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The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 15; April 19, 2008
Community:
1. Five ARS chapters bolster Detroit
By Tom Vartabedian
2. ALMA Commemorates Genocides
By Andy Turpin
3. Washington Hamazkayin Hosts Lecture on Revolutionary Songs
By Serouj Aprahamian
4. Darfur Guide Speaks About New Book `The Translator’
By Andy Turpin
5. Kurkjian on `Beyond Genocide Recognition’
By Andy Turpin
6. AI Leads Student Protestors to Try Darfur Genocidaires at ICC
***
1. Five ARS chapters bolster Detroit
By Tom Vartabedian
Inside this Motor City, known for its rich automobile tradition,
stands another history that does itself proud.
No fewer than five ARS chapters are in the driver’s seat which steers
itself toward a destination of goodwill and charity on all cylinders.
As the organization approaches its centennial celebration in 2010, all
5 chapters will be among the 33 throughout the Eastern Region that
will celebrate this momentous occasion.
Here’s a look at their work:
ARS `Zabel’ Chapter
This ranks as the oldest continuing society in the Detroit area. The
chapter is a long-time supporter of the ARS Zavarian One-Day School
and actively supports and participates in all community endeavors.
The chapter also sponsors three Armenian orphans and sends $500
annually to an Armenian orphanage. Its motto reads: `For our people,
with our people, save today for tomorrow is too late.’
Members serve as a fine example for all ARS sister-chapter members. In
2004, nearly a dozen young women joined the Zabel Chapter together to
bring new strength and vision to the organization.
ARS `Maro’ Chapter
This chapter was established around 1930, making it one of the oldest
throughout Detroit. The chapter has over 30 members and continues to
grow. A cohesive unit of veteran members collaborates nicely with the
newer arrivals.
The chapter hosts its annual `Breakfast with Santa’ as a gift to the
community’s youngest members and their families. This popular event
has become a Christmas tradition.
Members also support the ARS Zavarian Armenian Day School, sponsor two
orphans in Armenia, provide camperships to AYF Camp Haiastan, and help
to fund a number of other community projects.
ARS `Shakeh’ Chapter
This chapter was organized in 1978. It received its name from Shakeh
Khatchikian, a deceased member who belonged to the ARS of Lebanon for
many years.
Throughout its brief history, the chapter has actively carried out its
ARS duties morally and financially.
The chapter supports the ARS Zavarian Day School, sponsors campers to
Camp Haiastan and visits the infirmed. One major function is the
Lenten dinner. Members work many volunteer hours to help create a
better community.
ARS `Sybille’ Chapter
This chapter formed in 1950 following a merger between the `Satenig’
and `Astghig’ Junior Chapters and got its name from the highly gifted
poet and educator Zabel Asadoorian, who used the pen name Sybille.
The chapter sponsors recreational programs for senior citizens living
at the St. Sarkis Towers and Manoogian Manor and also supports the
Zavarian School with a `Newspapers in Education’ program.
Also assisted are campers at Camp Haiastan and orphan programs in
Armenia, as ARS members make quilts and send baby supplies to the
adopted Nork Orphanage.
There is also a scholarship named after Edward Dilanian that is given
to students who lean toward the arts. A Mother’s Day fundraiser is
usually a major success.
ARS `Tsolig’ Chapter
This is the youngest chapter in Detroit, formed in 1979 with 23
members, and comprised of young mothers, working women, and
professionals who believe in the ARS ideals.
One successful fundraiser is the Hampartzoum social, celebrating an
old Armenian tradition, in addition to many successful dinner-dances
and raffles. Funds also support ARS programs in the diaspora and
Armenia.
The chapter sponsors two orphans, provides camperships at Camp
Haiastan, and has assisted the Mother and Child Clinic in Akhourian,
Armenia. In addition, contributions are made regularly to the
St. Sarkis Church and Armenian Community Center.
Members are proud to be devoted Armenian women and mothers but also
realize the difficulties in keeping and raising their children
Armenian. They are committed to upholding the beliefs and works of the
ARS.
Let’s hear from your chapter. In the weeks and months ahead, we shall
be profiling others. Please e-mail me at [email protected].
