Category: News

FUNCTION ON OCCASION OF COUNTRY’s DAY TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, APRIL 12. ARMINFO. A function on the occasion of the Day of
Country is to be held in Republic Square in Yerevan on April 25, the
press service of the Public Ecological Council of Yerevan reports.
Tree planting, territory cleaning and an exhibition of works of
ecological organizations are expected to be organized. An exhibition
of works about nature, children’s traditional drawings on asphalt and
a concert of children’s groups are expected as well. the participants
will receive T-shirts with slogans. The opening will be marked by
flying pigeons. The arrangement will be organized by the Public
Ecological Council of Yerevan and the Center of regional development
(Armenian branch of the Transparency International organization).

OPPOSITION TO ORGANIZE PROCESSION TO PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCE
YEREVAN, APRIL 12. ARMINFO. Armenia’s political opposition is
organizing a procession to the presidential residence today, Secretary
of the opposition bloc “Justice” Victor Dallakian told a press
conference.
According to him, the people will exclusively act within the
Constitution. “In case of violence, all responsibility will rest with
the junta,” Dallakian said. He reported that the Parliament members
Vardan Mkrtichian and Tatul Manaserian were detained this morning,
while they were informing citizens of the procession. Mkrtichian is
now at the Shahumyan district police department, and Manaserian at the
Kanaker-Zeitun district police department. Dallakian stressed that the
country’s authorities are violating citizens’ constitutional rights to
rallies and processions. In fact, Yerevan and Armenia’s regional
centers are surrounded, the highways are blocked by armed police.
According to the opposition, over 250 people have been detained and
subjected to administrative punishment since March 28. Dallakian also
called a provocation the information spread by the RA Prosecutor
General’s Office that two Moscow residents were detained yesterday.
They were allegedly preparing a terrorist act during the opposition’s
rally, “by an opposition deputy’s order.” “The situation is extremely
strained, and the authorities are exacerbating it. All responsibility
for further developments rests with the authorities,” Dallakian
said. In his turn, the Parliament member of the “Justice” bloc
Shavarsh Kocharian added that “the illegal authorities’ actions are
nothing but terror against their own people.” According to him, the
authorities’ actions run counter not only to the Armenian legislation,
but also to the European Convention on Human Rights. “Even in 1937
people were not kidnapped in the street or taken hostage,” he
said. According to Sh. Kocharian, Armenia has found itself outside the
civilized world due to its own authorities. “We have a choice – either
we return to the Middle Ages or the country’s authorities must leave,”
he said. Sh. Kocharian added that even Azerbaijan is enthusiastic
about the Armenian authorities’ acting in Heydar Aliyev’s
spirit. Artak Zeinalyan, member of the Political Council of the
“Republic” party, adduced the example of Gayane Ashugyan, an active
opposition member, whose 16-year-old daughter was allegedly kidnapped.
Commenting on the Political Coalition’s refusal to take part in the
Parliament’s three-day session, Dallakian stated that “together with
the illegal President, the coalition is responsible for the ongoing
situation in the country.” It is the execution of the RA
Constitutional Court’s decision on amendments to the Law “On
referendum” that must be the basis for the opposition’s dialogue with
the authorities, particularly, with the coalition. However, the
opposition was offered ministerial posts, seats in the “nonexistent”
Security Council. The Coalition is a cover of the authorities’
illegal authorities. Dallakian also reported that the “Justice’ bloc
informed CE Secretary General Walter Schwimmer and PACE President
Peter Shider of the political situation in Armenia. Moreover, in its
the letter Armenia’s political opposition proposes holding a hearing
“Armenian authorities’ antinational policy and a domestic political
crisis.”

ARMENIA’S DEFENCE MINISTER MEETS WITH U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
YEREVAN, APRIL 12. ARMINFO. Secretary of Security Council attached to the
president of Armenia, Defence Minister Serge Sargsian today met with
U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia John
Ordway. Seyran Shahsouvarian, the Spokesman of defence minister of
Armenia, told ARMINFO, during the meeting the participants have
discussed the current level and prospects of the development of
Armenian-American relations in the military sphere. At the end of the
meeting the American diplomat has invited the defence minister of
Armenia to take part in April 14 opening ceremony of a hospital in
Talin district of Shirak region of Armenia. The hospital has been
restored through the financial support of U.S. Command in Europe.

IN THIS ISSUE:
*** ROA MINISTRY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL ISSUES RAISES NGOS’ AWARENESS ON SOCIAL
SECURITY CARDS SYSTEM
*** ARMENIA’S FIRST “ONE-STOP SHOP” FOR SOCIAL SERVICES OFFICIALLY OPENED IN
VANADZOR
*** NGO CODE OF STANDARDS CREATED
*** SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
*** CENTER FOR COMMUNITY DIALOGUES AND INITIATIVES FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
*** HEALTHY COMMUNITY MEMBERS
*** NGO BRUSSELS STATEMENT
*** ROA MINISTRY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL ISSUES RAISES NGOS’ AWARENESS ON SOCIAL
SECURITY CARDS SYSTEM
On March 10, 2004, the AAA NGO Training and Resource Center hosted a meeting
of NGO representatives with the ROA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues
Working Group Implementing the Social Security Cards System in Armenia. The
objective was to raise the awareness of participating NGOs on the system, so
that later they could improve the knowledge of their beneficiaries on the
benefits of the social security card in combating corruption in Armenia.
During the meeting, the Ministry representative Artem Asatryan outlined the
Social Security Card system and explained its advantages. Artem Asatryan
said, “The introduction of the Social Security Cards (SSCs) will increase
the efficiency of state government activities. The program will have a
beneficial influence on the activities of benefit payments, taxation,
payment of customs duties, the administration of Armenia’s system of social
security and insurance and other sectors. All those present were provided
with public education materials (Q&A brochures on SSCs and new pension
system, leaflets on pension age in Armenia and pension reforms) to
distribute among their beneficiaries. These materials are available at the
Pensions Department of the Ministry of Labor and Social Issues.
