Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

LARISA ALAVERDIAN ALSO TO TAKE PART IN DISCUSSION OF OMBUDSMAN’S REPORT AT PARLIAMENT
Noyan Tapan
Apr 10 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, NOYAN TAPAN. A regular 4-day session of RA National
Assembly started on April 10. The MPs had not managed yet to approve
the agenda at the end of the first sitting. According to the draft
agenda, 35 issues and 6 international agreements are subject to
discussion. The annual report on the Ombudsman’s activity in 2005
in RA and on violation of human rights and basic freedoms in the
country is also among the issues. As NA Speaker Artur Baghdasarian
declared from the tribune, in accordance with already adopted decision,
former RA Ombudsperson Larisa Alaverdian will be also invited to the
discussion of the issue and will make a speech. Current RA Ombudsman
Armen Haroutiunian also made such a proposal. The parliament declined
Ardarutiun (Justice) faction Secretary Viktor Dallakian’s proposal
about making a decision to record the above-mentioned discussion and
to show it on the Public Television the next day in order to provide
publicity. Only 28 MPs were for the proposal and 14 MPs abstained
from voting.

SERGE SARGSIAN EXPRESSES HOPE THAT IN FUTURE ICRC REPORTS TO REFLECT
REALITY, ABSENCE OF HOSTAGES IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN. Serge Sargsian, the Secretary of the RA
National Security Council, the Defence Minister received on April 7
Jakob Kellenberger, the Chairman of the International Committee of Red
Cross (ICRC). Isabelle Barras, the ICRC responsible for Eastern Europe
and Yves Arnoldy, head of the ICRC Armenian delegation participated in
the meeting. Serge Sargsian attached importance to the ICRC activity
in Armenia, mentioning that this considerably supports solution of
some problems arisen in front of the state. Emphasizing that the
bilateral cooperation promotes rather actively and productively,
J.Kellenberger expressed gratitude for the assistance showed by the RA
Government, particularly, the Ministry of Defence. Touching upon the
works implemented till today in the direction of finding out people
lost traceless, the sides facted that beneficial conditions have
always existed in Armenia for the ICRC employees’ activity, and
obstacles have never been created. In this sense considering baseless
the information periodically published in press by the Azerbaijani
authorities about people lost traceless and hostages kept in Armenia,
Serge Sargsian expressed a hope that the ICRC reports will reflect the
reality in future, thus, the fact of absence of hostages in
Armenia. As Noyan Tapan was informed by Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian,
the RA Defence Minister’s Press Secretary, the participants of the
meeting exchanged opinions concerning the present stage of settlement
of the Karabakh conflict. Within the context of the negotiation
process, the Minister considered causing anxiety the continuous
martial statements of the high-ranking authorities of Azerbaijan and
encouriging of interracial hatred among the people.

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
April 6, 2006 Thursday
ARMENIA: IN SEARCH OF ALTERNATIVES;
Armenia is through with listening to myths about Russia
by Gajane Movsesjan
Armenia may decide that it doesn’t need Russia after all; Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanjan’s two-day visit to Moscow begins
today. Oskanjan will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov
and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. He met with US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington the other day.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanjan’s two-day visit to Moscow
begins today. Oskanjan will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei
Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. Official reports
on the agenda are brief. They indicate that it includes bilateral
relations, the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, regional matters, and
cooperation within the framework of international organizations.
Sources from Armenian diplomatic circles say that this is just a
routine visit, nothing more.
What is interesting, however, is that Oskanjan discussed the same
matters with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington the
other day. Oskanjan and Rice signed an accord on March 27 to the
effect that Armenia will receive $236.5 million under the Millennium
Challenges program over the next five years. The millions will be
used to repair roads in rural areas, reconstruction of irrigation and
drainage systems, and reduction of impoverishment in the agricultural
sector.
Rice herself undermined political undertones of this seemingly
economic event at the signing ceremony when she began elaborating
meaningfully on the necessity of advancement of democratic reforms in
Armenia in the light of the parliamentary and presidential elections
there in 2007 and 2008. Armenian observers took her words as an
admission of Washington’s desire to bring political and economic
processes in Armenia under its own control. Moreover, the program
itself (Millennium Challenges) was taken as but an additional
instrument of American influence with Yerevan.
Shushan Khatlamadzhjan, an analyst with the Armenian Institute of
Civil Society and Regional Development, believes that the
Armenian-Russian strategic partnership is in a crisis. “The problem
is rooted in the lack of transparency of the talks between the
Armenian and Russian authorities,” she said. “Armenian society feels
disassociated from public politics and cannot help ascribing it to
some clandestine accords between the governments of the two
countries… Like a recompense to Armenia for high gas tariffs in the
form of a discount on Russian military hardware as some Russian media
outlets speculated. In short, even pro-Russian political forces in
Armenia begin promoting the necessity to develop foreign policy on
the basis of the actual national interests and not the old myths…”
Now let’s consider the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh. Chairmen of the
OSCE Minsk Group, Russia and the United States have headed the
mission of intermediaries for a decade now. With nothing to show for
it in terms of the formula of a lasting peace. A meeting between the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in France was arranged this
February but even it failed as a means of accomplishing anything.
Foreign intermediaries are analyzing the situation again now. The
United States is particularly impatient. American diplomacy put
Yerevan and Baku under pressure in March. Daniel Fried, US
Undersecretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, was dispatched to the
region. Fried announced that the United States wanted a compromise
between the warring sides reached this year.
The United States is impatient and the European Union is certainly
getting active. Armenian analysts and observers ascribe these trends
to the desire on the part of the West to resolve conflicts in the
post-Soviet zone in such a manner as to weaken Russia’s positions. As
far as Khatlamadzhjan is concerned, it is precisely from this
standpoint that specialists should contemplate the renewed debates
over the so-called “Marshall Plan for the Caucasus.” The idea boils
down to substantial economic aid to countries of the southern part of
the Caucasus in return for political concessions. “Russia is in the
situation where a new and effective policy with regard to Armenia
becomes a must,” Khatlamadzhjan concluded.
Khatlamadzhjan also believes that “the myth in Armenia of there being
no alternatives to strategic partnership with Russia is in its last
throes.” “Armenia may solve its regional problems and resolve
conflicts without military and other cooperation with Russia,
accepting instead the plan and investments from the West. There is
the widespread opinion in analytical community here that there can be
no war or peace without Russia, but we shouldn’t make a fetish of
this fact or demonize it,” she said.
Source: Vremya Novostei, April 6, 2006, p. 5
Translated by A. Ignatkin

