career for years. "But his
songs are about contemporary issues. His melancholy is universal."

At his summer home in Provence, Aznavour sketches in a series of
goodbye concerts he is scheduling by language and region. After
touring Germany and Japan, he is now focusing on English-speaking
countries before moving on to perform in Spanish-speaking ones.

"When it comes to singing, it will be over," Aznavour says of live
performances — although he will never bid adieu on a French stage.

"But there are other things besides songs."

Casually dressed in dark shorts and a white T-shirt, Aznavour brims
with energy and looks at least a decade younger than his 82 years.

His hair is white now, but his dark eyes are as bright as ever.

He quickly segues to plans for his next album, to be recorded this
fall in Cuba with the island’s leading jazz player, Chucho Valdes.

"He’s a very good musician," Aznavour says. "And since I’m going to
record hard songs, I want to lighten them with jazz music."

Aznavour, a singer, actor, writer and part-time diplomat, gets up at 6
each morning to work. He is a voracious reader — currently immersed
in a world-history series (he’s reached Egypt’s Pharaonic era). He
exudes a delight in life — he’s easily seduced by good food, wine
and shopping trips — yet his lyrics capture its harsher edges.

And his musical imprint is everywhere. He has written for Edith Piaf
and performed with Luciano Pavarotti, Elton John and Sting. Charles,
Minnelli and Elvis Costello have recorded his songs.

Why has Aznavour survived? Maybe because, however edgy his lyrics,
he remains synonymous with the traditional French "chanson,"
stirring images of Paris drizzle and unrequited love. Or because he
is considered a spectacular performer. Or because he writes about
themes everyone understands: loss, AIDS, depression, aging.

"I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out/ I never stopped to
think what life was all about," he wrote in his 1960s hit "Yesterday,
When I Was Young."

"When you’re young, you want to have No. 1 hits. I’ve done it around
the world," Aznavour says. "I can’t live in the past. I need to keep
coming back with subjects that disturb the public."

Nostalgia sells, though, and a large chunk of Aznavour listeners
are the 50-and-older crowd eager for old favorites such as "She" and
"La Boheme."

"His songs will be cherished among people who love French music,"
says Rezzonico, the Montreal music critic. "I think his legacy will
stand on that."

But Aznavour believes his songs also can resonate with a generation
nourished on hip-hop and rap. He keeps up with musical trends —
owning publishing rights to music by Grand Corps Malade, a French
slam poet who catapulted to fame this year.

For his forthcoming album, Aznavour has written about France’s
immigrant-laced suburban ghettos, about ghost villages where only
the elderly remain, about environmental degradation. "I always have
something to say to them," he says of younger listeners. "I talk
about racism, about homosexuality. I talk about things that aren’t
discussed."

And of course, he talks about love. "They fall into my basket when
they’re in love," Aznavour says, with a chuckle.

Audiences have not always fallen so easily. Aznavour, born Chahnour
Varinag Aznavourian in Paris in 1924, is the son of Armenian
immigrants who had fled the Turkish massacre in their homeland. They
were restaurateurs by trade, artists at heart: Aznavour’s father was
a singer, his mother an actress.

He became both. Aznavour made his stage debut at the age of 9, quit
school and shortened his Armenian surname.

But success proved elusive. To make ends meet during World War II,
Aznavour sold cheap chocolates and fake silk stockings to German
troops occupying Paris.

"My shortcomings are my voice, my height, my gestures, my lack of
culture and education, my frankness and my lack of personality,"
Aznavour wrote a few years later, still struggling at 26.

Still, the breaks came soon afterward, partly because Piaf took him
under her wing and on tour in France and the United States. The two
French singers, both survivors of gritty Paris childhoods, became
close friends.

In 1964, Aznavour sold out Carnegie Hall. But today, he prefers to
reminisce about his first musical appearance in New York, shortly
after the war.

"I had no visa. I didn’t speak English. And I didn’t have a return
ticket," he says about his Ellis Island landing. "Fortunately, we
had a good relationship with the judge."

Aznavour planned a two-week trip to the United States and Canada. He
stayed far longer, performing at Cafe Society Downtown, a popular
Greenwich Village club. "I didn’t break any windows," he says,
"but it was a credible success."

Sixty years later, he still has a following in the United States,
while most contemporary French musicians do not.

His filmography boasts the 1960s Francois Truffaut classic "Shoot the
Piano Player," and he has founded a charity to help Armenia; a square
in Yerevan bears his name. Indeed, the Armenian government has granted
him the status of ambassador at large, a job Aznavour takes seriously.

