Author: Zakarian Garnik

UN MEMBERSHIP FOR THE WORLD’S PHANTOM REPUBLICS
By René Wadlo

Tiraspol Times & Weekly Review
25/Sep/2008
Moldova

>From Geneva, UN Representative René Wadlow writes that it is time for
a ‘package deal’ which puts Transdniestria and Abkhazia in the United
Nations, along with Kosovo and other de facto independent states. He
knows there will be opposition, but in the long run his solution is
the best way forward for everyone involved.

"The Phantom Republics" has been the name given to the states demanding
the status of independence after the break up of Yugoslavia and the
Soviet Union: Abkhazia, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia
and Transnistra. The current conflict between Russia and Georgia
has put the Abkhazia and South Ossetia conflicts at center stage of
world politics.

The independence of Kosovo has been recognized by a good number
of countries, but there is also strong opposition, and Kosovo has
not been granted membership in the United Nations. However, if the
Phantom Republics supported by Russia — Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia,
South Ossetia and Transnistra — were granted UN membership, it might
be possible that Kosovo independence would be a counter-weight and
a sign of good will on the part of the Russian Federation.

Security should start with a ‘package deal’ of membership for all
the Phantom Republics in the United Nations as soon as possible. The
UN General Assembly begins in late September, and membership should
be a high priority. With UN membership, the danger of changing their
status by force is lessened.

Membership in the UN raises for some the spectre of ‘fragmentation’
or ‘Balkanization’ of the world into a multitude of tiny units to
the disadvantage of world security.

However, in this case, the recognition of independence is a necessary
first step for security and a lessening of tensions.

Once UN membership has been universally accepted for the Phantom
Republics, new forms of regional cooperation can be undertaken in a
calmer and clearer atmosphere. Once recognized through UN membership,
it will be up to each of the Phantom Republics to create economic,
social and political ties with its neighbors.

There are obviously oppositions to recognizing each of these states
as independent, in particular opposition from the states of which
they were once a part. Serbia has run a long campaign against the
independence of Kosovo citing history, the human rights of minorities,
and territorial integrity. At one stage, I had thought that it might be
possible to create a pan-Albanian cultural union with official links
among the Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia while keeping
a political status of autonomy within Serbia. However, governments
like simple solutions — you are in or out, independent or not. Just
as it is difficult to be partly pregnant, so it is difficult to be
partly independent.

Thus, after long and bitter negotiations, Kosovo is an independent
state which will have to create links with Albania and Macedonia but
which cannot escape relations with Serbia which remains the economic
motor of the region. Each of the Phantom Republics is in a difficult
position, and with good will and creative political imagination,
other forms than independence guaranteed by UN membership might have
been found. Alas, good will and creative political imagination have
been in short supply.

In the case of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, at least since
1993, there have been mediators from the UN and the Organizations
for Security and Cooperation in Europe. There have been ‘track two’
— non-governmental meetings to discuss the issues. There have been
detailed proposals set out, one by a colleague from the University of
Geneva, Prof Giorgio Malinverni, who proposed a form of asymmetrical
federalism for Georgia — a Swiss Ambassador, Edward Brunner, being
the UN mediator at the time. While the plan was discussed, nothing
seems to have come of it. Today, the issues in Georgia have resulted
in tensions between the USA, Europe and Russia not seen since the
end of the Cold War in 1990.

My proposal is a ‘package deal’ in which all the Phantom Republics
become UN members at the same time. Such a package deal resembles
earlier package deals for membership when countries had been blocked
by Cold War tensions. UN membership grants recognition of being part
of the ‘international community’. It guarantees existing frontiers
and is a wall against aggression. UN membership will also provide
an elegant way for Russia to withdraw its peacekeeping troops from
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and first from the ‘security zones’
which are clearly in Georgian territory.

During the period of international control of Kosovo, prior to its
independence, a shorthand term for policy was ‘standards before
status’. In Kosovo, there should be at least minimum respect for the
standards of the rule of law, safeguard of minorities, and a return
of refugees, prior to discussions on its status of independence or
autonomy within Serbia. One can discuss if these standards were in
fact met prior to independence. However, in the case of the other
Phantom Republics, the reverse policy is needed: status before
standards. There needs to be universal recognition of the status of
independence by UN membership before there can be any serious effort
of establishing the rule of law and human rights. As long as a clear
status is not established, the republics will remain politically and
economically unstable. Without UN membership, there will always be
excuses for the presence of Russian military forces.

