Author: Hambardsumian Paul

STUDENTS RAISE DARFUR AWARENESS
by: Stacy Lee

New University, CA
UC, Irvine
June 5 2006

Students simulated a refugee camp on Ring Road in coordination with
“Climb for Darfur” event in Lake Forrest.

The Darfur Action Committee gave a new meaning to “on-campus housing”
last Tuesday and Wednesday when members of the club slept in a crowded
tent on Ring Road for two days to simulate the conditions of refugee
camps in Darfur, a region in eastern Sudan where, according to the
Coalition for International Justice, 400,000 people have been killed
in a genocide.

The event coincided with a “Climb for Darfur” rock-climbing fundraiser
held on Sunday at Solid Rock Gym in Lake Forest. Camp Darfur was
developed by Gabriel Stauring, a co-founder of Stop Genocide Now,
an organization dedicated to educating the public about the genocide
and finding means to stop it. Stauring and others organized the
first Camp Darfur event back in April, held for five days in Lennox,
Calif. next to LAX. Any interested parties were invited to sleep in
tents to experience the life of Darfur refugees.

Co-chairs second-year political science and history double-major
Sevana Sammis and second-year political science major Yvette Shirinian
attended the event and quickly took steps to organize another campout
at UC Irvine.

“We had to write a proposal to the dean of students to prove why it
was a worthy cause,” Sammis said. “We had to outline every single
detail. Fortunately, we were sponsored by the School of Social
Sciences and got support from the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
Manuel Gomez.”

After a month and a half of seeking permission, 10 students were
allowed to sleep in the small, drafty tent for two nights.

“It was a great experience for all the DAC members to get to know each
other while making a statement at the same time to the rest of the
students that there’s a genocide going on, [which is] important enough
for us to spend two nights on Ring Road despite the uncomfortable
conditions,” Shirinian said.

On Tuesday night, guest speaker Vazken Movsesian, who had returned from
a trip to Rwanda a decade after its own genocide, presented a slide
show to a crowd of approximately 30 students during a candlelight
vigil. In several frames, he explained that the concrete slab he was
standing under was a mass grave of more than 2,600 bodies, with four
to 60 victims per casket. Another picture showed a woman with a scar
across her right cheek, a survivor of the Rwanda genocide.

“She showed me that ‘machete,’ is not a noun. It’s a verb,” Movsesian
said. “You can’t cut through with a single blow. You have to machete
a person over and over to cut off a head, to kill.”

Students saw images of the Ntarama Church where over 5,000 died after
a priest betrayed a whole community to the rebels. The church was
left as a shrine with shelves of skulls and separate rows reserved
for those of babies.

“Why did they kill the children? Because they knew that one day they
would grow up to become the enemy,” Movsesian said.

But Movsesian also showed images of hope, children playing soccer
with a ball made from scraps, orphans of the genocide building homes
for families and widows working to make a future for themselves and
their children.

“When I saw these women, I saw my grandmother [surviving through the
Armenian genocide]. For a moment I saw beyond color. It didn’t matter,”
Movsesian said. “We need to remember that we are all people.

We are all together.”

On the following night, DAC presented a screening of “Invisible
Children,” a documentary about children in Uganda who were abducted
and forced to become soldiers. About 60 to 70 students attended and
also saw a clip from former Marine Brian Steidle, who witnessed the
Darfur genocide firsthand.

With both Camp Darfur and the fundraising event over, the DAC plans
to continue to work to end the genocide, even as the school year
comes to a close.

“Camp Darfur has definitely been a success. Now a lot more people know
about the genocide,” Sammis said. “Obviously there’s a lot more we can
do, but at least our first agenda [the UC divestment of UC funds from
the region] was passed. Now we’re waiting on statewide divestment.”

The club also plans to organize activist kits for students interested
in becoming involved over the summer. For more information, contact
[email protected].

Agence France Presse — English
June 2, 2006 Friday 2:16 PM GMT

Black Sea summit on cooperation snubbed by Moscow

by Mihaela Rodina

BUCHAREST, June 2 2006

A summit on cooperation opening Monday in Bucharest will bring
together five heads of state and several high officials from
countries bordering the Black Sea, but none from Moscow.

“This Forum for Dialogue and Partnership aims to create a cooperation
reflex in the region. It will be a meeting between equals, an
opportunity for all the bordering countries to express their
opinions,” Romanian Foreign Minister Razvan Ungureanu told AFP.

The presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine,
joined by their Romanian counterpart, as well as the Bulgarian
foreign minister and a Turkish deputy prime minister, have confirmed
they will attend the summit.

But no official will make the trip from Moscow, Russia having chosen
to be represented by its ambassador to Romania instead.

“The doors of this meeting were opened to the Russian Federation and
we hope our Russian partners will endorse the Forum’s conclusions,”
Ungureanu said.

“There is indeed an initial reluctance on Moscow’s part, but this
will not undermine the success of this meeting,” he said.

Announcing the Forum, Ungureanu had emphasised the need to “bridge an
image gap” in the region, which “suffers from a lack of confidence
between neighbours.”

According to organisers, those taking part in the summit will be
encouraged to table issues that concern them, whether it is organised
crime, energy or protection of the environment.

But with no leading Russian official present at the meeting,
discussions on energy security are likely to be less incisive than
participants, many of whom worry about their dependence on Russian
gas, would like them to be.

Following the January gas crisis between Kiev and Moscow, Europeans
have started to doubt Moscow’s reliability in terms of gas supplies,
and the need to diversify energy sources and find a way around Russia
for the supply of gas from the Caspian Sea for instance, is
increasingly being brought up.

The summit in Bucharest should also allow the presidents of Armenia,
Robert Kocharian, and of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, to meet again to
discuss the thorny issue of Nagorno Karabakh, an enclave with a
majority Armenian population, which seceded from Azerbaijan after a
bloody conflict in the early 1990s.

The last meeting between the two leaders in February, in the French
town of Rambouillet, had ended without any progress being made.

A statement by Kocharian’s office issued Friday said the foreign
ministers of the two countries would have talks first with their
Belgian counterpart Karel de Gucht, current head of the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, before the two presidents met
face to face.

On the sidelines of the Forum, the five heads of state will also meet
at Cotroceni palace with Romanian President Traian Basescu, who has
made the Black Sea region into a major foreign policy issue.

With its “frozen conflicts” in Nagorno Karabakh, Transdniestr,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, four separatist regions that emerged from
the shadows of the former Soviet Union, “the larger area of the Black
Sea has a high risk potential,” Basescu has said more than once,
adding that the region is “a hub for the traffic of drugs, human
beings and arms.”

PanARMENIAN.Net

Baku Rates Statement on Russian Peacekeepers Deployment in Karabakh
Interesting

02.06.2006 13:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The statement by the Russian Defense Minister Sergey
Ivanov is first of all interesting as a confirmation of a possible
breakthrough in the Karabakh talks, Azeri political scientist Rasim
Musabekov stated in Baku. In his words, the presence of Russian
peacekeeping contingent supposes the `real liberation of seven
regions’. `For the first time during many years Moscow acts
constructively and complements the efforts of the other OSCE MG
Co-chairs,’ he remarked.

As for the appearance of the Russian peacekeepers, the political
scientist considers that that they can be deployed only under the flag
and command of the OSCE and make no more that 30% of the total number
of peacekeepers.

`These questions have been considered during the elaboration of the
stepwise settlement plan in middle 1990-ies. One should not fear of
the possible appearance of Russian peacekeepers on our land and draw
parallels with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnistria. I do not
rule out that the regions where the Russian peacekeepers will be
deployed can be determined with the consent and coordination with the
Armenian side and thus become a security guarantee demanded by
Yerevan,’ Musabekov said.

CHILDREN ARE PROTECTED IN ARMENIA, SPECIALISTS CONSIDER

Noyan Tapan
Jun 1 2006

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. An event under the title “No to Violence
Towards Children” dedicated to the International day of Children’s
Protection was held on June 1 at Khnko Aper library on the initiative
of the Council of Europe Information Office in Armenia and The Future
is Yours charity organization. The pupils of Yerevan special boarding
school N 3 performed the staging of Hovhannes Tumanian’s “The End of
the Evil” tale, an exhibition of 10-15-year-old children’s works on
the subject “Violence Towards Children with Children’s Eyes” opened
during the event. As Narine Sargsian, Chairwoman of The Future is Yours
NGO, said, violence towards children exists everywhere independent on
social, national or ethnic belonging. She mentioned that children are
protected in Armenia. However, according to her, some work should be
done in order to inform children about their rights for them to be able
to express their opinion when decisions regarding them are made. Susan
Marukhanian, Director of the Council of Europe Information Office
in Armenia, mentioned that the event is held within the framework
of the three-year program “Let’s Build Europe for Children and With
Children.” According to her, the goal of the Council of Europe program
is to help the member-states to overcome the difficulties they are
faced with on the way of fulfilment of the commitments in this sphere.