"It’s rare to find someone as free as he is in the largest sense of the
word — so tolerant and open to other traditions, cultures, religions,
thinking," says Edward Nalbandian, Armenia’s ambassador to France,
who is an old friend of Aznavour’s. "He’s not a political man, but
when he discusses political issues, he speaks frankly and sincerely."

Not all the reviews are positive. A number of British newspapers panned
Aznavour’s musical "Lautrec," about the French artist, when it opened
in London’s Shaftesbury Theater in 2000. The show, wrote the Guardian,
was teeming "with skirt-waving bawdiness, allusions to split-crotch
panties and vertically challenged sex." Aznavour’s songs were "vapid."

French critics, however, praised the same songs, repackaged in
"Insolitement Votre." Today, he is focused on preparing for his
forthcoming concert and album — and on writing several novels. He
might also consider future movie appearances, but he says he will
turn down leading roles.

"I don’t have the time. I’m 82 years old, and I’ve only got 20, 25, 35
years left to live," he says, brown eyes twinkling. "I’m an optimist,
but still, that’s not a lot."

–Boundary_(ID_L1pGpf5R+lZdcNfi2nowXw) —

THE UN CRIES POOR ON LAWLESS SOMALIA, WHILE ITS EX-SECURITY CHIEF DOES BUSINESS THROUGH RULELESS REVOLVING DOOR
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

Inner City Press, NY
Sept 6 2006

UNITED NATIONS, September 6 — The UN accepts military intelligence
from governments it will not name, because the member states refuse
to provide funds for such intelligence, the head of the UN Political
Affairs Ibrahim Gambari said Wednesday. Inner City Press had asked
about Somalia, and UN DPA’s previous statement that it relies for
information on its office in Nairobi, which says it has no monitoring
mandate in Somalia.

"That it is based in Nairobi is instructive," answered Mr. Gambari,
adding that the UN is keeping a close eye on Somalia and is "doing
the best we can." He explained the lack of plans for any UN force
to Somalia in terms of the lack of financing, pointing to the
African Union’s shortfall for its Darfur mission. "Where is the
financing?" asked Prof. Gambari. He suggested increased use of such
UN agencies and affiliates as the humanitarian unit OCHA and the UN
Development Program.

Mr. Gambari’s response was decidedly more restrained that a recent
online commentary by the ex-UN head of security for Somalia, American
Wayne Long, who last month wrote of U.S. strategy in Somalia:

"in order to win a war like this at least cost in US lives, a true
superpower plays the Great Game. Playing the black hats against the
blacker hats of America’s enemies saves US military lives and treasure
– HELLO!!!"

Call it conflict prevention. The above is online, as of September 6,
at 1PABE9RG9

On September 6 at UN Headquarters, Inner City Press again asked about
the reports of Ethiopian troops in Somalia and how the UN might at
least confirm this. Mr. Gambari responded that "some governments
share some intelligence, I don’t want to mention names.

Otherwise we would have no capacity. Member-states would not
welcome the enhancement of the Secretariat in terms of intelligence
gathering." Video here, from Minute 49:15.

Somalia per UN: Money Can Be Made

On UN Ethics, A Long Hypothetical — Wayne Long, That Is

Inner City Press’ sources in Somalia provide a quite different picture
of member-states’ actions and intelligence gathering in Somalia,
which is recounted here including to serves as a hypothetical for
reform. They say that retired general William Garrison, who commanded
U.S. forces in Somalia in 1993 and for identification purposes was
played by Sam Shepherd in the movie Black Hawk Down, has been plotting
for some time to open a private, for profit airport or landing strip in
Somalia, and more recently to buy and run an airline, Trackmark. They
say that Garrison’s entrepreneurialism, which may also not be unrelated
to intelligence gathering, is being assisted by Wayne Long, who was
previously the United Nations’ head of security in Somalia. Mr. Long
is an American, graduate of Texas A&M.

Apparently unlike the UN Political Office on Somalia, Inner City Press
in pursuing its monitoring mandate remains in contact with informed
sources, and even… consults "open source" resources, otherwise
known as the Internet. Whereon one finds ex-UN staffer Wayne Long,
hiding in plain site. Listing his address, accurately, as Nairobi,
Kenya, Mr. Long on August 3, 2006 posted an exasperated comment of a
(U.S.) true believer:

"in order to win a war like this at least cost in US lives, a true
superpower plays the Great Game. Playing the black hats against the
blacker hats of America’s enemies saves US military lives and treasure
– HELLO!!!"