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2. ALMA Commemorates Genocides By Andy Turpin
WATERTOWN, Mass. (A.W.)’On April 13, the Armenian Library and Museum
of America (ALMA) hosted a public forum in commemoration of the
Armenian Genocide, the Jewish Holocaust, and the Rwandan Genocide with
a speakers’ panel discussion.
ALMA, the ANCA, the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, Facing
History and Ourselves-Brookline, the Armenian Assembly, the Strassler
Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University,
Orphans of Rwanda, and the Survivors’ Fund all sponsored the event.
Mariam Stepanyan, director of ALMA, welcomed the guests and thanked
them for choosing to spend part of their Sunday afternoon at such a
meaningful event for the Jewish, Armenian, and Rwandan
communities. `April 24 is a special day for the Armenian community not
only to honor the victims’as we carry the memory of the victims in our
hearts year around’but that day allows us to bring attention to the
issue of the Armenian Genocide and to the fact that to this date,
Turkey denies what has occurred, and the United States government is
yet to publicly recognized the Armenian Genocide.’
She added, `We are here today to talk about genocide and will hear
testimony from survivors and experts. If you take only one thought
home today, I hope it will be to ask yourself, `What could I do so
that genocide never happens again.’
Religious invocations were delivered by spiritual leaders from the
three communities. Rabbi Moshe Waldoks of the Massachusetts branch of
the Jewish Community Relations Council provided a Hebrew blessing for
the ceremony, followed by an Armenian blessing from Rev. Father
Antranig Baljian of St. Stephen’s Armenian Church, who sang a moving
traditional Armenian hymn. Rwandan minister Elisee Rutagambwa, a
doctoral student in ethics at Boston College, provided a blessing as
well, and reminded attendees that the struggle against those that
preach hate and genocide is never-ending. `Not long ago, on the
anniversary this year of the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide, a man
dropped a grenade in front of our memorial,’ he said. `Those who
commit genocide are terrorists, but we include them in our prayers,
too.’
Speaking of his Rwandan people in the United States and abroad, he
said, `We used to say that God spent his time everywhere else, but
came home to sleep in Rwanda. Let us pray for those in Rwanda who
continue to be killed’even after the genocide has stopped. Lord give
us strength that we might fight these events when they happen again.’
Jordan Rich, WBZ talk radio host, acted as moderator to the public
forum and introduced the speakers’ panel.
Dr. Roger W. Smith, academic chair of the Zoryan Institute on Genocide
and Human Rights, spoke first. He noted that he was asked so many
times, by surprisingly educated intellectuals and scholars, Who should
remember? `And so many people respond by saying, `Armenians should
remember Armenians; Jews should remember Jews; Rwandans should
remember Rwandans.’ But that is the perspective of `the bystander,’
Smith said, those who through passivity or inaction allow genocide to
occur. He cited Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke when he said that
the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing.
However, he added, `The other way to think of it are the words from
the Bible that ask, `Who is my neighbor?”
Answering his own question with universal humanism and commonality,
Smith said, `My neighbor is everybody. Anybody that is undergoing
genocide is my neighbor. Genocide is a crime against humankind. It
reduces the idea of what a human is.’
`We need to think about the human community,’ he explained. `We are
all Jews, all Armenians, all Rwandans, all Cambodians. Each genocide
is related to every other. It is grounded in cultural values and must
make sense to those in authority and the perpetrators. There are
rituals of degradation: We saw this in Bosnia with the use of rape as
a weapon.’
Smith added, `Tears of sorrow and tears of anger are natural, but it
is only through action and commitment that we can truly honor the
memory of those subjected to the ultimate crime.’
Dr. Henry Theriault, genocide studies scholar and an associate
professor at Worcester State College, spoke next. He said to those
gathered, `Of course, there are much more cheerful ways to spend your
Sunday afternoon than examining genocide’but this is our duty and
obligation to the future of humanity.’
Theriault cited a news broadcast on the local ABC News affiliate that
wrongfully quipped using denialist terminology in substitution of the
word `genocide’ by saying `You all have heard of the war in Sudan¦’
in the context of a story about a women’s college founded in Northern
Sudan, almost 2,000 miles away from the actual genocide zone.