According to S.Marukhanian, it is expected that children’s
participation during the program’s implementation will help to work
out new models of children’s participation at the local, national
and European levels and models of consultations with them.

COE INFORMATION OFFICE AND FUTURE IS YOURS NGO ORGANISED AN EVENT DEVOTED TO CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

ArmRadio.am
01.06.2006 16:55

Following the decisions of the Third Summit of Heads of State and
Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw 2005) a Council of Europe’s
programme “Building a Europe for and with children”, was launched in
Monaco on 4 and 5 April 2006. The aims of this three-year programme
are to promote and protect children’s rights, and to ensure the
protection of children from all forms of violence.

To raise public awareness of the theme and ensure the widest possible
application of Council of Europe fundamental values and principles,
on the occasion of International Day for the Protection of Children,
the Council of Europe Information Office in Armenia in cooperation
with “Future is Yours” NGO organised an event entitled “No to Violence
against Children”.

At the event, attended by children, Armenian professionals
active in the field of children’s rights, government officials and
representatives of the international community, the Council of Europe
activities in this field were presented in the welcome address by Ms
Bojana Urumova, the Special Representative of the Secretary General
of the Council of Europe to Armenia.

The event, hosted by the “Khnko Aper” library, most importantly
featured the thematic play based on Hovhaness Tumanian’s “The End of
Evil” prepared by the pupils of Yerevan No.3 special boarding school
and exhibition of paintings entitled “Violence against Children
through the Eyes of Children”.

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

Spero News
June 1 2006

I’m going to be creating a new WIKI on Christian Nationalism.

What, you ask is Christian Nationalism?

KINGDOM COME: THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

(excerpt)

Roy Moore and Rick Scarborough are Baptists, D. James Kennedy is a
fundamentalist Presbyterian, and John Eidsmoe is a Lutheran. All of
them, however, have been shaped by dominion theology, which asserts
that, in preparation for the second coming of Christ, godly men have
the responsibility to take over every aspect of society.

Dominion theology comes out of Christian Reconstructionism, a
fundamentalist creed that was propagated by the late Rousas John (R.
J.) Rushdoony and his son-in-law, Gary North. Born in New York City
in 1916 to Armenian immigrants who had recently fled the genocide
in Turkey, Rushdoony was educated at the University of California at
Berkeley and spent over eight years as a Presbyterian missionary to
Native Americans in Nevada. He was a prolific writer, churning out
dense tomes advocating the abolition of public schools and social
services and the replacement of civil law with biblical law.

White-bearded and wizardly, Rushdoony had the look of an Old Testament
patriarch and the harsh vision to match — he called for the death
penalty for gay people, blasphemers, and unchaste women, among other
sinners. Democracy, he wrote, is a heresy and “the great love of the
failures and cowards of life.”

Reconstructionism is a postmillennial theology, meaning its followers
believe Jesus won’t return until after Christians establish a thousand
year reign on earth. While other Christians wait for the messiah,
Reconstructionists want to build the kingdom themselves.

Most American evangelicals, on the other hand, are premillennialists.

They believe (with some variations) that at the time of Christ’s
return, Christians will be gathered up to heaven, missing the
tribulations endured by unbelievers. In the past, this belief led to
a certain apathy — why worry if the world is about to end and you’ll
be safe from the carnage?

ARMENIAN, KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSS BILATERAL RELATIONS

Arminfo
1 Jun 06

Yerevan, 1 June: In view of the fact that Kazakhstan will hold the
presidency of the OSCE in 2009, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan gave his Kazakh counterpart Kasymzhomart Tokayev detailed
information about the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

The Armenian foreign minister is paying a two-day official visit
to Kazakhstan.

During the meeting held today, the Armenian and Kazakh foreign
ministers discussed a number of issues of bilateral and international
interest, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has told
Arminfo. The parties expressed their satisfaction with the level of
political relations between the two countries. The ministers expressed
their mutual interest in the deepening of economic cooperation, which
is promoted by the work of the Armenian-Kazakh government commission,
existing legal agreements and the absence of political disagreements.