Contact: Artem Asatryan
ROA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues
Government Building #3
Tel.: (374-1) 56-42-10
*** ARMENIA’S FIRST “ONE-STOP SHOP” FOR SOCIAL SERVICES OFFICIALLY OPENED IN
VANADZOR
Since March 29, 2004, the Integrated Social Services Center (ISSC) has been
functioning in Vanadzor, allowing citizens to apply for social services in
one location. The Center was created jointly by the Ministry of Labor and
Social Issues and the USAID-funded Armenia Social Transition Project (ASTP),
PADCO, Inc. The structures providing services at the ISSC are:
 State Social Insurance Fund, where citizens can apply for pensions and
employers pay social insurance contributions for employees;
 Regional Social Service Agency, where families can apply for social
assistance, humanitarian assistance, Poverty Family Benefit and Lump Sum
Assistance payments;
 National Employment and Labor Agency, where the unemployed can receive
unemployment benefits, apply to job announcements, and where customers can
also enroll in training opportunities;
 Social Medical Expertise Commission, where persons with disabilities can
apply for medical examinations which may qualify them for disability
pensions;
 NGO Gateway, uniting more than 30 NGOs in Vanadzor, which provides
services for the vulnerable, elderly, refugees, and others who need advice
and information. An NGO representative in the reception area will provide
information and assistance to citizens who have a need, but may not qualify
for state benefits and require additional services that state social service
offices cannot provide.
There are plans to created similar Integrated Social Service Centers in
Masis and Etchmiadzinin in the near future.
Contact: Armenia Social Transition Project (ASTP), PADCO, Inc. 14 Sundukian
St.
Tel: (374-1) 27-31-75; 27-31-76; 27-31-79; 27-27-85
E-mail: [email protected]
*** NGO CODE OF STANDARDS CREATED
On February 26, 2004, Tekeyan Cultural Center hosted the presentation of the
Code of Standards for Armenian NGOs. The Code of Standards was developed by
a working group of Yerevan-based and regional NGOs with technical and
financial support provided by World Learning through USAID. Taking into
account international experience, the Code initiators intend to formally
establish the basis and standards of practice which will enable Armenian
NGOs perform their representative and progressive functions in advocating
for the interests of communities and civil society. Among those invited were
representatives of NGOs, the donor community, Armenian government officials
and mass media. The authors of the document introduced issues highlighted in
the document, including Mission; Leadership; Legal Conformity; Conflict of
Interests; Financial Accountability; Human Resources; Fundraising
Activities; Transparency; Involvement in State Policy; Partnership and
Alliances; and Information Management. It is anticipated that the Code of
Standards will serve as a guide for NGOs in strategic planning and
evaluation processes and contribute to the strengthening of the sector and
raising its role in society.
Contact:
Levon Nersisyan
Astghik Union of Disabled Children’s Parents
Tel: (374-1) 57-51-85
E-mail: [email protected]
Gayane Akulyan Dashink NGO
E-mail: [email protected]
*** SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
The Women’s Forum NGO’s Sexual Harassment in the Workplace project is
currently underway in Yerevan, Gyumri,Vanadzor, Ashtarak and Kotayk cities
with the financial assistance of World Learning. The goal of this project is
to contribute to the prevention of violence towards women in Armenia,
promotion of women’s participation at all levels of public relations as full
members of society and ensuring legal protection of their rights and
interests. After revealing the urgency of the problem, the NGO conducted a
number of roundtables with employed and unemployed women of the cities
mentioned, various NGO representatives, and managers of business and
government sectors. Printed materials on the problem were disseminated
during these events and meetings. Articles were published in the press, a
video clip and programs were aired on TV and radio, and a press conference
was held. Packages have been also developed and presented to Heads of
National Assembly factions, Chairmen of Committees and the relevant Deputy
Group.
One of the main activities of the project is developing suggestions to the
currently discussed draft ROA Labor Code. Designed to protect the labor
rights and legal interests of women in Armenia, the suggestions are already
included in the draft Code and will be heard soon, during the Draft’s first
hearing in the National Assembly.
Contact:
Lilit Avetisyan
Women’s Forum NGO
Tel: (374-1) 58-99-36; 58-13-81
E-mail: [email protected]
*** CENTER FOR COMMUNITY DIALOGUES AND INITIATIVES FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
On March 26, 2004, the presentation of the newly created Center for
Community Dialogues and Initiatives (CCDI) NGO was held. Through its
Citizens’ Awareness and Participation in Armenia project, implemented with
the assistance of IFES and USAID, CCDI will contribute to the formation and
development of civil society. CCDI trainers carry out the following
activities in eight regions of Armenia: training, consultancy, raising the
population’s awareness on the current legislation, elections monitoring,
organizing public forums and discussions, events intended to protect
citizens’ interests, voluntary actions, professional development of young
people, cultural events, research, and providing library resources.
Contact:
Haykaz Karapetyan
Center for Community Dialogues and Initiatives (CCDI) NGO
8 Tumanyan St.
Tel: (374-9) 40-09-53; 45-31-55
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
*** HEALTHY COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Future Generation Union’s three-year-long “Well Informed, Empowered,
Responsible and Healthy Communities” project is currently being implemented
in nine villages of Armavir Marz, with the financial assistance of the
Netherlands NOVIB organization. The goal of the project is to contribute to
the betterment of health of community members through increasing their
health awareness and health conditions. The Healthy Communities Foundation
has been established and has nine branches and Community Resource Centers,
replenished with health-related literature in their libraries and modern
communications technologies. Through these Resource Centers, healthcare
awareness training sessions will be conducted for community members; topics
will include health rights, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene, HIV/AIDS and
other STIs, Recently, the Future Generation NGO announced a grants program
among these communities to solve the their prioritized problems.