He commented, `It’s like telling people, `See, there’s nothing wrong
anymore in Sudan.’ That’s denial. I imagine the Sudanese government
hired some marketing firm to work with ABC to spin that story.’
Regarding the milestone year for debate of the Armenian Genocide
recognition bill in Congress, Theriault said of those who maintained
that the bill only took prominence to detract from the Iraq war
effort, that `this is a form of cynical denial.’
Speaking how genocides fall off the priority lists of people’s daily
lives, Theriault said of Rwanda’s occurrence in the early 90’s that
`this was important because it wasn’t a case of denial after a
genocide, but during the genocide itself. And it could have been
stopped with stern diplomacy and a little bit of military
intervention.’
He noted that like the thousands of `starving Armenians’ that existed
in the 1920’s and 30’s, post-genocidal reconstruction problems such as
the largesse of rape-produced and AIDS-infected orphans in Rwanda are
going uncared for.
Theriault stated, `We’re not recognizing this legacy that we need to
do something about.’
He admonished that `genocide is one of the most constant events in our
history,’ citing the razing of Carthage by the Romans in 146 B.C. as
one of the earliest recorded genocides and the annihilation in 415
B.C. of the Melians by the Athenians as one of history’s least
acknowledged historical genocides.
Thucydides made this event the occasion of one of his most impressive
orations, known as the Melian Dialogue, which is a locus classicus for
the contest between raison d’état and ethical action, and is
the lynchpin at which the state of Athens in its chronology unhinged
the Periclean ideals that founded its noble reputation for egalitarism
and founding democracy.
Lane Montgomery, photojournalist and author of Never Again, Again,
Again¦Genocide: Armenia, The Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Darfur spoke next.
She said, `My book is a compilation of six genocides. It’s really
about the perpetrators more than it is the victims. Perpetrators we
never stopped.’
Montgomery advocated the assembly and deployment of a UN Anti-Genocide
Force, the creation of which has been proposed many times at the UN
but has never been realized.
She advised, `This force should be there to protect, but also to
prevent genocide. This force could have stopped this genocide in
Darfur.’
Armenian Genocide survivor Asdghig Alemian spoke to the audience about
her own survival experience and responded to the previous remarks by
the panelists.
She recounted, `I was 2 years old [during the genocide]. I don’t
remember much of my family. I have a picture of me and my family and
cousins. If it had not been sent to my uncle in America, I would not
have known what my mummy and daddy looked like.’
Holocaust survivor Edgar Krasa commented likewise upon his experience
living in the Terezin ghetto of then-Czechoslovakia.
He stated, `I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t suffer a lot or
long.’
He explained that when the German invasion was imminent, `it was
suggested to teenagers that they learn a trade. My mother said, `Let
him be a cook, so he never goes hungry!”
Krasa indeed became a cook and used his skill to survive World War II
and the Holocaust, remembering, `I was one of only two Jewish cooks in
my whole area of the country. We were taken care of well by the Czech
community.’
Yet 16 at the time, he said, `I was set up to feed 60,000 people,’
mostly soldiers and ghetto inhabitants. `I’d never done this before.’
Despite the relative altruism of the Czech community, Krasa stated
that `15,000 children under 15 were brought to that ghetto, and only 1
percent walked out.’
Asked what must be done to prevent genocide in future, Krasa replied,
`The mighty countries need to get more involved. Once power-hungry
dictators get power, they never want to give it up.’
Rwanda Genocide survivor and University of New Hampshire student Marie
Carine Gakuba responded to the same question by stating, `I was 8
years old during the genocide and at the time rationalized no one
coming to help us by thinking that the same thing must be happening
everywhere in the world. You can imagine my disappointment when I
found out it wasn’t.’
She continued, `Usually diplomatic relations are guided by economic
profits. The people in power will never act unless it’s to their
benefit.’
Gakuba noted of U.S. presidential candidate rhetoric that `not one
candidate spends more than a minute to talk about Darfur in their
foreign policy. That’s where we’re going wrong.’
After the testimonies by the scholars and the survivors, the audience
got a chance to ask questions.