In the context of boosting bilateral trade and economic relations, the
Armenian foreign minister noted the importance of organizing meetings
between entrepreneurs and holding cultural events. The sides also paid
special attention to energy and transport issues. In this regard, the
Kazakh foreign minister informed Oskanyan about Kazakhstan’s position
on some regional programmes, especially Kazakhstan’s involvement
in projects being implemented in the Caspian region. In conclusion,
the Armenian foreign minister invited his Kazakh counterpart to pay
an official visit to Armenia at any convenient time.

The Armenian foreign minister also met Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev and delivered a speech at the Diplomatic Institute today.

Oskanyan is planning to meet representatives of the Armenian diaspora
in Almaty on 2 June.

COMPTE RENDU DE L’ENTRETIEN ENTRE M. JACQUES CHIRAC ET M. ILHAM ALIEV

NEWS Press
30 mai 2006

Presidence de la Republique

Le President de la Republique a recu pour un entretien M. Ilham ALIEV,
President de la Republique d’Azerbaïdjan, venu a Paris a l’occasion de
l’Assemblee parlementaire de l’OTAN. Le President ALIEV a rencontre
des representants du MEDEF et il dejeune avec le President du Senat,
M. Christian PONCELET. Il a egalement inaugure la nouvelle ambassade
d’Azerbaïdjan a Paris.

Le President de la Republique et le President ALIEV se sont felicites
de l’excellence des relations bilaterales, qui se developpent très
rapidement. Les echanges commerciaux ont connu un triplement de leur
volume en 2005, pour atteindre 491 millions d’euros, et les entreprises
francaises se montrent de plus en plus interessees a s’implanter en
Azerbaïdjan, dans tous les secteurs.

Le President de la republique et le President ALIEV ont eu un echange
de vues sur la situation regionale, notamment en Iran, ainsi que sur
la question du Haut Karabagh, la France ayant accueilli a Rambouillet,
les 10 et 11 fevrier derniers, les 3 co-presidents du Groupe de Minsk
de l’OSCE et les Presidents d’Armenie et d’Azerbaïdjan.

Le President de la Republique a fortement reaffirme les principes
de la declaration commune des co-presidents du groupe de Minsk,
a l’occasion de leur recent sejour dans la region. En particulier,
le President de la Republique a rappele qu’il n’y a pas d’alternative
a un règlement pacifique et negocie. Il a souligne l’importance de la
paix pour l’Azerbaïdjan, l’Armenie et la region dans son ensemble. Il
a confirme la confiance de la France, telle qu’elle s’est manifestee
a Rambouillet et dans les deux capitales lors des contacts du Groupe
de Minsk, pour parvenir a ce règlement.

–Boundary_(ID_inevPQpBJ8nIIjiPF8M+zA) —

PACE REPORTER ADVISES AZERBAIJAN NOT TO RELY ON OIL-DOLLARS AND GEORGE
BUSH’S SUPPORT

Yerevan, May 29. ArmInfo. PACE Leadership may receive recommendations
to revise the mandate of Azerbaijani delegation at any moment during
the Summer Session, declared Andreas Gross, PACE Co-Reporter on
fulfillment of Azerbaijan’s commitments to the CE, Day.az reports.

A. Gross briefed Sunday that the repeated parliamentary elections in
Azerbaijan on 13 May did not differ much from those in November
2005. He supposed that there will be not less criticism during the
upcoming discussions of the election results in Azerbaijan than it was
at PACE January Session. In his turn, Andres Herkel, the second
Co-reporter, expressed a supposition that the Azerbaijani authorities
have no intention to amend the Election Code to form election
commissions on parity basis although it is the key requirement for
free and democratic elections.

Andreas Gross urged the authorities of Azerbaijan to take measures to
improve the atmosphere of democracy in the country. He stressed that
the oligarchs in the surroundings of Azerbaijani President rely only
on incomes from oil, whereas they should think over democratic
development of the country in future when there will be neither oil
reserves nor the support from these oligarchs in the person of
U.S. President.

President Aliyev says Armenia-Azerbaijan gap “growing”

Azartac news agency, Baku
30 May 06

President Ilham Aliyev has said that Armenia will not be able to compete
with his country because the gap between Armenia and Azerbaijan is growing.
In a state-of-the-nation speech on Independence Day on 28 May, Aliyev said:
“Armenia will not be able to compete with Azerbaijan in the future.”
“They should think thoroughly, look a bit further ahead and see that the gap
between Azerbaijan and Armenia is growing in all spheres. Our budget has
reached 4.5bn dollars this year and will increase even more next year,” the
state-owned Azartac news agency quoted Aliyev as saying.