Following the Kosovo precedent, the most stable outcome of the
conflict in Georgia is independence for Abkhazia and South Ossetia
with rapid membership within the United Nations. UN membership
should be a sufficient guarantee against attack. There is probably
no need for peacekeeping forces, especially not Russian peacekeeping
forces. The United Nations should provide human rights monitors
as well as providing help for economic planning with a regional
focus. Independence with UN membership can provide a new and stable
political-economic framework so that people may try to pull their lives
together which they have not been able to do since 1992 when armed
violence and refugee flows broke out in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. UN
membership for Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistra will help prevent these
‘frozen conflicts’ from melting into new violence as well.

Thus, the Phantom Republics will join the UN to sit along with such
small UN members as Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, and
San Marino — states born with the restructuring of feudal Europe. It
may take some time to turn Abkhazia into a Black Sea Monaco, but
inevitably, for economic and social reasons, neighboring states learn
to cooperate if they are not able to destroy one or the other by war.

René Wadlow is the Representative to the United Nations, Geneva,
of the Association of World Citizens and the editor of Transnational
Perspectives, a journal of world politics and social policy founded
in 1974.

–Boundary_(ID_wdHIndDLWUnYU103B8gkeA)–

EVERYTHING POSSIBLE DONE OVER 100 DAYS BUT HEAD OF RA POLICE DOES NOT CONSIDER THIS WORK AS SATISFACTORY

Noyan Tapan

Se p 24, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, NOYAN TAPAN. In the words of the head of the
RA police Major General Alik Sargsyan, over the first 100 days of
his tenure, everything possible was done to protect public order
throughout Armenia, to wage an "active and uncompromising" fight
against crime and restore the prestige of the police among various
strata of society. "Along with the work done, there are still serious
shortcomings, there is much to be done," he said. He attributed
the rise in crimes (about 500 cases) in the indicated period to the
elimination of the vicious practice of not registering crimes.

"I do not consider our work as satisfactory because the index of
crimes committed in our country and their detection index are not
satisfactory," he noted.

According to A. Sargsyan, the police reforms, in particular, reforms in
traffic police and passport units, will have continuous character. "You
will soon see an efficient round-the-clock service in the capital
city and I think there will be a decline in some types of crime."

A. Sargsyan touched upon the problem of beggars: one can often see
"beggars" in busy streets of Yerevan who literally chase people
and demand money by using various methods. "We conducted checks and
revealed that not all of them need this money," the police head said,
adding that the creation of a reception and distribution station will
allow to keep homeless people in the state care and solve the problem
of their fates.

He underlined the importance of establishing operative control
throughout Yerevan with the use of cameras which will enable to record
violations of traffic rules and to search for those wanted by the
police. An attemp is also being made to optimize the personnel and
buildings of the police system, with this work to be completed by 2009.

A social council adjuct to the RA police with the involvement of
intellectuals will be set up in the coming days. They will have the
right to supervise police work and inform the mass media about it.

THE UNREPORTED FRONT OF THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’
by Ben Snook

Bits of News
Tuesday, 23 September 2008

In the seas off the Horn of Africa, a multinational naval task force
is engaged in regular firefights with pirates seeking to disrupt
shipping in the Gulf of Aden. Our reporter asks if a link between
the dramatic rise in piratical activity with Islamic insurgents in
Somalia has led to the opening of a new front of the ‘War on Terror’.

On balance, the Gulf of Aden, despite being one of the world’s most
strategically important waterways, is not a very nice place to be. As
well as summer temperatures regularly soaring well into the 40s,
the area is known for its unpredictable weather which can close in
at a moment’s notice. Furthermore, Somalia’s lack of any efficient,
centralised government has meant that her unpoliced territorial waters
have become rife with illegal fishing, dredging and the discharging of
toxic materials. Somalia’s once diverse coastline is rapidly becoming
an ecological disaster which, thanks to the very considerable dangers
involved in going there, has gone largely unreported and unmonitored.

Weather and illegal fishing, though, ought to be the least of your
worries, should you happen to find yourself cruising through these
busy straits, for the Gulf of Aden boasts more recorded piratical
activity than almost any other seaway in the world. Pirates operating
out of Somalia, where the country’s lawless coastal wildernesses
and unregulated cities provide ample cover for the small skiffs
favoured by the pirates, have come to terrorise this area in recent
years. Initially, these freebooters seemed to work independently as
little more than opportunistic maritime muggers; recently, though,
there has been a sharp rise in attacks. More alarmingly, there is some
reason to believe that the extremist Islamist militants who have come
to dominate large parts of Somalia may now have a hand in promoting
this activity.