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3. Washington Hamazkayin Hosts Lecture on Revolutionary Songs By
Serouj Aprahamian
The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Association provided
the greater Washington, D.C. community with a special, in-depth
lecture on Armenian revolutionary songs April 12. Krikor Pidedjian, an
accomplished Armenian musicologist, composer, and conductor, delivered
the lecture to a crowd of over 100 in attendance.
Maggie Simonian, chairwoman of the Washington Hamazkayin chapter,
began the night by welcoming the audience and offering a brief
introduction. `The story behind the creation of a song, especially a
revolutionary song, is a fascinating phenomenon,’ she said in her
opening remarks. `In times of joy or sorrow and in times of war or of
peace, a song has the power to uplift spirits, unite people, and
empower armies.’
She then introduced Pidedjian, who discussed the significance of
revolutionary music in Armenian history. He began by going over the
first songs linked to the emerging 19th-century revolutionary
movement, pointing out that even `Mer Hairenik,’ the Armenian national
anthem, can be traced back to this early era of ballads exalting
emancipation.
Pidedjian went on to discuss the key themes, episodes, and figures
discussed in Armenian revolutionary and patriotic songs. Accompanying
his presentation were three large panel boards depicting the
historical events surrounding a sample of the songs featured in the
lecture. These panels helped illustrate how revolutionary songs
reflect their respective time period and serve as a sort of historical
documentation.
Indeed, Pidedjian insisted that part of the value of revolutionary
music is its ability to pass on knowledge of important historical
events and teachings to the next generation. `They are a mirror
reflection of their era which helps tie us to our roots,’ he said.
He also pointed out that what makes these songs unique is their
association with a larger cause. The artistic value of revolutionary
songs is steeped in the collective struggle of a community, not just
an individual songwriter or musician. `In this sense, revolutionary
songs stand out from other genres of music,’ he explained.
The controversy surrounding this category of Armenian music was also
discussed. Pidedjian explained how despite being banned and outlawed
by Bolshevik authorities in Soviet Armenia, the Armenian people never
let go of their cherished revolutionary songs. In Armenia, these songs
were passed down secretly from one generation to the next, while in
the diaspora they were coveted and fostered by organizations such as
the ARF.
Pidedjian attributes this durability of revolutionary music to the
continuing Armenian struggle for justice and self-determination. He
maintained that these songs play an important role in instilling the
spirit of resistance and hope in our community. `These were the same
songs and spirit with which the fedayees in Arstakh went to battle 20
years ago,’ said Pidedjian.
The evening concluded with a brief question and answer session,
followed by closing remarks from Fr. Sarkis Aktavoukian, pastor of the
Sourp Khatch Church. He reiterated the important role revolutionary
music plays in passing down knowledge and lessons in our history, and
acknowledged their extraordinary ability to sum up in a few verses
what would often take an hour or so in a sermon or lecture.
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4. Darfur Guide Speaks About New Book `The Translator’ By Andy Turpin
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (A.W.)’On April 3, Daoud Hari, a Sudanese author and
professional guide and translator, spoke at the First Parish in
Cambridge about his experiences growing up in Darfur and writing his
memoir, The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur (Random House,
2008). The Harvard Bookstore and SaveDarfur.org sponsored the event.
Co-author and refugee advocate Meegan McKenna spoke and answered
questions from the audience alongside Hari in a discussion-style
forum.
McKenna gave context to Hari’s life, explaining that he had grown up
in the Darfur region of Sudan, and eventually migrated to Cairo and
Israel to seek employment.
`Sudan was and is a very poor country,’ Hari said. `I was born and
raised in northern Darfur. It is all desert and mostly camel
herders. I would return from school vacations to be with my
camels. ¦ You have to leave to feed your family.’
He spoke of his time in Cairo in 1996: `Egypt is a very big country in
my life. I saw many movies and learned first about the world’s
international problems.’ It was also where he began to learn English.
`In 2003, I entered Israel from Egypt illegally. I spent four months
in an Egyptian prison. After my release, I chose to go to Chad, where
there are very complicated policies in place’ on transnational
prisoner deportations and border arrests.