Infrastructure of the nine villages will be improved by laying pipelines or
repairing health-posts or school buildings. The project activities will also
be expanded throughout nine other communities in Armavir. The Revolving Drug
Fund model will be applied here to improve health conditions of community
members by providing medicines and medical services. Preventive health
screening services will be provided to low-income community members, and
appropriate treatment to some of them.
Contact:
Rafayel Vardanyan
Future Generation Union NGO
61/7 Marshal Baghramyan Ave.
Tel: (374-1) 26-46-33
E-mail: [email protected]
*** NGO BRUSSELS STATEMENT
The Women for Green Way for Generations, Armenian Women for Health and
Healthy Environment, Future Generation Union and Lore Eco-Club NGOs made an
announcement on the NGO Brussels Statement, developed in December 2003 in
Brussels during the NGO Strategy Meeting: Making the Environment Work for
Our Children’s Health conference. The event brought together 70
representatives from 50 international, European and national environmental
and health citizens organizations, during which representatives discussed
their ideas, demands and suggestions for the Ministerial Conference on
Environment and Health to be held in Budapest in June 2004. The NGO Brussels
Statement will be followed up with an NGO and Civil Society Declaration to
be presented in Budapest. The statement covers various issues primarily
concerning genetically modified organisms, chemicals, water and food, air
pollution, sustainable development strategy, role of health professionals,
etc. For more information on the statement, visit the
website or contact the following
Armenian NGOs:
Karine Manukyan of Women for Green Way to Generations NGO
E-mail: [email protected]
Karine Grigoryan of Future Generation Union NGO
E-mail: [email protected]
Elena Manvelyan of Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment
NGO
E-mail: [email protected]
Andranik Melikjanyan – Lore Eco-Club NGO
E-mail: [email protected]
__________________________________________________________________________
Armenian NGO News in Brief is a publication of the NGO Training and Resource
Center (NGOC) issued in the Armenian, English and Russian languages for
electronic dissemination inside and outside Armenia. Primary funding for
the NGOC, which is a project of the Armenian Assembly of America, is
provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Individual NGOs are welcome to submit information for publication to the
NGOC. The NGO Center is not responsible for the clarity of information
provided by individual NGOs.
Dear Readers,
The not-for-profit, non-governmental sector of Armenia is rich with diverse
civic initiatives and activities. This electronic publication, though far
from covering all activities of the sector per any given period of time, is
intended to contribute to raising awareness, both inside and outside
Armenia, of the activities of Armenian not-for-profit, non-governmental
organizations.
Your comments and feedback about this electronic publication are greatly
appreciated.
Thank you.
NGOC staff.
Contact Information:
In Armenia: Armenian Assembly of America
NGO Training and Resource Center
39 Yeznik Koghbatsi St.,
Yerevan 375010
Tel.: (3-741) 54-40-12; 54-40-13; 53-92-04
Fax: (3-741) 54-40-15
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
In the United States:Armenian Assembly of America
NGO Training and Resource Center
122 C Street NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001 USA
Tel: (202) 393-3434
Fax: (202) 638-4904
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Patriachate of Jerusalem
P.O. Box 14235
Jerusalem (Old City), Israel
Contact: Bp. Aris Shirvanian, Fr. Issahag Minasyan
Tel: +972 2 626 4853
Fax: +972 2 626 4861
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
12 April 2004
OFFICIAL COMMUNIQUE
EASTER EVE HOLY FIRE CREMONY CONDUCTED PEACEFULLY
The Easter Eve Holy Fire Ceremony was held on Saturday, 10 April 2004 and,
despite tension, dispute and concern of break out of violence, was conducted
peacefully in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
This year’s representative of the Armenian Patriarch as torch-bearer was
Bishop Vicken Aykazian a senior member of St. James Armenian Brotherhood,
and the Diocesan Legate, and the executive director of the ecumenical Office
of the Armenian Church in Washington DC. Accompanying the Greek Orthodox
Patriarch Irenios I Bishop Vicken entered the Holy Tomb of our Risen Lord
together with The Greek Orthodox Patriarch where each lit his bundle of
candles from the oil lamp placed on the Holy Tomb.
Then both proceeded towards the respective windows in the chapel of the
Angel, through which each respectively passed the candles out to the
faithful. The ceremony was held under heavy police presence and security
measures, and the number of participating Christian faithful of the
Armenian, Greek, Coptic and Syrian Orthodox Churches was initially limited
by the Police. These measures were taken after the failure of the intensive
negotiations between the Armenian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Patriarchs to
reach a solution over the burning issue of centuries long Status-Quo
protocol regarding the Holy Fire Ceremony. The issue of the Holy Fire
ceremony is not yet legally resolved.
However, the Israeli government undertook to finally resolve this issue in
the immediate future.
DIVAN OF THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE OF JERUSALEM

‘Mercenaries’ Court Case Won’t Be Any Time Soon’
Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
NEWS
April 11, 2004
Posted to the web April 11, 2004
By Julian Rademeyer
Johannesburg
Fourteen men accused of planning to overthrow the president of
Equatorial Guinea will remain behind bars in the West African
country’s notorious Black Beach prison until an investigation into the
alleged mercenary plot has been completed – a process that could take
months.
The alleged mercenaries, among them seven South Africans and six
Armenians, have been imprisoned for more than a month without access
to lawyers. They have yet to appear in court.
One mercenary, German national Gerhard Eugen Nershz, died on March 16.
Cerebral malaria was officially cited as the cause of death but there
have been persistent claims that he was savagely tortured. At least
two prisoners are believed to have been treated for malaria.
In an interview this week with the Sunday Times in the country’s tiny
island capital of Malabo, Justice Minister Ruben Maye Nsue Mangue
said: “They will appear in court when the charges are prepared. They
will be charged after the completion of the investigation… It will
be some time.”