In 2005, there were only two serious attacks in the Gulf of Aden. Even
though one of them involved an ambitious and mercifully unsuccessful
attack on a cruise liner with rocket propelled grenades, this activity
kept to the general pattern that had emerged over the preceding decade:
sporadic, opportunistic attacks on soft targets by disorganised,
poorly-equipped and disparate bands of pirates. In 2006, the same
was true. A handful of largely unsuccessful attacks were launched
by different bands in different areas of the Gulf. On the whole,
their targets were yachts and freighters but, on one occasion, two
US warships received fire in an engagement which did not end well
for the pirates.

Generally speaking, these bands of pirates were Somali fishermen
angry at the illegal fishing activity that was damaging their
livelihood. Amongst them, certainly, were more hardened career
criminals but, on the whole, piracy off Somalia in the earlier
years of the first decade of the twenty-first century was a limited,
local affair which, in most cases, was motivated simply by a desire
to protect the dwindling fish stocks off the Somali coast on which
the fishermen relied. The small boats used by the fishermen could
never hope to compete with the industrial trawlers that had arrived
illegally in Somali waters; the only form of redress available to
the Somalis was force.

In 2006, the brutal Islamic Courts Union took power in Somalia and
piratical activity subsided considerably. Despite being driven by a
violent ideology of extremist Islam, the Islamic Courts Union took
action against the warlords who had torn the country apart in years
of internecine conflict and attempted to rebuild some of Somalia’s
shattered infrastructure. An important element in this campaign was
the prevention of piracy and the disbanding of the pirate crews that
had sprung up around the coast. When ICU troops captured Haradhere –
a major hideout of Somali pirates – in August, 2006, piratical activity
in the Gulf of Aden almost subsided to nothing.

The Islamic Courts Union, however, did not last long. In December 2006,
Ethiopia (certainly sponsored and encouraged by the United States)
invaded Somalia and overthrew the ICU, replacing them, in theory,
with a more moderate transitional government. In effect, Somalia
was returned to a state of petty fueding and guerrilla warfare
as the remnants of the ICU began to wage a fierce paramilitary
campaign against the Ethiopians and forces loyal to the transitional
government. It is under these conditions that piracy in the Gulf of
Aden has, once again, begun to flourish.

Piracy of any kind is distressing in such a busy shipping lane, but
is not unusual: West Africa, the Caribbean, the Indonesian archipeligo
and the Philippines are all areas that suffer from similar patterns of
activity. In 2007, though, in the vacuum left by the removal of the
ICU, the pattern of attacks suddenly began to change. Better-armed
groups of pirates using faster, better-equipped ships started
attacking soft targets such as pleasure yachts and freighters far
more frequently. Before, these sorts of attacks had been relatively
rare, attacks on fishing trawlers being far more common. Now, though,
it seemed that the pirates’ aims had changed. No longer were these
fishermen defending their livelihood; now, heavily-armed militiamen
began to take hostages, demand ransoms and steal goods. Piracy was
no longer a defensive operation, but a financial one.

So far, in 2008, there have been at least 9 serious attacks reported,
the most recent being on September 2nd when a French couple sailing
through the Gulf were kidnapped from their luxury yacht only to be
rescued shortly afterwards by French commandos operating from the
frigate Courbet. This sudden and alarming increase in pirate activity
in the Gulf has alarmed the international community and there have
been calls to strengthen the multinational ‘Combined task force 150’
that has been charged with combating the problem.

More alarming still, though, is that what used to be a limited
operation against piracy has now been turned into a front of ‘the
War on Terror’. US forces operating as part of the touchingly-named
‘Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa’ have regularly engaged
pirates and have started to consider combating pirate activity as part
of their regular brief. Suddenly, suspicion is rife that proceeds from
piracy off the Horn of Africa are funding the Islamist insurgency in
Somalia. This is a controversial suggestion, but the change in targets
and the increased frequency of attacks might seem to support it.