This is online, as of September 6, at
CJO1PABE9RG9

Slightly more diplomatic, writing as Wayne E. Long he has published
an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune urging the U.S. to beef
up its military with immigrants with green cards; the IHT op-ed,
of March 1, 2006, identified him only as "a retired colonel in the U.S.
Army," nothing about the UN.

Contrary to Ibrahim Gambari’s statement Wednesday that the UN must
rely on unnamed governments for intelligence, some close observers note
that the UN’s operations in Somalia and places like it are "top-heavy
with Americans," in part so that the U.S. can gather intelligence
either on-the-cheap and/or under cover of the UN’s blue flag. The
revolving door profit making comes later (but may also be connected).

As summarized by an Inner City Press source who has seen Mr. Long, in
this case the UN employed as its chief security officer in a volatile
country a gung-ho, red-blooded "use the black hats" American, who since
leaving the UN is reportedly cashing in with dodgy business ventures
in the same country in which he represented the United Nations.

Wednesday afternoon Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane
Dujarric for an on-the-record statement about the existence or
non-existence within the present UN, or that UN envisioned by Kofi
Annan’s reform proposals, of any safeguards against revolving doors
by which former UN officials could make money in the locales of their
UN tour of duty, using their UN contacts. A closed place UN source,
insisting on not being identified, said he doubts any current rules
prohibit it, since the rules were "made in the 1950s." Speaking
on-the-record, Mr. Dujarric said he had asked upstairs and would
provide an answer later on Wednesday. After 7 p.m. the following was
provided to Inner City Press as an official on-the-record statement
of the UN on its policy:

"After leaving its employment, the United Nations expects its staff
members to conduct themselves in a manner which would not bring
disrepute to the organization.

"The current UN staff rules and regulations only apply to serving
staff. There are currently discussions in-house focusing on the
subject of post-employment restrictions so as to avoid any possible
conflict of interest. Substantive changes to staff rules would need
to be approved by the General Assembly."

The General Assembly meetings are about to begin. But it does
not appear that Mr. Annan included any anti-resolving door or
post-employment safeguards in his package of proposed reforms.

Developing…

UN-Heard on Uighurs

The UN’s Alliance of Civilizations, or at least its High Level Group,
has met in New York for the past two days. There have been stakeouts
for photographer in the UN basement, on Tuesday, and on 1st Avenue
and 46th Street on Thursday. The main "get," fruitlessly pursued by TV
and print reporters, has been ex-Iranian president Katami. Following
remarks he made in Chicago on his way to New York he has decided,
or it has been decided for him, to not speak to the press.

Appearing for a press conference Wednesday were the co-chairs of
the Alliance, Mr. Federico Mayor of Spain and Mr. Mehmet Aydin of
Turkey. The latter began by demanding that questions relate solely to
the Alliance and its work. Okay then. Back in June 2006, Inner City
Press asked Messrs. Mayor and Aydin what the Alliance was doing to
the East, in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Mr.

Mayor back in June said, good question, and pointed out that there
are representatives of China and India in the high level group. It’s
not just about Muslims and the West, they said.

Now the Alliance’s website uses as two of its three lead examples
precisely this phrasing: the West, or Western societies.

Click here to view. So on Wednesday Inner City Press asked what the
Alliance has done, even in speaking to its Chinese representative
Pan Guang, about the treatment of Uighurs, including those freed
from Guantanamo Bay but now in limbo in Albania. (Most recently, it
is reported that if Albania does not refoule these Uighurs, China’s
Security Council veto may impact the pending status talks on Kosovo.)

"You are absolutely right," said Mr. Mayor, who went on to saying
that in China "the authoritarian mechanisms are still there," and
that the Alliance has to "denounce realities as they are." A fellow
journalist noted that no concrete actions were mentioned in response
(video here, from 30:30 to 31:30). Mr. Mayor said that the Alliance
is deciding what to report and recommend to the Secretary General,
"not only on religion but also on freedom of expression."

On that, note that Uzbekistan has mostly recently denied the right
of counsel to folk singer Dadakhon Khasanov, indicted by the Karimov
government, for his song "Andijan." Click here to hear and download
an MP3 of the song, and pass it on.

