Author: Hunanian Jack

AGLANDJIA GYMNASIUM TO MOVE TO MELKONIAN

Financial Mirror, Cyprus
June 29 2007

Alumni satisfied with deal, but remain cautious

The New York-based Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) has
offered temporary use of the Melkonian school’s abandoned premises
in Nicosia to the Aglandjia Gymnasium for a year, with an option to
renew the free lease for a further year.

In an agreement that was signed last Wednesday between Education
Minister Akis Cleanthous and the AGBU representatives in Cyprus,
the Melkonian school will be used by 430 Aglandjia pupils until
construction work in their own school are completed.

Aglandjia gymnasium has been facing construction problems for years,
with teachers, parents and pupils repeatedly expressing their concern
over the safety of the building.

The situation reached a climax last April when two construction workers
died while working at the gymnasium. The earth collapsed around them
as they were digging a hole, burying them alive.

Parents, teachers and pupils refused to attend the school until
drastic measures had been taken to ensure their safety.

"When the Armenian representative in parliament, Vartkes Mahdessian,
was first approached by the Minister of Education on April 25, the
intention was to go ahead and provide [the grounds of the Melkonian
Educational Institute] free of charge, but the decision was up to
the administrators in New York," the Alumni Association of Cyprus
said in an announcement.

The association, the local branch of the organization that represents
some 2,200 graduates of the historic school, greeted the latest
agreement with initial satisfaction.

"It had been the intention of the Armenian community of Cyprus from
the beginning to help the government in a moment of need and provide
shelter to the schoolchildren from Aglandjia until construction work
on the foundations of their school building are completed," said the
alumni announcement.

"Although we are not yet aware of all the details surrounding the
deal, we are waiting to see what limitations or clauses, if any,
were imposed on the Cyprus government in order to be granted the use
of the abandoned school buildings," the announcement said.

"We have assurances from the Education Ministry as well as the Attorney
General’s office that the lease agreement has no bearing whatsoever
on the heritage preservation order that protects 60% of the Melkonian
estate, including the historic buildings, the founders’ villa and
mausoleum, as well as the small forest along Limassol Avenue that some
people are so desperate to cut down and sell," the Alumni concluded.

An announcement from the Ministry of Education said that the
multi-purpose sports hall as well as the school’s auditorium, "will
be made available to the AGBU and to the Armenians, during times that
will not conflict with the school’s hours."

News reports last week said that a high-ranking official from the AGBU
in New York had visited Cyprus in order to conclude the property lease,
but that the agreement had been subject to at least five alterations,
according to Phileleftheros.

AGBU President Berg Setrakian said in a statement issued in New
York after a quick stop in Cyprus, where he refrained from meeting
any members of the community or even the Armenian Representative
in parliament, that the organisation "reiterates its commitment to
the Armenian Cypriot community. The AGBU is also considering the
development of a project for the benefit of al Cypriots."

The only acknowledgement of the school’s contribution to Cyprus society
came from the Minister of Education who said that, "the Melkonian
Educational Institute, the most renowned co-educational institution of
Cypriot Armenians, has been one of the primary Diaspora institutions
of education during the post-Armenian Genocide 20th century. It was
a boarding school of high academic standard located in Nicosia."

No mention was made of the AGBU’s decision to close the school after
79 years nor any explanation was given to the reasons that led to
the closure.

EDUARD AGHAJANOV: GOVERNEMT’S PROGRAM IS NOT IN LINE WITH STATEMENS ABOUT SECOND-GENERATION REFORMS

Noyan Tapan
Jun 28, 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 28, NOYAN TAPAN. In terms of its contents, the new
program of the Armenian government is not in line with the statements
about second-generation reforms or the creation of an economy of
new quality.

Economist Eduard Aghajanov expressed this opinion at the June 28
press conference.

According to him, it is necessary to develop the industry in order to
implement second-generation reforms, while the governmental program
lays a stress on the development of mining industry and metallurgy
only.

Only one sentence, according to which the government will keep the
IT sector in the center of attention, is dedicated to information
technologies in the government’s program. Whereas, in the words of
E. Aghajanov, countries like Irland, India, Russia to have reached
success in the hightech sector have used some tax mechanisms of
promotion, which has not been done in Armenia.