Maye said two “Russian” prisoners (a reference to the Armenians) and
not two South Africans, as reported earlier this week, had been
hospitalised.
“I understand there were two Russian pilots admitted to hospital and
not South Africans. But now everybody is okay. Nobody is in hospital,”
he said.
Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two
foreigners had been treated for malaria in the Malabo General
Hospital.
Maye said a Red Cross representative visited the men in prison this
week.
“All I want you to transmit to the families of the men is that their
loved ones are under the protection of the rule of human rights.
“Equatorial Guinea today is not the Equatorial Guinea of the 1960s
during the Spanish colonial period or the 1970s during the
dictatorship. We are trying to observe fundamental human
rights. .. Your people have been visited this week by the
International Red Cross. We are not torturing them.”
The Red Cross was not available for comment.
Maye said he found the “deep concern” expressed by South African
government officials and Amnesty International about the conditions in
which the men were being held disturbing.
“What worries us is the silence among people about the outrage of this
plot – and their deep concern for these men. We will take as good care
of them as our resources permit. They will have their day in court.”
Last week, South Africa’s deputy head of the National Prosecuting
Authority, Jan Henning, a member of a delegation which visited the
South Africans in custody, said the South African government should
not accede to requests from Equatorial Guinea’s government for
assistance in prosecuting the men.
“We cannot be seen to assist with a court process that does not comply
with our respect for human rights. .. At the end of the day, there is
a possibility they could be executed,” he said.
“Basic values we have that persons arrested must be brought before
court within 48 hours, a right to legal access – those values are
obviously not recognised there,” added Henning.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Equatorial Guinea’ s Minister of
Information, Agustin Nse-Nfumu, dismissed Henning’s remarks as
“ridiculous”.
“How do you want them to be taken to court when we are still
investigating? There are things I don’t understand.”
Referring to Henning’s comments that the delegation felt “unwelcome
and unsafe” in the country, Nse-Nfumu said : ” I think the way he
behaved does not correspond with his status. .. If we didn’t want him
to be welcome, I don’t see why we’d invite him.”

Capacity for evil is universal
In tracing the cause of the Rwandan genocide, it’s hard to know how far back
in history to go – but what happened in Africa 10 years ago is only the latest
example of humanity at its worst
ALEX SHOUMATOFF
Freelance
Monday, April 12, 2004
Ten years after one of the most savage genocides in human history, the
comprehension of how such an unspeakably horrible thing could have
happenedis still anything but clear.
The chain of causes is long and complex. How far back into Rwanda’s
history one chooses to trace it, and the relative importance one gives
to each cause, is a reflection of one’s cultural, political, and
intellectual biases.
Everyone who has examined the question (with a few notable,
rigourously impartial exceptions) has projected onto it his or her own
culture and its history, social class, politics and personal
experience, so it is important to know what the hidden agendas (even
from those who have them, in some cases) are.
There is no better laboratory than Rwanda for students in the
postmodern, deconstructionist field of historical studies known as
“the production of history.” Where does this monumental tragedy
properly begin? What is its first act and act one’s dateline? In
neighbouring Burundi in 1972, when the Tutsi there (who, unlike
Rwanda’s Tutsi, did not lose power after independence) massacred
200,000 Hutu évolués, liquidating virtually the entire educated young
generation of that ethnic group? Is it at this point that the idea of
mass extermination enters the political discourse in these two tiny,
overcrowded, ethnically riven countries? Are the Tutsi of Burundi to
some degree to blame for what happened to their Rwandan cousins 12
years later? That is what most French analysts and Western academics,
who were invested in the Rwandan Hutu’s failed post-colonial
experiment in creating an egalitarian, democratic society, think. And
not only because of this underreported, now almost forgotten Burundian
genocide, butbecause the Tutsi in both countries were an anachronistic
feudal aristocracy that became even more oppressive during the
colonial period. Privately, professional Rwandanists intimate that
“the Tutsi” got what was coming to them.
But the Burundian genocide was partly a response to the genocidal
massacres between 1959 and 1966 of about 20,000 of the Tutsi in
Rwanda, whom their Hutu serfs succeeded in overthrowing, and the
expulsion into exile of about 200,000 more.
Tutsi analysts begin the tragedy with these “pilot genocides,” the
first cases of ethnic slaughter in the region. They argue that the
original relationship between the Tutsi cattlekeepers and the Hutu
farmers was cordial, based on mutual respect. The animosity only
started after the Belgians came in afterthe First World War and
destroyed the delicate balance between the two ethnic groups, by
ruling indirectly through the Tutsi and making them oversee the forced
labour gangs of Hutu.
Many analysts, African and Western, argue that had not Rwandan society
been destroyed by colonialism, had Rwanda’s political evolution been
allowed to continue, the inequities would have eventually worked
themselves out, and the genocide would never have happened.
But if you look at the Rwanda of 300 or 400 years ago, long before
Europeans gummed up the works, there is ample evidence of at least
proto-genocidal behaviour. The mwami, or king, had the power of life
and death over all his subjects, and clans that fell into disfavour
were regularly snuffed.
When the mwami wanted to annex a neighbouring kingdom or principality,
if peaceful suasion – the offer of women and cows – failed, his
soldiers slaughtered all the men and divvied up the women and children
as booty. The mutilations that shocked the West in 1994 – impalement,
breast oblation, harvesting of testicles as trophies – had been
happening for centuries. Impalement was the punishment for cattle
rustlers until the Belgians put a stop to it in the 1920s.
But Rwanda was an expansionist state, and such symbolic acts of
humiliationhave been common on every continent at that stage of
political evolution.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, a number of fiercely warlike
Hutu kingdoms in northwestern Rwanda, collectively know as the
abahinza, were forcibly annexed by the mwami with the help of the
Germans, the first colonizers of Rwanda. The local chiefs were put to
death and replaced by king’s kinsmen.