If it is the case that the Islamist insurgency in the country has
resorted to piracy then it would fit a long-established pattern. Ever
since the 1980s, elements with a strong Islamic fundamentalist
motivation have hijacked conflicts already in progress as proving
grounds for their recruits, and testing areas for newly devised
tactics. In the wars in Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya and Bosnia,
extremist Islamic forces sometimes sponsored by groups linked to Al
Qaeda entered wars that were already in progress, often as much for
the sake of propaganda as anything else. Thus, secular conflicts
over ethnicity or resources suddenly became religiously charged
and highly unstable as a result. Another favourite tactic has been
to attack soft, economic targets: from the 9/11 attacks, to the
London and Madrid bombings to the attacks on oil pipelines in Iraq,
insurgents have long appreciated the value of disrupting economic
and financial infrastructures. As such, the Gulf of AdenEurope to
the east via the Suez Canal. Even the threat of piracy has caused
insurance and equipment costs for ships using this sea lane to rocket;
a successful attack can prove infinitely more lucrative.

The extent to which the new generation of Somali pirates can be
linked to the country’s ‘Islamic insurgents’ is open to debate, of
course. Thinking at the highest levels, though, seems to make that
link, albeit tentatively. Perhaps what we are seeing in the Gulf
of Aden is a conflict that is about to be hijacked by a cause with
which it has never previously been associated. How NATO acts over
the next few months will be vital: storming in, all guns blazing
and attempting to destroy the pirate networks by force will not
prove successful. Besides, memories of the last time US troops were
engaged in Somalia still run deep in the States and no president, not
least a new one, will risk a repeat of the Mogadishu debacle. This
problem has to be treated with sensitivity and respect. If the
international community can unite to protect Somali waters from
the many illegal fishing, dredging and disposal operations that are
destroying the legitimate livelihoods of many of the country’s coastal
communities, they may find themselves with an unlikely ally against
the pirates. Otherwise, the dark spectre of a naval Iraq represents
an important, untapped resource: a seaway up and down which hundreds
of unprotected cargo ships and cruise liners travel each week linking
looms large.

Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Lisa Kalustian, Chief Deputy Director
300 South Spring Street, Suite 16701
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213)897-0322
FAX (213)897-0319

[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Legislation Directing Divestment from Sudan

Building on California’s leadership in fighting genocide in Sudan with
economic measures, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 498
< y?bill_number=ab_498&sess=CUR&house=B& author=hernandez> authored by Assemblymember Ed Hernandez
(D-West Covina) prohibiting companies with business operations in Sudan
from bidding on state contracts for goods and services.

"California will not underwrite the horrors of murder and genocide in
Sudan," Governor Schwarzenegger said. "With this legislation, we are
continuing to send a message that California will not condone nor enable
economic gain at the expense of innocent people in Sudan."

The ongoing devastation in Darfur has killed an estimated 400,000 and
displaced over 2.5 million Sudanese. AB 498 ensures that California will
not award state contracts to companies that directly or indirectly aide
the Sudanese government.

In September 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger signed two bills
< se/4057/> , AB 2179 and AB
2941, prohibiting the state’s pension funds from investing in companies
with active business in Sudan and indemnified the University of
California from liability that might result from its divestments from
Sudan. The Governor also sent a letter <;
to President Bush urging him to sign the Darfur Peace and
Accountability Act of 2006, which was later enacted into law. In
addition, the Governor signed AB 221
< /7710/> last year, creating
the California Public Divest from Iran Act prohibiting CalPERS and
CalSTRS from investing public employee retirement funds in a company
with business operations in Iran.

In the 1980s, the state approved similar measures to allow state
entities to divest in South Africa in order to protest its apartheid
policies.

ELECTIONS TO LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT BODIES TO BE HELD IN KOTAYK MARZ ON OCTOBER 12

Noyan Tapan

Se p 23, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Elections to local self-government
bodies will be held in the communities of Kotayk marz, including in
the towns of Abovian, Yeghvard and Tsakhkadzor, on October 12.

NT correspondent was informed by spokesperson for the RA Central
Electoral Commission Tatev Ohanian that the only candidate registered
to run in the election of Abovian mayor is member of "Prosperous
Armenia" party (PAP), currently unemployed Karapet Guloyan. According
to our information, he is the son of National Assembly deputy, PAP
member Murad Guloyan and the husband of the daughter of Gagik Tsarukian
who is the president of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia,
the leader of PAP, and the head of National Assembly "PAP" faction.

The candidates for Yeghvard mayor are the current mayor, member of
the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Norayr Sargsian and non-party
man Baghdasar Mesropian.

The candidates for Tsakhkadzor mayor are the current mayor, non-party
man Garun Mirzoyan, PAP member Sos Hakobian and RPA member Vardan
Mirzoyan.

ALEXEY VLASOV: MOSCOW SHOULD BRISK UP ENDEAVORS FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.09.2008 15:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It is premature to speak of a formation of a new
"Caucasus vector" in Moscow’s policy, a Russian expert said.