Feedback: editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Reporter’s mobile: 718-716-3540

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At the UN, Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly’s Surface, While
Incoming Council President Dodges Most Questions

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, September 5 — Nagorno Karabakh, one of the world
most frozen and forgotten conflicts, surfaced at the UN on Tuesday,
if only for ten minutes. The General Assembly was scheduled to vote
on a resolution concerning fires in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan. The diplomats assembled, or began to assemble, at 4 p.m..

At 4:15 it was announced that in light of ongoing negotiations,
the meeting was cancelled, perhaps to reconvene Wednesday at 11:30.

Sources close to the negotiations told Inner City Press that the
rub is paragraph 4 of the draft resolution, which requests that
the Secretary-General report to the UN General Assembly on the
conflict. Armenia wants the matter to remain before the Minsk Group
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has
presided over the problem for more than a decade. Leading the OSCE’s
Minsk Group are Russia, France and the United States, members of the
veto-wielding Permanent Five on the UN Security Council, nations which
Azerbaijan claims have ignored its sovereignty as well as blocking
Security Council action, as for example Russia has on Chechnya.

Of the fires, Azerbaijan has characterized them as Armenian arson,
and has asked for international pressure to allow it to reach the
disputed territories where the fires have been.

Nagorno-Karabakh, per WFP

At a July 13, 2006 briefing on the BTC pipeline, Inner City Press
asked the Ambassador of Azerbaijan Yashar Aliyev about the pipeline’s
avoidance of Armenia. We cannot deal with them until they stop
occupying our territory, Ambassador Aliyev said. "You mean Nagorno
– Karabakh?" Not only that, Amb. Aliyev answered. That’s only four
percent. Few people know this, but Armenia has occupied twenty percent
of our territory.

Both Amenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and UN Ambassador
Armen Martirosian have said publicly in the past month that if
Azerbaijan continues pushing the issue before the United Nations,
the existing peace talks will stop. Armenian sources privately speak
more darkly of an alliance of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova,
collectively intent on involving the UN in reigning in their breakaway
regions including South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria
— examples of what some call the micro-states. Armenia is concerned
that in the UN as opposed to OSCE, Azerbaijan might be able to rally
Islamic nations to its side.

It is not only to predominantly Muslim nations that the Azeri’s are
reaching out. The nation’s foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov met
recently with this Swedish counterpart Jan Eliasson, the outgoing
president of the General Assembly.

Following Tuesday’s General Assembly postponement, Inner City Press
asked Mr. Eliasson if, in light of his involvement in reaching the
1994 cease-fire, he thinks the GA might have more luck solving the
Nagorno-Karabakh than the OSCE has.

"I hope so," he said. "I’m in favor of an active General Assembly." He
recounted his shuttle diplomacy to Baku in the early 90s. And then
he was gone.

Elsewhere in the UN at Tuesday, the income president of the Security
Council, Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis held a press conference
on the Council’s plan of work for September. Inner City Press asked
when the Council will get the long-awaited briefing on violations
of the arms embargo on Somalia. Amb. Vassilakis responded about a
meeting on September 25, at Kenya’s request, on the idea of the IGAD
force in Somalia. Inner City Press asked what has happened with the
resolution on the Lord’s Resistance Army of which the UK has spoken so
much. It will be up to them to introduce the motion," Amb. Vassilakis
replied. He did not reply on the issue of the outstanding International
Criminal Court indictments against LRA leaders including Joseph Kony
and Vincent Otti.

Inner City Press asked why, on Ivory Coast, the long-delayed report
by the Secretary-General’s expert on the prevention of genocide has
not been released. In this response, Amb.

Vassilakis grew animated, saying that one has to choose between justice
and peace. This implies that the finished report identifies alleged
perpetrators, as pertains to genocide, but is being withheld either
to facilitate peace, which has not come, or as negotiating leverage
over some of the perpetrators. To be continued, throughout the month.

Rare UN Sunshine From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and
Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell in its Ear on Nigeria

BYLINE: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 29 — In Chad there are ninety political
parties and over seventy rebel groups, with a focus on overthrowing
Idriss Deby. Meanwhile Deby last Friday ordered Chevron and Petronas
out of the country, for failure to pay taxes.

Chad is the fifth poorest country in the world, with countries in
turmoil or trouble along at least half of its perimeter. To the west,
Niger and to the east, on the other side of camps housing over 200,000
refugees from Darfur, lies Sudan. To the south, the Central African
Republic with its own rebel groups. In the tri-border area of the
Sudan, Chad and the CAR is a lawless zone of mercenaries for hire,
and area none of the three governments control.