Most of the Hutu ideologues of the 1994 genocide and the ruling elite
that carried it out belonged to abahinza lineages. For them, the
genocide was a long-awaited revenge. So does the tragedy begin with
the subjugation of the abahinza, or in 1700, or in 1894, when the
first whites arrive and as Chinoa Achebe quotes Yeats to characterize
Nigeria’s colonial experience, “things fall apart”? But the whites
arrive just as the old king is dying, in time to witness a bloody
succession struggle and a purge of the king’s clan by the queen’s
clan, which usurps the throne.
The capacity for genocide was clearly in Rwandan culture. But no more
than it is in every society, and most of the killing at this point,
with exceptions like the abahinza, was Tutsi on Tutsi, because most of
the dozens of small kingdoms in the interlacustrine region (between
Lake Victoria and the western, lake-studded arm of the Great Rift
Valley in what is now eastern Congo) were ruled by Tutsi.
The Belgians classified everybody as Hutu or Tutsi and racialized what
had been essentially a fluid class distinction (although who exactly
the Tutsi are, to what extent did their taller, thinner somatotype
evolve in place, and what relationship they have with physically
nearly identical people in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, are still
unclear).
Projecting the cockamamy Eurocentric race science of the day, they
embraced the Tutsi as long-lost “Hamitic” cousins, and at first
reinforced the Tutsi’s supremacy and used them to run the colony. The
Hutu, who were already being worked hard by the mwami’s chiefs, grew
to hate the Tutsi. In 1959, as the Belgians were leaving, they
instigated a peasant revolution modelled after the French revolution
that brought the ill-prepared Hutu to power. This set in motion the
developments that culminated in genocide 45 years later.
By 1990, the Tutsi exiles in the five neighbouring countries numbered
abouta million. They had been second-class citizens, perpetual
refugees, in these countries for 30 years, and in Uganda more than
60,000 of them had been massacred in the early 1980s by Milton Obote
after he overthrew Idi Amin. So they decided, like the European Jews
after the Holocaust, to take back their homeland and create a space
where they could be safe.
That fall, a guerrilla force of young English-speaking Tutsi exiles,
calling themselves the Rwandese Patriotic Front, invaded Rwanda from
Uganda. By 1992, the RPF had captured half the country and forced the
Hutu regime to the negotiating table. Had this invasion not taken
place, the genocide would not have happened, either, so this is
another major cause, another reason why some argue that “the Tutsi
brought it on themselves.” But who can blame the exiles for wanting
to have a decent life, with basic civil rights, starting with the
right not to be discriminated against, or even slaughtered, as foreign
ethnics ? There were many other causes. Overpopulation, environmental
degradation and resource scarcity were a big ones, but they have not
gotten enough attention because these issues are not in most analysts’
area of expertise. By 1986, when I made my first trip to Rwanda, to
write about the murder of Dian Fossey for Vanity Fair, the fertile
Land of a Thousand Hills had the highest birth rate on Earth – 8.2
live births per woman, and 25,000 new families needed land each year
but there wasn’t any.
In the early 1990s, there was a severe drought in southern Rwanda,
which created a great number of homeless, desperate refugees who were
easily recruited by the promise that they could have the land and the
house of anyone they killed. At the same time, the world price of
coffee crashed, and this escalated the youth unemployment.
The ignorance of the general population was another underecognized
cause. So many young men who had never been taught to think for
themselves believed whatever they were told, including the hate
broadcasts of the regime’s radio station, that the Tutsi were coming
back to enslave them again.
The Catholic Church played a reprehensible role. Much of the wholesale
slaughter took place in churches into which the Tutsi were lured by
Hutu priests with the promise of sanctuary. France, which supported
the extremist Hutu regime in the interests of maintaining a client
state and a foothold for la francophonie in the region, was no less
despicable.
All the well-intentioned foreign NGOs that kept the Troisième
République going when it was financially and morally bankrupt didn’t
help the situation. The United Nations, which wrung its hands and did
nothing, and the U.S., which prevented the Security Council from
taking action by quibbling over the definition of genocide
(reminiscent of its inaction and thwarting of the international effort
to stop the Armenian genocide), could have stopped the killing from
spreading out of Kigali in the first few days, but instead just stood
by and watched it happen.
But the U.S., still reeling from its disastrous “humanitarian
intervention” in Somalia, wasn’t about to send its soldiers to be
killed in this “dinky little country that no one cares a rat’s ass
about,” as an American diplomat described Rwanda to me.
The “proximate” cause, the event that triggered the slaughter, was the
shooting down on April 6 of the plane carrying the Hutu presidents of
Rwanda and Burundi, although the killing had already begun in a few
places hours before. It is still not clear who did this – Hutu
extremists, French secret agents, the RPF, Burundians, Ugandans, or
five other possibilities.
This assassination, too, is another important cause, because it
ignited a pogrom of Tutsi in the countryside and retaliatory massacres
of Hutu, and drove thousands of Hutu refugees up into Rwanda. These
refugees were highly motivated to kill Tutsi and played a major role
in the genocide. So were the young Hutu of northeastern Rwanda, who
fled south when the RPF invaded. They were anonymous in Kigali, so
they could man roadblocks and kill at will.
Then there are all kinds of subsidiary causes. If, for example, the
colonial lines had been drawn differently so that Rwanda extended east
to Lake Victoria, it would have had access to east African markets and
not have become the poor landlocked country that it did, and the Hutu
and Tutsi would have been thrown in with many other ethnic groups and
might not have become so viciously polarized.
Whatever cause or set of causes one chooses to explain what happened,
the genocide had an effect opposite to the one that its architects
were hoping for: It brought the Tutsi back to power, and now the Hutu
are finding what it was like to be a Tutsi when they were running the
show.