E. Aghajanov said that the program says about formation of a
knowledge-based (innovation) economy. However, for this purpose it
is necessary to allocate at least 1-1.5% of GDP to science, while
the 2007 budget allocates only 0.19% of Armenia’s GDP to science.

In the economist’s opinion, developing the inovation technologies is
the only way to make the Armenian economy competitive. Even oil-rich
Azerbaijan recently declared its intention to create a regional
innovation zone, in which Russia will participate as well. E. Aghajanov
noted that Armenia should be able to make a breakthrough in this
sphere as it is already behind the neighboring countries.

PROSECUTOR IN BAKU DEMANDS TO SENTENCE SOLDIER WHO PASSED TO KARABAKH TO 14 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.06.2007 15:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A trial came to end in Azerbaijan towards a soldier
who is accused of high treason. On Thursday the prosecutor demanded a
14-year-imprisonment sentence for private Eldaniz Nuriev in the Court
for War Crimes of Azerbaijan under the chairmanship of Judge Mamedbagir
Zeynalov. The court session finished with response speeches by the
culprit and his lawyer. The court is expected to run its verdict on
June 29.

Eldaniz Nuriev is accused of violating sentry rules, desertion and high
treason. According to the indictment, "the soldier who was recruited
to the army by the commissariat of Agsu region of Azerbaijan, without
permission left the N military unit in Fizuli region of Azerbaijan,
where he was passing his military service. Soon he was taken prisoner
by Armenians. According to the indictment, E. Nuriev passed the
enemy information, which is state secret in the military sphere of
Azerbaijan.", Trend reports

But in reality private of Azeri army Eldaniz Nuriev born in 1979,
passed the Karabakh side in the night of December 31, 2006 in the
Fizuli direction of the contact line between armed forces of Nagorno
Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Soon he was taken prisoner by servicemen of
NKR Defense Army. Later he was returned to the Azeri side.

TURKISH DEMOCRACY "IN PROGRESS"
By Edmond Y. Azadian

Situation in Turkey and Armenian National Interests
AZG Armenian Daily #122,
29/06/2007

You can kill a man, but not his ideas. The Turks murdered Hrant Dink,
they destroyed him physically, yet his ideas continue haunting all
of Turkey. If, initially, there were doubts whether the crime was the
act of a fanatical individual or an organized entity, developments in
the ensuing months came to prove that the "deep state" was involved
in the assassination plot. The criminal was treated and hailed as a
national hero publicly and by the police.

During Hrant Dink’s funeral the Istanbul municipality had prepared
uniform slogans sympathetic to the victim, to demonstrate to the West
that there was a unanimous condemnation of the crime. The veneer of
hypocrisy wore out soon and there was a backlash.

Those who were chanting "We are all Hrant Dinks", "We are all
Armenians" were soon countered by the fanatical mobs chanting "We
are all Turks".

Hrant Dink’s ideas caught the imagination of the masses in Turkey
like a conflagration, and it became a daunting task for the Turkish
military to contain them.

Dink’s "Agos" weekly had become a cauldron of liberal ideas, not only
for the Armenians, but also for the Kurds and Turks in the human rights
movement. "Agos" had a wide circulation, equally read by Armenians,
Kurds and Turks.

"Agos" nurtured the ideals of Kurdish national identity and
self-determination, as it rekindled ideas of democracy and human
rights among educated Turks. He believed that by developing democratic
institutions in Turkey that country would be civilized and become an
acceptable candidate for European Union. Then Armenia could reap the
fringe benefits, by having a civilized country on its border ready to
face historic reality and recognize the genocide. Germany faced its
past, reconciled with its erstwhile enemies, especially with Britain
and France and to this day compensates Jews and Israel, because it
is a civilized nation.

Hrant Dink was a sincere fighter for democracy in Turkey. He tried to
push Turkey to the threshold of the 21st century, but the reactionaries
won for the time being and the ruling religious party is looking back
to the medieval past to establish a system based on the Sharia law
in this day and age.

For the Turkish military he opened too many cans of worms, challenging
its capacity to contain. He had to be eliminated before he went too
far. But they could not kill his ideas.