Tuesday the head of the UN’s operations in Chad, Kingsley Amaning,
provided reporters a lengthy and well-received briefing. He began by
sketching how the situation in Darfur is further destabilizing Chad,
spreading ethnic conflict and banditry across borders. Mr. Amaning
said that alongside 90 political parties, the roster of rebel groups
has grown from 47 to 72. Inner City Press asked, as even invited
political parties have, why the rebels are excluded from Deby’s new
national dialogue. There are a dozen refugee camps in eastern Chad,
each with fifteen to twenty thousand residents, in a region where the
average town size is only three thousand. In fact, Mr. Amaning said,
right now "the quality of life of the refugees is higher than the
quality of life of the local population."

Mr. Amaning, originally from Ghana and having previously served the
UN in Guinea, has been in Chad for a year and a half.

During that time, rebels marching on the capital N’djamena were
stopped only by a bomb dropped by the French air force. A colleague
of Mr. Amaning, OCHA Chad desk officer Aurelien Buffler, noted in
an interview that the official description of the French bomb was a
"warming shot." He added that Chad is not even on the agenda of the
Security Council and that raising funds for development is difficult,
since donors don’t know where the money goes. Later this week 25
donors led by Canada will meet with Mr. Amaning in UN Headquarters.

The dichotomy seems to be that while emergency humanitarian funds
can be raised, long-term funds for development are more difficult. Mr.
Amaning said, "Humanitarians get resources, but we don’t follow up
political solutions with development so that people have jobs."

Refugees in Chad per UNHCR

Inner City Press interviewed Mr. Amaning after the briefing, and asked
him first about specific vulnerable refugee camps near the border with
Darfur, Am Nabak and Ouve Casson. Mr. Amaning confirmed that these
camps will be moved, belated, to a lot north of Biltine, now that
it’s thought there is underground water on the government-owned site.

Turning to history, the UN Security Council, history and one of its
veto-wielding Permanent Five, Inner City Press asked about France’s
involvement. Mr. Amaning said that the UN principles are to oppose
violent takeovers and to encourage dialogue. "I tell the French
Ambassador that instead of trying to explain what type of intervention
that was," Mr. Amaning said, referring to France’s bomb-drop in
support of Idriss Deby, "they should say they did it on behalf of
the international community, so there would be no violent overthrow."

Speaking more generally, or regionally, Mr. Amaning said, "If we do
not stabilize Darfur," weapons will continue to spread throughout
the region. "It’s a line that’s going to join up… from DRC through
Central Africa to the northern part of Uganda, to Chad and the Sudan —
where are we going?" At least Mr. Amaning is asking.

For weeks Inner City Press has asked all and sundry in UN Headquarters
to confirm or deny that Ethiopian troops are present in Somalia. Kofi
Annan’s representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, skirted
the issue despite six questions from Inner City Press last time he
was in New York. Mr. Fall’s spokesman has told Inner City Press to
look elsewhere, since his office does not have a monitoring mandate
in Somalia. In a stakeout interview, the head of the UN’s Department
of Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari responded with generalities. An
email followed, that DPA relies for information on Mr. Fall’s office —
which has not monitoring mandate.

Kofi Annan’s spokesman’s office suggested that Inner City Press
contact the members of the group monitoring the UN’s Somalia arms
embargo. Group member Joel Salek confirmed receipt of Inner City
Press’ request, but said he would "give floor to Bruno [Schiemsky],
the Chairman of our Group, to answer your questions." Time passed,
Inner City Press sent a second request. Mr. Schiemsky responded,
"Sorry, at this stage I have no comments. I need first to brief the
Sanctions Committee" of the Security Council.

Tuesday at the Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked
UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry who in the UN can speak regarding
Somalia. Amb. Jones Parry responded that the UK is working on a
resolution. Video here.

But when Inner City Press five minutes later asked the President of
the Council, Ghana’s Nana Effah-Apenteng, about Amb. Jones Parry’s
resolution, the Ghanaian Ambassador said no resolution has been
introduced. Video here. Meanwhile the Horn of Africa slides toward
regional war.

Earlier this year at the African Union summit in Banjul, Kofi Annal
pulled back from involvement in Zimbabwe, saying he was deferring
to the new mediator Ben Mkapa. Now documents from the AU submit
show that Mkapa never accepted the role of mediator. Tuesday Inner
City Press asked Kofi Annan’s spokesman if this now means that the
Secretary-General will re-engage. Video here, at Minute 21:50.