Minority rule is never stable, and despite the commendable strides the
current regime has made at healing the country abolishing the ethnic
identity card and putting forth at least the public ideology that
Rwanda is for all Rwandans, it is still a hard-line dictatorship with
no tolerance of criticism or dissent.
Understandably it is wary of the millions of young Hutu who are
milling around and waiting for someone to come along and make it worth
their while to finish the job. Meanwhile, the virus of genocide has
spread to northeasternCongo, where two groups of similarly ethnically
distinct cattlekeepers and farmers, the Hema and the Lendu, have been
slaughtering each other for the last four years.
It will be decades before Central Africa recovers from Rwanda’s
societal self-immolation, from this appalling episode of collective
psychotic violence and its toxic fallout, The lesson to be taken from
it, rather than doling out blame (for which there is no shortage of
candidates), or brooding on the numerous what ifs, or writing off
Rwanda as one of the world’s rabid societies, is that every society,
even the most supposedly civilized ones, has committed genocide at
some point in its history, and the capacity for evil lurks within
every one of them, and each of us. What happened in Rwanda, like the
Holocaust, is just an extremecase of humanity at its worst. We need to
see history in black and white terms, as the good guys vs. the bad
guys, but it is never that way. The good and evil are layered and
mixed. It is each of our responsibilities to make sure that something
like this doesn’t ever happen again, anywhere, but it almost certainly
will, probably in some other distant, unheard of part of the world,
whose existing ethnic or religious differences have been exacerbated
by Western manipulation and exploitation.
Despite its uniquely tragic history, Rwanda certainly doesn’t have a
patent on such behaviour.
Alex Shoumatoff is a Montreal writer.
© Copyright 2004 Montreal Gazette

PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-489-1610
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Contact: Marc A. Mamigonian
LECTURE ON KARABAGH MOVEMENT,
GENOCIDE, AND ARMENIAN IDENTITY AT NAASR
Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were several national mass
social and political movements in various parts of the country. For
Armenians, the Karabagh Movement of 1988-1990 is particularly significant.
Important aspects of contemporary Armenian society developed during the
two-and-a-half years that the Karabagh Movement lasted. Eventually the
Movement led to revolu-tionary changes in the lives of the people of Soviet
Armenia and challenged views, perspectives, and images that had developed
after the Armenian Genocide and during the decades of Soviet rule. These
changes have had far-reaching effects on Armenian national identity as a
whole.
Dr. Harutyun Marutyan will describe the crucial and positive role of
historical memory in the Karabagh Movement in a lecture at the Center of the
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), 395 Concord
Ave., Belmont, Mass., on Wednesday, April 21, at 8 p.m. He will
particularly review the liberation of Armenia from the Soviet regime and the
building of an independ-ent state aspiring to democratic values and the
creation of a civil society. The lecture is co-sponsored by NAASR and the
Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation.
Questions to be Addressed
Through the examination of the visual imagery of the Karabagh Movement – its
posters and banners – Dr. Marutyan will explain how the mechanism of
historical memory, especially the Armenian people’s memory of the Genocide,
functioned in the Movement. These posters represented images of identity
and serve as an index of the collective understanding of the Movement by its
participants. Changes in these images directly echoed changes in the
political situation and contrib-uted to changes in how the Armenian people
understand their past, present, and future.
Visiting Scholar at MIT
Dr. Harutyun Marutyan is a Social/Cultural Anthropologist, Senior Researcher
at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in the National Academy of
Sciences of Armenia, and is also Visiting Professor of Anthropology at
Yerevan State University. Currently, Dr. Marutyan is a Fulbright Visiting
Scholar at the Anthropology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Admission to the lecture is free (donations are appreciated). A
question-and-answer period and reception will follow the lecture. The NAASR
Bookstore will open at 7:30 p.m.
The NAASR Center and Headquarters is located at 395 Concord Avenue near
Belmont Center and is directly opposite the First Armenian Church and next
to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and
in adjacent areas.
More information on Dr. Marutyan’s lecture or about NAASR and its programs
for the furtherance of Armenian studies, research, and publication may be
had by calling 617-489-1610, by fax at 617-484-1759, by e-mail at
[email protected], or by writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.

Armenian National Committee of Illinois
1701 North Greenwood
Glenview, IL 60025
[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
April 11, 2004
Contact: Nishan Mekhdjian
[email protected]
ILLINOIS ARMENIAN AMERICANS TO
COMMEMORATE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
— Demonstration, Commemorative Program, Vigil, Requiem Service, and Blood
Drive Being Planned for 89th Anniversary of the First Genocide of the 20th
Century
GLENVIEW, IL–Several events in and around the Chicago area are being
planned to commemorate the 89th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
reported the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Illinois.
On Friday, April 23, the ANC, along with the Chicago Armenian Youth
Federation (AYF) “Ararat” chapter, has organized a demonstration in front of
the Turkish Consulate in Chicago. The demonstration, taking place on the
corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, will begin at 11 am. For those
interested in participating, buses will be available to transport
individuals from the Armenian Community Center, 1701 North Greenwood, at 10
am.
The ANC of Illinois is sponsoring a commemorative remembrance program on
Saturday, April 24, at 7:30 pm, in the Shahnasarian Hall of the Armenian
Community Center.
The featured keynote speaker, who will present a bilingual lecture, is
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Eastern Region Central Committee
member Antranig KasBarian, PhD. Following the remembrance program, a
candlelight vigil will be held at the Martyrs Monument.
A requiem service and blood drive are planned for Sunday, April 25. The
memorial requiem service begins at 11:45 am, at the Armenian All Saints
Apostolic Church in front of the Martyrs Monument. In addition, from 10:30
am to 2:00 pm, the Armenian Relief Society (ARS), in conjunction with the
American Red Cross, is organizing a blood drive at the Glenview Community
Center.
All programs are free and open to the public. For more information about any
of these events, contact Nishan Mekhdjian at [email protected].