The Turks have been conducting a very sophisticated policy of playing
the charade of democracy on the face, while allowing the military to
call the shots.

The West and especially the major US media play up the charade by
inviting the other Moslem countries to emulate the Turkish model.

As the AK party, like its predecessor led by Erbakan, began flexing
its muscles, the military tightened its grip on the government.

Also a powerful backlash came to intimidate the minorities, and
especially Armenians. Bomb threats against Armenian churches and
schools, a vicious media campaign and continued government harassment
have created an atmosphere of fear and terror, so much so that some
Armenians in Turkey have begun to blame the victim himself, Hrant Dink,
questioning whether it was right for him to awaken the sleeping beast.

Prime Minister Erdogan, after giving some lip service to the European
critics of the Turkish Penal Law 301, continues to use it against
any perceived enemy to stifle freedom of speech.

It was not enough that Hrant Dink was murdered and his newspaper’s
staff harassed, now the next victim is Hrant’s son Arat, who has been
taken to the court.

On June 14, Hrant Dink’s son Arat was taken to the court as the
successor of his father at Agos, which in its July 2006 edition had
reproduced an interview by Hrant to a news agency. Arat and three
other journalists were charged with "insulting Turkish identity"
under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office requested six months prison sentence
for Arat Dink. The three other Agos journalists charged are Sarkis
Seropyan, Aydin Engin and Karin Karakashli. A prosecution was also
initiated against Erdal Dogal, one of the Dink family lawyers.

Reading "Wall Street Journal" one is under the impression that Turkey
has come a long way in instituting democratic reforms. These legal
harassments do not seem to figure out in those statements.

Continuing to prosecute and persecute "Agos" means fighting Hrant
Dink beyond his grave.

As long as Article 301 of the Penal Code is in force, Turkey cannot
make any progress towards democracy.

On the other hand, not a single property confiscated from the Armenian
and Greek minorities has been returned, not withstanding of the laws
that the Turkish parliament adopts or discusses ad nauseam.

The Turkish military is presented as the guardian of secularism in
Turkey. but who has elected the Turkish military for that role? Every
time any popularly elected government tries to exercise its democratic
right to govern, the self appointed military junta steps in and
topples that government. And this system is praised in certain news
media in this country as a role model of democracy to be emulated by
other Moslem countries.

Unfortunately, hypocrisy cannot be eliminated completely from
diplomacy, but if a certain measure of balance is stricken, there is
hope for democracy.

PULL-OUT OF RUSSIAN TROOPS TO DEVELOP COMPETITION – ARMENIAN POLITICIAN

Arminfo
25 Jun 07

Yerevan, 25 June: "After the necessary, in our view, withdrawal of the
Russian military bases from the Armenian territory, a real economic
competition of powers will begin here and Armenians will only win
from this," a member of the political council of the Dashinq Party,
Gnel Glechyan, has told Arminfo.

He said that simultaneously with the withdrawal of the Russian
military bases, it will be necessary to state that Armenia is not
going to join NATO and deploy any foreign armed formations on its
territory at all. Given this, geopolitical players will only be able
to develop an economic competition in the region and make investments.

"It is obvious that they have their own interests in the region, and
we are unable to bring them together. The ongoing conflicts around
the whole South Caucasus and the conflicts yet to occur are a vivid
proof of this," Glechyan said.

He also noted that speaking about the necessity of the pull-out
of military bases from Armenia, Dashinq Party is not making any
anti-Russian steps.

Glechyan thinks that all countries in the region must exclude foreign
military presence in their territories, including on the border
with Russia.

Answering the question how this is possible in the condition when
Georgia intends to enter the Euro-Atlantic alliance, Glechyan said that
our neighbours lead this policy because "we have turned Armenia into
a monster, we keep troops here and say: dear powers, please compete,
moreover – in the military sphere".

TEENAGER MOTHER KILLS HER NEWLY-BORN CHILD

Noyan Tapan
Jun 26, 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 26, NOYAN TAPAN. On June 18 the police department of
Shengavit received a message from the "Grigor Narekatsi" medical
center, saying that the teenager A. Adamian (born in 1990), who is
a citizen of Yerevan, was brought to their medical center with womb
haemorrage.