"In fact, Moscow should now intensify its peacekeeping efforts on
Nagorno Karabakh, demonstrating "diplomacy of words" but not only of
force. But is there a plan that could lead to an agreement on this
extremely painful issue? Yerevan is not signaling readiness for
compromise and in order to persuade its ally in the CSTO, Russia
may need time. However, it remains to be seen whether Russia ever
will do so," said Alexei Vlasov, Russian political scientist and
director of analytical programs of the International Institute of
Post-Soviet Studies.

"Furthermore, how promising is Russia’s participation in the
peacekeeping process on Karabakh without participation and support
of other leading countries? Relations with the West may even oblige
Yerevan and Baku to assume mediation."

Mediation efforts of Russia and the United States, mostly play a
decisive role in the resolution of conflicts in the post-Soviet area,
according to him. "But the deeper are the differences between Moscow
and Washington, the fainter are the hopes for combining efforts,"
he said.

"I am pessimistic about this sense, especially if Republicans win the
presidential election in the United States. The policy of "factoring
Russia out" will continue, what means that no effective mediation
would be possible. Unfortunately, the Nagorno Karabakh problem has
been neglected so much that many years of joint efforts are required to
break the deadlock while West’s intention to settle everything through
"standard models" will do no good," Vlasov concluded, Day.az reports.

AS TURKISH MASS MEDIA SAY THE DATE OF MEETING OF ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI AND TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTERS IS DEFINED

Arminfo
2008-09-22 11:49:00

ArmInfo. As Turkish mass media say the date of meeting of Armenian,
Azerbaijani and Turkish foreign ministers has been defined within
the frames of the 63-rd UN General Assembly session.

In particular, as APA reported referring to Turkish mass media,
Ali Babacan will first meet Elmar Mamadyarov and Edward Nalbandyan
separately, then the parties will hold the joint meeting in New-York
on 25-26 September to discuss the Karabakh conflict. turkish Foreign
Ministry says it does not expect adoption of any decisions and
statements as a result of the meeting.

Asked by ArmInfo correspondent on fidelity of the mentioned date of
meeting, representative of press-service of Armenian Foreign Ministry
Tigran Balayan recalled that Armenian foreign minister said earlier
about an arrangement of such a meeting holding, but specific date of
the meeting was not mentioned.

A GOOD PLACE FOR BLUE CROSS

Boston Globe
September 22, 2008
United States

BLUE CROSS Blue Shield of Massachusetts is being challenged by some
local Armenian-Americans and their supporters to defend its sponsorship
of antibias programs run by the New England Anti-Defamation League. On
balance, continued corporate partnership with the ADL is not only a
defensible position, but the right one.

Abraham Foxman, the head of the national ADL office, blundered badly
last year when he failed to acknowledge unambiguously that Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenians during and after World War
I. It was an especially egregious lapse for a Jewish organization
well-schooled in the lessons of the Holocaust. A dozen cities and
towns in Massachusetts subsequently jettisoned the ADL’s No Place
for Hate program, which trains local leaders to counter hate crimes
and intolerance in their communities.

Tomorrow, a Blue Cross official is scheduled to address the Watertown
town council, which is asking the state’s largest healthcare insurance
company to sever its relationship with the ADL.

Blue Cross provided funding for No Place for Hate from 2001-2006, and
currently provides in-kind services, including meeting space for the
program. It can point to a statement last month by the ADL national
office that terms the massacres of Armenians by its rightful name –
genocide – as well as the 2008 ADL calendar that memorializes the
"genocide of approximately 1.5 million Armenians" from 1915-1923.

It can point with pride to a June intervention in Marshfield, where
the New England ADL mobilized an effective community response to an
alleged racial assault of a black man. And the local ADL chapter
deserves special recognition for forcing the national office to
clarify its policy on the Armenian genocide.

Shari Melkonian, chairwoman of the Armenian National Committee of
Eastern Massachusetts, says that ADL is still avoiding a "full and
public acknowledgement" of the genocide. Some of the ADL’s public
statements condemning the genocide could be clearer. But much of this
debate has become bogged down in ADL support for Israel, which counts
Turkey among its few friends in the Islamic world, and reluctance in
Congress to pass a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide.

Local officials shouldn’t be dragged into this morass. They need
to stay focused on ways to address and prevent local hate crimes,
including vandalism of houses of worship and harassment of ethnic
and religious minorities in schools. Such goals are well-served by
the ADL’s No Place for Hate program.