He said that after the massacres’that became a genocide’in Darfur , he
used his knowledge of Darfuri and Chadean geography and culture to
escort women and children refugees back to Chad. He thus fell into his
work as a guide/translator gradually as the genocide escalated. `All I
knew was that some journalists were coming to Chad to see the crisis
and show the international community.’
Since 2003, he explained, `I’ve worked with the journalists and
NGOs. Between Darfur and Chad we have a very long border.’
He contexted the importance that water played in the genocide, saying,
`Everyday the Sudanese were sending bombers. We helped the refugees
get to the camps. We have to support the people to get water from
water points’and they are never close together.’
`Every camp has 35,000-40,000 refugees. I decided not to pick up a gun
and fight. I’ve been into Darfur [illegally] six times. It’s very
dangerous, there are at least six rebel factions,’ Hari said.
He praised the journalists he had ushered into Darfur and Chad,
including New York Times correspondent Nick Kristoff and Chicago
Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek; he was captured with the latter
and imprisoned for 35 days in a Sudanese prison for illegal escorting
into Darfur.
`The journalists are braver than me,’ Hari said. `I’m doing it for my
people. They don’t have to be here.’
`I worked with Kristoff in 2006. We drove a long way to the
Chad-Darfur border. We saw three villages that had been attacked by
the Janjaweed. The vendors [often the only armed villagers] defended
themselves and captured two [Janjaweed] child soldiers.’
He said of Darfur, `It’s a very bad moment now. We left people in
villages we knew would be killed when we left.’
Kristoff had asked him, ` What can we do for these people?’ Hari had
answered, `If we stay with them, we’ll be killed or captured.’
Hari was candid in stating that `maybe 70 percent of what I do is
being a guide so they [the journalists and aid workers] are not
captured. It’s very easy to be killed for little money.’
Asked why he continues to engage in such dangerous work, Hari said, `I
don’t want to see any journalists killed by any rebels or
governments. I need to keep them safe.’
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5. Kurkjian on `Beyond Genocide Recognition’ By Andy Turpin
TROY, N.Y. (A.W.)’On April 3, Stephen Kurkjian, Pulitzer Prize-winning
investigative reporter for the Boston Globe, spoke at Russell Sage
College in a presentation titled, `Beyond Genocide Recognition,’ that
encompassed the politics of genocide denial, the 2007 assassination of
Hrant Dink, and Kurkjian’s trips to Turkey to cover the city-wide
funeral march and subsequent investigation.
Steven Leibo, professor of international history and politics, and
international affairs commentator for WAMC Northeast Public Radio
introduced Kurkjian.
`In an Armenian house, your doors are open, your table is set, and
everyone is a welcome guest,’ Kurkjian began for those unfamiliar with
Armenians or Armenian culture.
He showed a group picture from March 1915 of Armenian men gathered in
front of a municipal building. `I’m trying to authenticate when this
photo was taken, who took it, and the people in it. It is the only
picture from the town of Kayseri in Turkey to have survived the
genocide,’ he said. `The first time I saw this photo I was compelled
by the clarity in the faces. You cannot help think, `There go my
father, my grandfather.”
Around the time of the photo, he said, there had been a locust
plague. `The men were compelled by the soldiers to go into the fields
and pick up three pounds worth of insects, after which all the members
of the Tashnag and Hunchak political parties were told to muster.’
Kurkjian detailed, `All of these 55 men were killed or put on death
marches. I want to make known how ordinary and peaceful these people
were.’ Those men that weren’t hung `were taken from prison and marched
40 miles to Sivas. Older Armenians will tell you, the killing fields
were in Sivas,’ he said.
`Each of us has a responsibility to remind people of the horror of
this event. The title of my talk is `Beyond Recognition’ and I
emphasize when not if it will come.’
Alongside recognition, however, Kurkjian stressed the importance of
preserving Armenian monuments in Turkey, which are in ruin and in
urgent need of repair. `I’ve been told there are only 35 out of 2,000
Armenian churches that remain standing in Turkey and they desperately
need to be restored.’
He spoke about the Armenian diaspora’s role in the recognition
debate. `Hopefully we the diaspora will make the decisions that need
to be made and put a price on forgiveness. ¦ If there is to be a
financial settlement, let it first go to those struggling in Armenia,’
said.