It turned out that A. Adamian after giving birth to a child killed and
hid it in the wardrobe of the sleeping room. A corpse of a healthy
newly-born male baby, wrapped up in a plastic bag was discovered
in the wardrobe of the sleeping room during the examination of
A. Adamian’s appartment.

According to the message received from the RA General Prosecutor’s
Office, a criminal case was filed in the Prosecutor’s office in the
Shengavit community on June 21 according to Article 106 of the RA
Criminal Code. A preliminary investigation is being conducted on
this case.

UEFA’S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO DECIDE MEETING PLACE OF NATIONAL TEAMS OF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

Noyan Tapan
Jun 25 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The sitting of the executive committee
of the European Football Union (UEFA) started its proceedings in the
city of Heerenveen in Holland on June 22-23. The place determination
of the meetings to be held on September 8 and 18 between the
national teams of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the first subgroup of
the qualification stage of the European Football Championship will
be among the issues included on the agenda.

According to the information provided to a Noyan Tapan correspondent
by the Press Service of the Armenian Football Federation, the latter
has not been invited to take part in the sitting of the executive
committee.

World Council of Churches – Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
[email protected]

For immediate release – 25/06/2007 04:47:06 PM

CHURCHES IN JERUSALEM WELCOME WCC’S NEW ADVOCACY INITIATIVE FOR PEACE IN
PALESTINE/ISRAEL

A free high resolution photo is available, see below

Heads of churches in Jerusalem have welcomed the Palestine Israel Ecumenical
Forum launched in Jordan last week. They voiced satisfaction with the new
advocacy initiative at meetings with World Council of Churches (WCC) general
secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia during his 21-26 June visit to the Holy Land.

The need for mutual understanding between the peoples in the region was
highlighted by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and All Palestine
Theophilos III on the first day of Kobia’s visit.

Although primarily interested in religious issues, church leaders are also
concerned about political developments, Theophilos said. They aim to play a
positive role and contribute to the wellbeing of the peoples in the region.

He also stressed the crucial role of dialogue among Christians as well as
with people of other faiths, something particularly important in a city like
Jerusalem, which holds a particular significance for all three monotheistic
religions.

Theophilos voiced deep appreciation for the work and contribution of the
WCC. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, he said, is fully committed to the
Council’s purpose of promoting not just a "rapprochement" between Christian
denominations, but full and complete unity.

Theophilos bestowed the title of Bearer of the Cross of the Order of
Orthodox Cross-Bearers of the Holy Sepulchre on the WCC general secretary,
and expressed appreciation for Kobia’s understanding and support of the
Patriarchate.

The issue of inter-religious dialogue and collaboration was raised again at
a meeting with the Maronite Archbishop Paul Sayah. He pointed out that
inter-religious dialogue has to go down to the grassroots level and involve
young people. In Palestine/Israel, Sayah said, nine out of ten hours spent
on inter-religious dialogue and cooperation should be dedicated to young
people.

Armenian Apostolic Patriarch Torkom Manoogian said he had followed the
creation of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum with great interest.
"Peace and justice are necessary," he said, "yet they are not the final
goal. If they prevail, there is hope for both Israelis and Palestinians to
live together side by side as children of God."

The lack of land and housing for Christians among the Palestinian people was
discussed at a meeting with the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Swerios Malki
Murad. He and some members of the church gave a detailed account of the
current difficulties in these fields.

The Anglican Bishop Suheil Dawani affirmed the importance of building peace
from the bottom up. In particular, he highlighted the need to include
education for peace in schools for all the people in the region.

For Lutheran Bishop of Jordan and the Holy Land Dr Munib Younan, the
Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum shows that churches worldwide are taking
seriously the issue of a just peace in the region. "We, as a suffering
church of Arab Christians, need churches of the world to help us to keep the
hope," he stated.

On Sunday, 24 June, the WCC general secretary preached at St George’s
Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem. Jerusalem and Palestine are in need of
transformation, he said. The desired change will be brought about not by the
powerful and the mighty but by ordinary people. It is the power of the
powerless that causes change to occur, Kobia affirmed.