Recent attempts by some ADL detractors to unseat the program in
Marshfield suggest an unhealthy obsession. Blue Cross, which promotes
the well-being of communities, should maintain its healthy support
for No Place for Hate.

UN News Centre

On International Day, UN spotlights link between human rights and
peace

21 September 2008 ` Teaming up with a range of actors, from artists
and students, to cell phone companies and chess enthusiasts, the
United Nations is celebrating the International Day of Peace, which
this year holds special meaning since 2008 also marks the 60th
anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.

`We know that human rights are essential to peace,’ Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said in his message to mark the Day, which is observed
every year on 21 September.

`Yet too many people around the world still have their rights violated
` especially during and after armed conflict. That is why we must
ensure that the rights in the Declaration are a living reality ` that
they are known, understood and enjoyed by everyone, everywhere,’ he
stated.

Mr. Ban kicked off this year’s celebration of the Day at the
traditional peace bell ringing ceremony in New York on Friday, joined
by four UN Messengers of Peace. During the event, the
Secretary-General sent a text message for peace, as part of a UN
campaign that urged cell phone users to compose peace messages to be
published on a website and delivered to world leaders gathered for the
General Assembly this week.

Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, in his message, said it
is fitting that the Day closely coincides with the opening of the
body’s new session each September. `This is when representatives of
the 192 Member States gather to renew their commitment to work
together in the quest for world peace, the eradication of poverty and
to pursue the progressive advancement of human rights,’ he stated.

`We must never delude ourselves, or let others pretend, that peace is
merely the absence of war or some exalted state of impassivity,’ he
added. ` World peace will only be achieved through active resistance
to all that negates and diminishes human dignity, and waging peace, is
therefore, eminently political and oftentimes provocative.’

Noting that this year also marks the 60th anniversary of UN
peacekeepers, Mr. D’Escoto urged support for the Organization’s
efforts to bring calm to conflict-ridden areas and for the over
100,000 soldiers, police and civilians deployed worldwide to keep the
peace, prevent conflicts, and safeguard fragile peace processes.

The UN’s peace operations around the globe are also commemorating the
Day with various activities. For example, children in Naqoura were
invited to paint their visions of peace on the walls of the
headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In Juba, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and its partners are
celebrating the Day a photo exhibition entitled `Images of Peace,’
focusing on similarities and differences in the cultures of Southern
Sudan and aiming to foster better community dialogue and
understanding.

Meanwhile, communities across Afghanistan are marking the day with
sports events, marches and gatherings, all part of what the UN mission
there ` known as UNAMA ` has described as an `unprecedented’ campaign
in the run up to the Day. In addition to the many events, teams of
health workers fanned out across the country in the most ambitious
Peace Day polio vaccination effort to date, aiming to reach 1.8
million children.

Other UN-organized activities taking place around the world include a
peace walk in Accra, an observance in cooperation with Chulalongkorn
University in Bangkok, a peace bell ceremony in Mexico City, and a
traditional UN Cup Chess Festival entitled `sports for peace’ in the
Armenian capital, Yerevan.

In addition, 60 students from Belgrade, Ljubljana, Podgorica,
Sarajevo, Skopje, and Zagreb are gathering together today in the
Austrian capital for a forum entitled "Uniting for Peace," organized
by the UN Information Service (UNIS) and the City of Vienna.

U.S. TO HELP SOLVE TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Hurriyet
HotNews.com
Saturday, September 20, 2008 02:15
Turkey

The United States will work harder to help settle a 20-year territorial
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, a U.S. diplomat said Thursday.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, visiting
Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Thursday, said it was more important than
ever now to resolve the Nagorno-Kaeabakh dispute, after Russia’s war
last month with Georgia.

"The recent events in Georgia underscore the importance of a timely
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," said Bryza, who has
been the chief U.S. mediator to end the conflict in the region.

"This is well understood in Washington and is the reason for my visit
this week," he was quoted by the AP as saying.

Bryza told a news conference that "the United States strongly supports
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan which has been under the
occupation of Armenia since the war broke out between the two states
in 1988-1994.

In 1988 when the disputed region’s Armenian-dominated governing
council voted to secede from Azerbijan, it set of a series of bloody
clashes both between and within the two neighboring countries. Some
10 percent of the Azeri population was displaced.

A ceasefire was signed between the two former Soviet republics in
1994 but the dispute remains unresolved after more than a decade
of negotiations.

Gunfire breaks out regularly near Nagorno-Karabakh, and without
resolution on the region’s status many fear a new war.