April 7 2006
BOOKS-RWANDA:
Forgiving the Unforgivable
Lisa Söderlindh
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 6 (IPS) – Exactly 12 years ago on Apr. 6, 1994,
Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young Rwandan Tutsi woman, left the university
campus in the city of Butare to spend the Easter holidays with her
family.
Later that day, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed,
together with Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, when
his plane was shot down as it was coming in to land at Kigali
airport. The incident was the final spark to a powder-keg of ethnic
tensions dating back to colonial times between the dominant Tutsi
minority and the majority Hutus.
Over the next three months, Ilibagiza’s mother, father and two of her
three brothers were killed in the genocide, as were some 800,000
others. Ilibagiza herself spent 91 days hiding in a closet-sized
bathroom while rampaging mobs outside turned Rwanda into a sea of
blood.
During her ordeal, Ilibagiza says she found the power of faith and
vowed to write about what she had gone through — if she lived to see
the dawn again.
“I think there is a greater story that helps me tell my story,”
Ilibagiza told IPS at the New York launch of her book, “Left to Tell:
Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust”, which has hit the
best-seller lists here. “God spared me my life and gave me the
strength to bear the pain of being left to tell.”
“I am praying every day that that my message will help build the
world, rather than tear it apart,” she added.
As noted by Armenian researcher Vahakn N. Dadrian in his study of
20th century genocide, German colonisers in the late 19th century
helped cultivate different racial profiles by depicting the Tutsi as
the overlords, endowed with physically superior traits, and
portraying the Hutu as mere peasants.
The rift deepened further with the arrival of the Belgians in the
early 20th century, who introduced an ethnic identity card to more
easily distinguish between the two groups.
With the Hutu revolution of 1959-1962 and subsequent upheavals in
1962-1964 came the final institutionalisation of the Hutu-Tutsi
conflict. The existing arrangement of power relations reversed — the
Tutsi minority ceased being the dominant group and the Hutu majority
rose to power.
Ilibagiza says she came from a home were racism and prejudice were
completely unknown, and the terms “Tutsi” and “Hutu” were never used.
“All I knew of the world was the lively landscape surrounding me, the
kindness of my neighbours, and the deep love of my parents and
brothers,” she said.
But her world was ripped apart with the eruption of Africa’s worst
genocide in modern times. Top government officials from the ruling
Movement National pour la Révolution et le Development party played a
direct role in the slaughter, as did the ignorance of the global
community and the failure of international peacekeeping operations,
with the U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda fatefully deciding to
reduce its troop strength from 2,000 to 270.
Only in mid-May 1994 did the U.N. Security Council reverse its
decision, but few peacekeepers arrived before the massacres ended in
July, when the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front took power through a
military campaign.
For three months, militia members, armed forces and civilians freely
carried out appalling atrocities, predominately against the Tutsi
ethnic minority. Ilibagiza recalls days of horror during which she
and seven other women huddled in the darkness of the bathroom in a
local pastor’s home, while hundreds of Hutus hunted for them.
“Marked for execution because we were born Tutsi,” she asked herself
how history had managed to repeat itself after the world’s powers
vowed “never again” in the wake of the Nazi atrocities of World War
Two.
Trembling on a path lined alternately with fear, despair, anger, and
burning hatred, Ilibagiza finally found a place in the bathroom to
call her own: “A small corner of my heart,” where she spoke with God
and found some measure of peace.
“[The Hutu perpetrators’] minds had been infected with the evil that
spread across the country, but their souls weren’t evil,” she
believes, resolving that forgiveness was all she had to offer.
The day she faced the man who had killed her family, Ilibagiza
recalls being “overwhelmed with pity… the evil had ruined his life
like a cancer in his soul. He was now the victim of his victims,
destined to live in torment and regret.”
Twelve years on, the message of love and forgiveness is still
Ilibagiza’s answer, and the wish of an awakening among people, “for
them to see that they are needed”.
Nearly two-thirds of the Rwandan population currently lives below the
poverty line, she notes. “We need doctors, homes for survivors, and
therapists that can help people who went through the genocide,”
Ilibagiza told IPS.
On an economic level, progress has been made over the last decade,
but spiritually, “People are not healed. The wounds from the machetes
[the most widely used weapon during the genocide] are still open,”
she said.
There are some 600,000 orphans in the country, many of whom are
forced to live in the streets without adequate food or shelter.
HIV/AIDS is another major problem, partly due to the widespread rape
perpetrated during the genocide.
Yael Danieli, co-founder of the International Society for Traumatic
Stress Studies, said at a recent U.N. forum on the genocide that
helping society recover from such a terrible event requires attention
from both the local and international communities.
“Unless we prevent by healing the aftermath of genocide, the wounds
will not only fester within the generation for a lifelong legacy, but
fester from generation to generation,” he said.
Ilibagiza believes that the complex underlying causes of the
explosion of violence in 1994 are still barely understood. “The root
of the genocide has yet not been uprooted. Why, I believe it can
happen again — in any country.” (END/2006)