A high-resolution version of a photo of Kobia with Greek Orthodox Patriarch
of Jerusalem Theophilos III is available on the WCC website at:

< -main/news/summer2007/DSC_7449
.JPG>
http://www .oikoumene.org/fileadmin/images/wcc-main/news/summ er2007/DSC_7449.
JPG

See also WCC press update of 19 June 2007 on Amman conference on "Churches
together for Peace with Justice in the Middle East" at:

< ent/all-news-english/display-s
ingle-english-news/ article/1637/occupation-hurts-human-di.html>
ht tp:// -news-english/display-si
ngle-english-news/article /1637/occupation-hurts-human-di.html

Full text of "The Amman Call" at:
<;

The text of Kobia’s opening speech at the Amman conference at:
<;

More information on the WCC and Palestine/Israel at:

< concerns-palestine-israel.html
>
http://wcc-coe .org/wcc/what/international/regconcerns-palestine- israel.html

This material may be reprinted freely.

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
<mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and
service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches
founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 347 Protestant, Orthodox,
Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in
over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church.
The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church
in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

ARMENIAN SOCCER CHIEF ‘REGRETS’ AZERBAIJAN MATCH CANCELLATION
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 25 2007

The Armenian Football Federation (AFF) on Monday expressed regret
at the weekend decision by European soccer’s governing body, UEFA,
to cancel planned matches between the national teams of Armenia
and Azerbaijan.

The two teams were due to face each other after being drawn into
Group A of the qualifying competition for the 2008 European football
championship. Their head-to-head matches, scheduled for this September,
were certain to arouse nationalist passions in both South Caucasus
states that remain in a state of war over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The AFF, backed by Armenia’s government, has insisted all along that
the potentially tense games be played in Baku and Yerevan. However,
its Azerbaijani counterparts have been categorically against this,
saying that they can not guarantee the security of Armenian players and
coaching staff and pushing for neutral venues. They have also said that
the very fact of Armenians arriving in Azerbaijan would be an affront
to the memory of Azerbaijanis killed during the Karabakh conflict.

UEFA’s repeated attempts to get the two federations to find a mutually
acceptable solution have failed.

"As no suitable compromise could be found between the two associations
it was decided to cancel the two matches, namely Azerbaijan-Armenia
scheduled for September 8 and Armenia-Azerbaijan scheduled for
September 12," UEFA said in a statement following a meeting of its
executive committee in the Netherlands. "It was decided to award both
associations zero points for the matches."

"I regret that we lost an opportunity to see the [two] matches of our
team whose play is becoming stronger and more spectacular day by day,"
the AFF chairman, Ruben Hayrapetian, said in a statement. He stressed
that the Armenian side was always ready to hold one of the games in
Yerevan "at the highest level" and to send its team to Baku.

Significantly, Hayrapetian, who is also a senior member of the
governing Republican Party of Armenia, made it clear that the AFF
will not challenge UEFA’s "unprecedented" decision in an international
arbitration body.

Hayrapetian had earlier threatened to take UEFA to court, arguing
that the Geneva-based body’s statutes obligate all member states to
host football games on their territory and take adequate security
measures for that purpose. Armenia was only prepared to play its away
game with Azerbaijan in a neutral ground.

The match cancellation, by contrast, was welcomed by Azerbaijan.

"UEFA made the right decision," Azerbaijan Minister on Youth and
Sport Affairs Azad Rahimov said, according to the Regnum news agency.

"Frankly, that decision was unexpected for us."

Azerbaijan is bottom of the Euro 2008 Group A with five points from
eight matches, while Armenia has seven points from seven outings. The
Armenians won their last two games played earlier this month, moving
up to the 80th place in worldwide rankings of national teams that
are issued by the game’s worldwide governing body, FIFA. Their 1-0
shock victory in Yerevan over group leaders Poland marked the national
team’s biggest achievement yet.

Armenia’s cancer-stricken Scottish coach, Ian Porterfield, is widely
credited with the two-game winning streak.

42 HELD, ARMENIAN INJURED IN CLASHES
David Nowak, Staff Writer

The Moscow Times, Russia
June 25, 2007 Monday

Dozens of ultranationalists armed with metal poles and broken bottles
attacked people from the Caucasus and Central Asia at two squares
near the Kremlin and a third location Friday night, raising fears of
an escalation in ethnic violence.