The Armenian National Committee (ANC) is the largest Armenian American
grassroots political organization in Illinois and nationwide. The ANC
actively advances a broad range of issues of concern to the Armenian
American community.
####

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
04/09/2004
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Opposition Rally in Yerevan 2) Minister Quits After Son's Arrest 3) Announcement 4) Congresswoman Napolitano to Speak at April 23 Genocide Vigil-Rally 5) Prelate's Easter Message 6) Primate's Easter Message: 1) Opposition Rally in Yerevan YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan/RFE/RL)--The April 9 rally organized by the Artarutyun alliance and the National Unity Party, calling for Armenia's president Robert Kocharian to step down or a referendum on his legitimacy, began with a one-hour delay and ended without major incident. Reported attendance at the rally varied, with police estimates at 6,500; Noyan Tapan estimated that 25,000-30,000 people were present, while Radio Liberty put the number at 10,000. Witnesses, meanwhile, told Asbarez that 10,000, at most, people were present. Rally organizers decided against marching towards Kocharian's official residence. Hundreds of riot police and interior troops backed by water cannons were on standby near the street leading to the presidential palace. While there was no visible police presence, opposition sources said at least eight demonstrators were arrested by plainclothes police immediately after the rally. The head of the Yerevan central Kentron district police department Hovannes Tamamian, confirmed that "several" opposition supporters were arrested at Freedom Square and would be charged with administrative offenses. Midway through the rally, almost half of the participants disbanded. More than a hundred people remained at the square late in the evening, singing songs and listening to folk music. 2) Minister Quits After Son's Arrest YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--Urban Development Minister Ara Aramian stepped down on Friday following the arrest of his son accused of involvement in a high-profile gunfight in a Yerevan café earlier this month. "Given the artificial uproar [over the incident] that could damage the reputation of the country's leadership, my party, and me, I find it ethical to resign," he told RFE/RL. Aramian denied that the decision was taken under pressure from his Orinats Yerkir Party, which has been coping with the political fallout from the shooting. The party's leader, parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian, promised to announce plans to replace him on Wednesday. The arrest of 24-year-old Hayk Aramian was announced by prosecutors on Monday. He was charged with an attempted murder and illegal arms possession. Aramian was among at least five men wounded in the apparent settling of score. His father effectively denied the charges. "My son never carried weapons, drank, or smoked in his life. He has always been a benchmark for his friends," he said. According to media reports, relatives of other senior government officials also took part in the gunfight, which broke out while the presidents of Armenia and Georgia dined at a next-door jazz club. 3) Announcement April 24 Commemorations We would like to inform the public that the following events have been organized in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide: Public Gathering at Montebello Monument Saturday, April 25, 1 PM Keynote speaker from Armenia, National Assembly member Levon Mkrtchian by special invitation Program will begin with a requiem service. Transportation will be provided from various locations (please see ad on page 10 of Asbarez Armenian section). Rally Against Denial April 23 at 8 PM Homenetmen Ararat Center 3347 San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, CA Demonstration at Turkish Consulate Saturday, April 24, 4 PM 4801 Wilshire Blvd. (corner of Wilshire & June), Los Angeles, CA Let us participate in vast numbers to convey our protests effectively and with might. Armenian Genocide 89th Anniversary Commemorative Committee 4) Congresswoman Napolitano to Speak at April 23 Genocide Vigil-Rally MONTEBELLO--Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA) will be one of the special guest speakers at the Genocide Remembrance Vigil/Rally on the evening of April 23, announced the Armenian National Committee San Gabriel Valley spokesperson. Napolitano, who represents the 38th District, is a strong advocate of Armenian American issues on Capitol Hill. Organized by the ANC, this year's Genocide Remembrance Vigil/Rally will be start at 8:00 p.m., on Friday, April 23, at the Armenian Martyrs Monuments in Biknell Park, Montebello. The official program will begin at 8:30 p.m.; it will include video presentation and speeches. Along with Congresswoman Napolitano, guest speakers will include other local and state dignitaries. The event will conclude with the traditional vigil and prayer. 5) Prelate's Easter Message Today Angels descending from heaven the give tidings of great joy to mankind: "He who was crucified is risen and has resurrected you with Him." Let us then renew our lives with renewal as a new people today through the Resurrection of Christ. (from the Patrum Chant of Easter Morning) Being obedient to the Will of His Father, the Son of God stretched His immaculate arms upon the Cross, thereby perfectly fulfilling His earthly mission. He was buried in a new tomb, and then rose from the dead on the third day as the immortal and heavenly groom. By His death He trampled upon Death, and He granted new life to all those who believed in Him, and who followed His Way, His Truth, and His Life. With the glorious Resurrection our Lord Jesus Christ completed the mission of the revelation of God, and as the Lamb of God, He took away the sin of the world. Behold once again the supreme meaning of our Faith and the foundation of its victory are celebrated with the joyous tidings of the Resurrection which fill our hearts and enkindle our souls with new breath. "Today Angels descending from Heaven give tidings of great joy to mankind: He who was crucified is risen and has resurrected you with Him." Such encouraging words! Such a hopeful testimony! Such inspiring good tidings! The Apostle Paul, the famous preacher of the Resurrection, conveys to us the great message with the same inspiration and emphasis: "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God." (Colossians 3:1) The Oil-bearing Women who discovered the empty tomb early on the first day of the week and told the Disciples were indeed the first witnesses of the Resurrection. They saw the risen Lord, they received His peaceful greeting, and as He commanded them, they went out to the entire world, baptized all who believed, preached salvation, and by giving testimony of the hope of the Resurrection, turned the eyes and attention of the faithful to the glorious Second Coming of the Lord. From the earliest days following the Pentecost, the lives of our people have been miraculously transformed through the miracle of the Resurrection because our fathers and mothers not only understood the mystery of the Resurrection but in fact effected the very mystery of renewal in the life of the Armenian nation. Today, more than ever, the Feast of the Resurrection invites us to accept the responsibility of renewal by abiding in the way of truth. Dear faithful, As children of the Armenian nation and as