ARMENIANS SEEK TO TURN SHUSHA INTO THEIR ‘CULTURAL CENTER’
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 6 2006
Armenian separatists are trying to turn Azerbaijan’s ancient town
of Shusha into their own cultural center and plan to carry out this
outrageous plan by holding an electronic referendum.
“Every Armenian will be able to access a special website and voice
his opinion on the issue to facilitate the town’s turning into a
scientific, cultural and tourism center for not only Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh and Armenia, but also all world Armenians,” the head of the
self-styled Shusha Foundation, Bakor Karapetian, maintained.
Armenian scholars trying to distort history have discovered items
dating back to the 12th century as well as the ancient Turkic period
during their archaeological excavations in the territory of Shusha.
The Armenian Catholic Church in Beirut, Lebanon had allocated $25,000
for the purpose.

A MILCH COW MUSTN’T BE SOLD
A1+
[03:29 pm] 06 April, 2006
“If for the purpose of maintaining low gas price for Armenian residents
the RA gives “GazArd” an alternative possibility to import gas to
Armenia, we shall make our children unilaterally dependent of a
foreign country as we don’t have any guarantee to maintain the price
theoretically,” highlights the Chairman of the Union for National
Self-Determination Paruir Hairikyan.
According to him the rumors about maintaining low gas price are
presented as the authorities’ endeavor. “It turns out that the
present authorities want to deprive Armenians the possibility of
having alternative and competitive gas price in the coming decade. It
will be the most harmful blow for the Armenian energy security and
independence,” he says.
According to Chairman of the Union for National Self-Determination
the provision of low gas price offered to the consumers will be
thousandfold more expensive than the price increase. “Today we make
our children the hostage of Russian imperialism in order to save
money. They attempt to dull our vigilance through secret agents having
various responsible positions. But it is high time Armenia saw the
secret plot of Russia to turn Armenia into an abandoned land.
It is time Armenia realized their intrigues,” says Paruir Hairikyan. In
response to the question whether he means Andranik Margarian while
speaking of secret agents, Hairikyan answered, “If there is only one
man involved I wouldn’t name it an agency net.”
Paruir Hairikyan admires the “normal behaviour and attitude” of
Georgia and Ukraine in connection with the gas price fourfold increase.
The Armenian consumers will have an opportunity to use Persian gas
in a year. The consumers are to decide the gas of which country to
use. “There will be a free competition, and the gas market price will
logically decrease.” Thus, takings into account the national interests
it is more profitable for us to accept the Russian price than to give
our share of the Persian gas in order to ease the situation of the
price increase.
He also adds that nobody sells his milch cow. “They give their milch
cow to their rival. They sell the profitable company; energy is the
only source of our income.” Hirikyan was annoyed by the fact that
the RA President could go to “ArmRusGasArd.” Even the Prime Minister
mustn’t go to any company.
By the way, the Chairman of the USD does not exclude that a strike
will be organized in front of the Government on gas price issue. “They
can oppose us in many questions but no mother will stop thinking of
her children,” claimed Hairikyan.