One ethnic Armenian was hospitalized with stab wounds and 42 people
were detained in the clashes, city police said.

The attackers consisted of about 50 members of ultranationalist groups,
including the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, which sought to
carry out a "provocation against the population of Moscow," police
said in a statement, Newsru.com reported.

Alexander Belov, the movement’s leader, called the accusation "some
kind of stupidity" Sunday and said he had given police his own version
of events when summoned to a police station Saturday.

Arrests were made on Manezh Square and Slavyanskaya Ploshchad, both
near the Kremlin, and outside the Fili metro station in western Moscow.

Police arrested a Russian citizen identified as I. Sergeyev, born in
1988, on suspicion of assaulting a D. Aganesyan, born in 1990. The
police statement gave no other names or details about the detainees.

It was unclear Sunday whether they remained in custody and whether
they would face charges.

Police said both ultranationalists and immigrants had broken the law
on Friday night. They also appealed to leaders of political parties
and movements not to "provoke their supporters nor entice youths and
minors into committing illegal acts, particularly for ethnic reasons."

The Movement Against Illegal Immigration posted footage of the clashes
on its web site. Young men carrying broken bottles and metal poles were
seen clashing on what the web site said was Slavyanskaya Ploshchad.

In other footage, people chanted "Russia for Russians!" and
"Kondopoga!" in reference to ethnic violence in the northwestern town
late last summer that followed the killing of two local residents
during a brawl with Chechens in a restaurant. Locals took to the
streets, burning down the restaurant and targeting other establishments
owned by people from the Caucasus.

Kondopoga has become something of a cause celebre both for
ultranationalists, who claim it serves as a warning to those who
tolerate the integration of different ethnicities, and for human rights
groups, which call the incident a prime example of the propagation
of racism.

Earlier this month, hundreds of people staged a protest in the southern
city of Stavropol after two Russian students and an ethnic Chechen
were killed in separate incidents there. Protesters called for the
banishment of people from the Caucasus from the city.

The Movement Against Illegal Immigration participated in the protests
in Stavropol and Kondopoga.

While tensions have simmered in Moscow, with the occasional fight and
anti-immigration rally, larger attacks such as Friday’s have been few
and far between. Political analysts have speculated that some Kremlin
officials are stoking ethnic tensions ahead of national elections to
win votes from people worried about an ultranationalist threat.

Belov said Friday’s violence, which began at around 8 p.m. on
Slavyanskaya Ploshchad, was provoked by people from the Caucasus.

"We were peacefully guarding Moscow from gay prostitutes when groups of
people from the Caucasus approached and provoked a reaction," he said.

The square is known as a cruising area for homosexuals.

Belov said his group employs people who are always on hand during
such events to document — this time with the help of video cameras —
what goes on.

Alexander Brod, director of the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights, said
quite the opposite was the case. "The work of Belov’s organization
is to provoke such fights and strengthen the nationalist mood in the
country," Brod said.

"His organization is gaining momentum, and it is a real threat. Belov
travels the country and provokes these fights, this violence, and
law enforcement agencies don’t touch him," Brod said.

"Unfortunately, with the elections coming, these attacks will
continue," Brod said, adding that the Movement Against Illegal
Immigration has close ties to Dmitry Rogozin’s Great Russia, a party
created in April to capture the nationalist vote.

"One of Russia’s most serious illnesses is xenophobia," Brod said.

Rights groups lament the apparent reluctance of authorities to act
against race-related crimes. They complain that prosecutors prefer to
hit apparent participants with minor public disorder or hooliganism
charges.

Since the start of this year, at least 32 people have died in racist
attacks across the country, and 245 others have been targeted by
ultranationalists, human rights activists say.

Mayor Yury Luzhkov condemned the most recent violence.

"Any display of chauvinism, xenophobia or nationalism will be harshly
put down in our capital, on the basis of the Constitution … and on
the basis of the law," Luzhkov said in televised remarks.

The attacks came just hours after the Kremlin announced that
President Vladimir Putin nominated Luzhkov to a new four-year term
in office. (Story, Page 3.) Opposition politicians in the City Duma
and State Duma have said the Kremlin wants to keep Luzhkov in office
to help deliver votes in State Duma elections in December and in the
March presidential vote.