members of the same Church, let us go forth in the spirit of the message of the Holy Resurrection, remembering the words of the Apostle Paul: "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." (Romans 6:5-6) Our Lord Jesus Christ comforted His disciples, saying: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) With these same words of encouragement, as children of God and children of the Armenian nation, let us strive to overcome our own tribulations, weaknesses, and doubts. Let us flee from all those conditions and lifestyles which obscure and indeed which thwart the manifestation of the risen Lord in our life. Let us be mindful of the message of Apostle Paul not to follow in the ways of those who choose not to be obedient to God, and enhanced with the spirit of the Resurrection in our personal, family, national, and church lives, let us "Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him" (Colossians 3:9-10). Dear faithful, Let us comprehend the mystery of the Resurrection according to the encyclical of His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, by which he has declared 2004 to be the "Year of the Armenian Family." Let us renew and restore our family life by strengthening our Apostolic Faith, by rediscovering our traditions and customs, and by reconnecting the youth of the community with our ancestral virtues. May the presence of the resurrected Saviour within every Armenian family bestow a new life therein and transform us into a family of Paradise so that our attention and focus may be directed heavenward. By the Resurrection of Christ may every Armenian family be cleansed of transgressions, and being rejuvenated, and every Armenian family resume the Way to Truth and Eternal Life. Renewed by the message of the glorious and holy Resurrection, we convey our love and Easter Greetings and Blessings to the Reverend Clergy, the Central Executive, the parishes and parochial institutions, educational and cultural organizations, charitable foundations, and all of the faithful who serve and are served within the Prelacy. We pray that our Lord who renews all may grace us likewise, and through His Resurrection may He grant newness of life in Armenia, in Artsakh, and throughout the Diaspora. Christ is risen from the dead! Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ! Prayerfully yours, Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian Prelate, Western United States 6) Primate's Easter Message: "To me, living is Christ and dying is gain" (Philippians 1:21) Inspired and enriched by the mystery of the Holy Resurrection of Christ the words of St. Paul are as powerful as a prayer. The same words not only come as powerful prayer echoing in our hearts, but as a way of life, because we realize the truth that "Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Eph. 5:2) The mystery of the Holy Resurrection of Christ becomes the essence of our spiritual life only when the old person in us is reborn and we fearlessly inaugurate the new man, " to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph. 4:22-25) The entire spiritual journey of Lent leas us to the glorious mystery of the Resurrection of Christ, which ushered in for mankind a new life and the Christian believer discovered within himself the divine power that enables one to constantly renew his life to the extent that he feels in his soul the miracle of the new life. Dear faithful, with a joyous heart we send you our Easter Message and call upon all of you to rededicate you lives to Christ, to enter the depths of the mystery of the Holy Resurrection through the most noble life of prayer, and to discover in your souls the divine grace which makes it possible for us to renew our God-given lives. Undoubtedly each one of us needs the power of regeneration. Life may often be influenced by the manifold temptations of the world, but when a life is established on the cornerstone of the life-giving Resurrection of Christ it can repel the perils that it encounters every day. The glorious Resurrection of Christ opens before us the dawn of a new life. The Giver of life opens before us a new way in Christ, the Son of God, so that through the sacrifice of His life becomes the spiritual light of a new life for the entire human race. Christ is risen from the dead! Blessed is the resurrection of Christ! The foundation of our Christian faith is the Holy Resurrection of Christ. Without the Resurrection of Christ Christianity would become for us a set of moral principles for life and a guiding doctrine. But Christianity is life itself, the source of salvation, because it is anchored in the personal sacrifice of Christ. Christianity is the movement from the mind to the heart that is dawned first in our own thoughts and then becomes the moving energy of our entire being. It is not possible to explain in words alone our faith in the Holy Resurrection. The Resurrection of Christ is ever spreading force that is kneaded in our essence and separates us from the foreign thoughts that have no root in God. In the words of St. Nerses the Graceful we subject our souls entirely to God and we take refuge in His power. "To you I surrender my soul. You provide and satisfy the needs of my soul and body." Dear faithful, the resurrection of Christ casts the roots of new life also in our Holy Church when we awaken in us the vision of a new Church, a revitalized Church. The Armenian Apostolic Church has reached such a critical moment when the mission of our Holy Church must echo the new circumstances of life. And to revitalize the Church means to lead the very same Church to a spiritual rebirth in the mystery of the Resurrection. To revitalize does not mean to reject the traditions that have reached us through the centuries, but to connect the people to those traditions, and to reunite as one reality the Church and the people who are drawing apart from one another. For when the Church does not reflect our life today she remains merely a concept, a lifeless doctrine. We are living in times when Christianity remains disconnected to man, when one turns to other sources to satisfy one's spiritual thirst, sources that provide only temporary satisfaction to one's spiritual needs. Today this is the reality in Armenia and in the Diaspora. The reality is no different for the faithful of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America. In order to satisfy their spiritual thirst children of our Church leave the Mother Church and lead their lives on the paths of uncertainty. The situation dictates that we stay in our home and rejuvenate, renew and enrich the traditions of the Armenian Church that have reached us through the centuries. The Church is not a reality detached from us, and it is necessary to make the active life the very aim and purpose of the Church through visible actions. Anything else would suggest weakness, which we reject. The glorious Holy Resurrection of Christ today is an invitation to all the children of the Armenian Apostolic Church without exception to return home. The mystery of the glorious Resurrection of Christ becomes real when through Holy Etchmiadzin a new unity is established in our community, a unity whose strength will enable us to see more brightly the eternal truths. Christ is risen from the dead! Blessed is the resurrection of Christ! Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate Easter 2004 All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2004 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.