The spokesman said he will respond; this has not taken place by 6
p.m. deadline.

Nor as the spokesman answered Inner City Press’ question of Monday,
about why UNDP took funding from Shell Petroleum to write a report on
human development in the Niger Delta, where Shell has a long record
of violating human rights. I will get you an answer, the spokesman
said. We’re still waiting [this remains true as of September 6, 2006 –
still no answer.]

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AMERICAN ARMENIAN BENEFACTORS ARE DECORATED WITH "SAINT GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR" ORDER

Noyan Tapan
Sept 05 2006

ETCHMIADZIN, SEPTEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN. On September 3, at the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Karekin II Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians decorated American Armenian benefactors,
Mr. and Mrs. Pedros and Anna Oruncakciels with the "Saint Gregory
the Illuminator" order. According to the information submitted to
Noyan Tapan by the Information Services of the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin, they were awarded that order for their productive
activity, beneficial to the nation and church.

TARIFFS OF SERVICES DELIVERED TO POPULATION IN AUGUST DECLINE BY 0.2%

Noyan Tapan
Sept 04 2006

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. The tariffs of services delivered
to the population in August declined by 0.2% compared with July,
which was mainly conditioned by a 1.7%, 0.5% and 0.2% decline in
transport (due to a 5.2% decline in air transport fares), cultural
and communication services respectively.

According to the RA National Statistical Service, in the indicated
period, the tariffs of public catering, consumer and medical services
grew by 0.1-0.2%, while those of housing, utility, educational,
recreational, legal and banking services remained at the previous
month’s level.

Armenia remain in the hunt
Saturday, 2 September 2006

Armenia revived their chances of reaching the UEFA European Under-21
Championship play-offs as a first-half goal from Tigran Gharabaghtsyan
proved enough to defeat Norway in a Group 1 fixture in Yerevan.

Final fixture
The result left Samvel Petrosyan’s side level on three points with
Bosnia-Herzegovina – who had beaten the Armenians 3-2 in the section’s
first fixture last month – with the match between Norway and the
Bosnia-Herzegovnians to come on 6 September. The latter need a point
to progress to the play-offs, while Armenia will qualify should Norway
win by one goal.

Opportunist Karabagtsyan
The home team had a number of early opportunities at the Republican
stadium with Artur Yedigaryan missing the target when well placed, but
the breakthrough arrived in the 24th minute when Boris Melkonyan’s
pass gave Alexander Petrosyan an opening and, although Rune Jarsyein
parried, Karabagtsyan was on hand to put away the rebound.

Norwegian opening
Samvel Melkonyan then headed wide, but Norway had chances of their
own, Magnus Myklebust twice being crowded out while Alexander Tettey
tried his luck from distance on several occasions without
success. Tomasz Sokolowski shot over for the visitors after the break
before Myklebust hit the post from close range after a great cross
from Tore Reginiussen. Armenia held out, however, and must wait and
see whether they will be involved in the play-off draw on 8 September.

uefa.com 1998-2006.

Turkish PM: Turkey will withdraw its soldiers from Lebanon if they are
asked to disarm Hezbollah

AP Worldstream; Sep 02, 2006

Turkey’s premier on Saturday said his government will withdraw Turkish
soldiers from Lebanon if they are asked to disarm Hezbollah, as public
concern runs high that Turkish soldiers could end up clashing with
their fellow Muslims once deployed in Lebanon.

The government on Friday submitted a resolution to parliament to send
peacekeepers to Lebanon as part of an expanded U.N. mission, despite
public opposition to the deployment. The parliament is expected on
Tuesday to vote on authorizing a one-year deployment of an unspecified
number of troops

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured Turks the soldiers would
only be protecting peace and helping with humanitarian aid, not
disarming Hezbollah militants.

"When such a thing is requested from our soldiers, then we will
withdraw our soldiers from there. I’m saying this very openly,"
Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Saturday.

The Turkish contribution to the U.N. mission would include a naval
task force to patrol the eastern Mediterranean and prevent arms
smuggling.

According to the resolution, Turkish forces would also help train
Lebanese army troops and provide sea and air transport in support of
other national contingents in the U.N. force.

Europe, the United States and Israel are all eager to see peacekeepers
from Muslim Turkey in Lebanon, in the hopes that strong Muslim
participation would avoid any impression in Lebanon that the
U.N. peacekeepers are primarily a Christian, European force.