FM ADVOCATES INCLUSIVE PROCESS TO SOLVE KOSOVO PROBLEM
RIA Novosti, Russia
April 5 2006
BRATISLAVA, April 5 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s foreign minister said
Wednesday that talks involving all interested parties were the only
way to solve the Kosovo crisis, and that ethnic minorities should be
a central issue.
“This problem can only be resolved through talks,” Sergei Lavrov
said after talks in the Slovak capital with Slovak President Ivan
Gasparovic. “Any haste in imposing things could create a very serious
precedent and affect not only this region.”
He said ethnic minorities should be a central issue during negotiations
on the status of Kosovo.
“The return of refugees to Kosovo is the main task, but they can
return only when the necessary conditions are created,” Lavrov said.
Earlier, some Russian politicians expressed concern that independence
for Kosovo would create a precedent for recognition of breakaway
regions in the former Soviet Union.
Moldova is dealing with a separatist regime in Transdnestr, while
Georgia has two breakaway regions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Nagorny Karabakh, a largely ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan,
has long been a source of friction between the two Caucasus states.
Formally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since
1999, following a NATO military campaign to drive out Yugoslav forces
accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians.

REASONS FOR LEAVING ARMENIA
Lragir.am
04 April 06
90 per cent of people leaving Armenia are economic migrants. According
to the news agency, this fact was given by Arne Vagen, the head of
the International Bureau of the Danish Council on Refugees during
the seminar on April 4.
Arne Vagen said from 800 thousand to one million people left Armenia
in 1989-2001, which is 26.6 per cent of the total population. According
to him, one of the factors of mass migration from Armenia is political
instability, natural disasters and the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.

AZERBAIJAN TO ESTABLISH ITS EMBASSY IN ARGENTINA
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 4 2006
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov yesterday met
his Argentinean counterpart Jorge Enrique Taiana during his visit
to Argentina. Spokesman of the Foreign Ministry Tahir Taghizadeh
told APA that the sides expressed their interests in development of
bilateral relations.
Mr. Mammadyarov told his counterpart that Azerbaijan intends to
establish its embassy in Buenos Aires soon. Mr.Enrique Taiana said
he plans to visit Baku by the end of the year. The Ministers signed
a memorandum on cooperation between the Foreign Ministries of the
two countries, a treaty on traveling of citizens having diplomatic
and foreign policy passport without visa.
Mr.Mammadyarov also had talks with Minister for state capital and
federal services planning, Julio Miguel Devido. Azerbaijani Minister
informed him about reforms carried out in Azerbaijan and said there
is a fruitful situation for foreign investments in the country.
Mammadyarov was also received by Vise-President of Argentina,
chief of the Senate Daniel Stisioli. The Foreign Minister replied
to journalists’ questions, talked about the situation and reforms in
Azerbaijan, situation on settling the Nagorno Garabagh conflict as well
as exploitation of energy resources of the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan’s
keen interest in development of relations with Latin America countries.
Mammadyarov is in Brazil now and he will leave for the United States
after that.

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS SITUATION IN CAUCASUS
by Tatiana Solopova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 4, 2006 Tuesday 01:20 PM EST
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oksanian is expected to visit Russia
between April 5 and April 7 for a discussion of efforts that his
country may take together with Russia to revitalize the situation in
Southern Caucasus, Mikhail Kamynin, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s
official spokesman said.
“Mr. Oksanian and Russian officials will also consider the conflicts
still existing in the South-Caucasian region and opportunities for
creating an atmosphere of trust, vital for launching a process of
regional cooperation,” Kamynin said.
“Russia calls for more dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan at
various levels and, in the first place, between the two countries’
presidents,” he said. “We’re ready to assist the two countries at the
bilateral level and the Minsk group set up by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, since Russia co-chairs that group.”
For Russia, relations with Armenia have moved to the dimension of
strategic and union partnership of late and they have encouraging
dynamics, Kamynin indicated.
“The sides will examine, among other things, practical steps
under agreements Russian and Armenian presidents reached earlier,
especially as regards cooperation in the fuel and energy sector and
direct relations between Russian and Armenian companies,” Kamynin said.
“Special focus will be given to fighting with terrorism and to
coordination of efforts taken to raise the level of political
understanding in that area,” he said.
“Mr. Oksanian and Russian officials will look at the problems of
cooperation in the format of the CIS, especially the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization,” Kamynin said.