Kurkjjian cited the reparations that were made to the survivors of the
Holocaust in the 1950’s, saying, `That was less than a decade after
the Holocaust; Armenians have gone through nine decades. If there is
money, let it go to those in Armenia struggling to succeed.’
Relating the story of his first trip to Turkey with his father, a
genocide survivor, in the 1990’s, Kurkjian said, `I can’t tell you how
emotionally powerful a moment it was. ¦ We toured through many
villages that had been Armenian before 1915. When I asked how the
guide knew they had been Armenian, he told me, `The windows will tell
you. Muslims don’t build houses with large windows. Armenians do. They
have nothing to hide.”
Kurkjian turned the conversation to Hrant Dink’s death, stating, `If
one man embodied these values, it was Hrant Dink. He believed
Armenians and Turks could live side by side. He was part of the
Armenian community, but he was a full and proud Turkish citizen.’
Dink, he said, was an ardent supporter of Turkey’s EU entry
process. `He believed there were more than a million Turkish citizens
of Armenian ethnicity. He believed that following EU entry, these
citizens would gain the courage to come out and become a political
power in Turkey.’
Kurkjian spoke to the amount of respect and courage Dink and his work
carried, noting, `Three of his assassins likened him to Ataturk.’
Turning to detail and recount the recent controversy exposing the
Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) refusal to acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide in unambiguous terms, Kurkjian said, `It played out on the
pages of the Boston Globe and there was a poll published in the Jewish
Advocate showing how many Jewish organizations other than the ADL
supported or acknowledged Armenian Genocide recognition.’
He remembered, `I held my breath as I looked at the
numbers. Seventy-five percent believed the U.S. should recognize the
Armenian Genocide in Congress. I can’t tell you how much this support
has meant to Armenians in Boston. It has drawn our communities
together immensely.’
Kurkjian quoted former ADL New England regional director Andrew Tarsy,
who recently stated at Northeastern University that anything less than
acknowledgment `facilitates the obfuscation of truth and imperils the
living.’
Asked during the question and answer session about the importance of
genocide recognition to Turkey’s future as a nation, Kurkjian
responded, `Confession is good for the soul. For a democracy to
survive it has to rely on the maturity of its citizenry. When a
government hides or represses the truth, you have to confront that’or
leave your people in the dark ages.’
He stressed, however, that recognition and activism must originate on
the grassroots level. `Recognition can’t be just a word. It has to be
a mind change by the Turkish people.’
Asked about the presence of Muslim political extremism in Turkey and
whether such fears should be considered in Turkey’s EU accession bid,
Kurkjian ended, `Turkey is not a terrorist country that espouses
terrorism. Its problems are how it deals with its minorities.’
A reception followed in the Buchman Pavilion. The Armenian Lecture
Series Endowed Fund is offered by Sage College’s Institute on Violence
and Healing: A Center of Inquiry on the Human Dimensions of
Geo-Political Trauma. The institute was co-founded by the current
director and Sage professor Steven Leibo, and Sage adjunct professor
Edward Tick. The Fund was established in 1994 by Lucille Gochigian
Sarkissian. It supports events that educate students and the community
at large about Armenian history, culture, literature, and art.
——————————————— ——————
6. AI Leads Student Protestors to Try Darfur Genocidaires at ICC
NEW YORK (A.W.)’On April 11, over 1,000 activists from eight states
gathered in New York for `Get on the Bus’ (GOTB), a day of human
rights action and education focusing on a call for ICC justice in
Darfur, help for journalists at risk in Sri Lanka, support of the
Burmese people in Myanmar, freedom for Fathi el-Jahmi in Libya, and a
Bhopal action at the Indian Consulate. For the 13th year, GOTB became
the largest and most energized event put on by Amnesty International
in the U.S.
Associated Press photos of GOTB appeared in newspapers and on websites
around the world on April 11. Major outlets such as the Washington
Post, USA Today, the International Business Times, the Miami Herald,
RAI International Italian Broadcasting, and Russian International
Broadcasting ran coverage, in addition to many other states,
publicizing the fight against ongoing genocide and human rights abuse.
http://www.ar