Category: News

AAP NEWSFEED (Australia)
August 20, 2004, Friday 8:24 AM Eastern Time
Wgt: Chakhoyan looks for gold in tarnished sport
By Glenn Cullen
Golden moments in Australian weightlifting have been few of late but
there could be one tomorrow for Sergo Chakhoyan.
The Armenian-born weightlifter is in contention for the gold medal in
the 85kg class at the Games, along with hometown favourite and
three-time gold medallist Pyrros Dimas, China’s Aijan Yuan and Turk
Izzet Ince.
World weightlifting has already had its share of drugs scandals at
this Olympics, with seven international competitors testing positive
in out of competition tests before they had a chance to lift.
While distanced from drugs controversies here so far, the Australians
have not had a good record in the last six months.
Two positive tests to fringe national squad members were followed by
the debacle involving women’s lifter Caroline Pileggi who was kicked
off the team for failing to undergo a drugs test while training in
Fiji.
In between time there were questions raised about Chakhoyan, who
tested positive to stanozolol and served a two year ban that finished
in 2003.
The Australian Olympic Committee complained it could not find the
Armenian-based athlete for more than three months.
He was drug tested, his result negative.
Of more immediate concern tomorrow may be Chakhoyan’s weight, which
appears to have dropped in the competition lead-up.
Sam Coffa, head of the Australian Weightlifting Federation, said it
wasn’t ideal.
“I had heard he was losing a little bit of bodyweight and that’s
always a concern,” he said.
“You can’t go into the competition having lost too much bodyweight.
Coffa, who is also vice president of the International Weightlifing
Federation and is officiating here, said he couldn’t say why positive
tests from lifters couldn’t be confirmed before the Games to avoid
the embarrassment here.
“I don’t know I am not really competent to answer those questions.
There are medical and scientific reasons why this can’t be done and
there’s all the logistics,” he said.
“But I am clearly a technical man so I don’t interfere with those
sorts of things.”

Agence France Presse — English
August 20, 2004 Friday 2:12 PM GMT
Lawyers make final appeal for release of ‘mercenaries’ in Zimbabwe
HARARE
Lawyers representing 70 suspected mercenaries held on charges of
plotting a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea asked a Zimbabwe court
to acquit most of the men in a final appeal.
The men were arrested in March when their Boeing 727 landed in Harare
to pick up a consignment of weapons, including rifles, grenades,
rocket-launchers and mortar bombs which Zimbabwe says were to be used
to overthrow the regime in Equatorial Guinea.
In his closing arguments, defense lawyer Jonathan Samkange said
charges of “conspiracy to possess dangerous weapons” against 66 of
the men should be dropped as the alleged soldiers of fortune knew
nothing of the arms purchases in Harare.
“The charge is incompetent and therefore I ask that the accused be
acquitted on that basis,” said Samkange.
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe ajourned the trial until August 27 but
gave no indication as to whether a verdict would be handed down at
that hearing.
The trial opened on July 27 at a makeshift court in the Chikurubi
maximum security prison where the men have been held since their
arrest almost six months ago.
The detained group included three crew members, and three men on the
ground who allegedly went to Harare International Airport to inspect
the firearms to be purchased from Zimbabwe’s state arms manufacturer.
The court has heard that the weapons were needed to guard diamond
mines in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where most
of men claim they were going to do security work after being
recruited in South Africa.
But Zimbabwe has accused them of plotting to overthrow President
Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s 25-year regime in the small central African
state of Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony.
Eight other South Africans and six Armenians are due to go on trial
in Equatorial Guinea’s capital Malabo on Monday, charged with taking
part in an advance force that was to be later joined by the ‘Harare
70’ to carry out the coup.
State prosecutor Lawrence Phiri argued the men could not have
possibly been going on ordinary security duties considering the
manner they behaved at Harare airport, the nature of the equipment
they were supposed to collect and some of the documents and supplies
found on their plane.
The group stayed on board an aircraft with no cabin lights, remained
silent with some of them even lying down on the aisle, to avoid
detection, according to Phiri, obeying instructions that were
contained on a piece of paper allegedly found on the plane.
Phiri also argued that some items found on the plane such as
camouflage cream and survival kits could not possibly be for use by
security guards.
He said mortar bombs and grenades could not have been used for
guarding mines.
“These items are exclusively of military use, not for a security
company,” he said.
“One is inclined to conclude that in fact these persons knew that
whatever expedition they were going on, was illegal,” Phiri argued.
Some of the men have testified that they knew nothing about landing
in Harare to pick up weapons, and Samkange argued Friday that they
could therefore not be charged with conspiracy.
Samkange said the state should have called witnesses from South
Africa to say whether a meeting took place to discuss and agree on
the conspiracy.
“In this case there is deafening silence as regards the form of
agreement, and the court cannot therefore find any way of convicting
these people,” he added.
“I would ask this court to act judiciously and when it acts
judiciously and in fairness to all parties, it has no option but to
acquit the accused,” said Samkange.
“It is wrong to suggest that there was any conspiracy,” he said.
If convicted under Zimbabwe’s Public Order and Security Act (POSA)
the men could face a 10-year jail term.

Le Temps
20 août 2004
Dans le creuset désaffecté de la boxe olympique;
Chaque jour, quarante amateurs se castagnent dans une salle des
faubourgs d’Athènes devant un public excité et des recruteurs madrés.
Chamailleries de cour d’école, expédition punitive, les combats
diffèrent et se succèdent sur un rythme endiablé, dans une procession
de gueules cabossées. Reportage dans l’envers des Jeux.
Le hangar se dresse dans les faubourgs d’Athènes, neuf et proéminent,
calé à la hte entre un cimetière de voitures et des maisons
«arthrosiques». La boxe dispose en cet endroit d’un simulacre des
clichés qu’elle véhicule: le fatras des bas quartiers, les odeurs de
cambouis, les rues inhospitalières. Sauf qu’ici flotte la bannière
olympique et que, sous les tôles froissées, la salle ne sent pas la
haine et la souffrance, mais la peinture fraîche.
La boxe amateur est une discipline olympique depuis 1920. Seule la
Suède n’en a pas voulu sur son territoire, en 1912, pendant les Jeux
de Stockholm. La majorité des professionnels du pugilat porte sur
elle un regard distrait, voire condescendant. Leur art, selon
beaucoup, perdrait de sa noblesse. «Peut-être. Peut-être pas…»,
grimace, un mégot en équilibre précaire au coin de la bouche,
Dimitris Attikou, sexagénaire grec, lui-même ancien boxeur.
Mercredi, à l’heure du repas: l’Ethiopien Kebede et le Japonais
Igarashi s’essaient à une chamaillerie de cour d’école, dans une
distribution de gifles rondement menée. Pas de feintes, pas de
stratégies. Que des coups, poings levés et haut les coeurs. Tout à
leur frénésie incoercible, les belligérants cognent sans répit,
pressés d’en découdre et, plus vraisemblablement, d’en finir. «Là, il
n’y a plus d’art, ni de noblesse», pouffe Dimitris.
Dans ce creuset de la boxe, rue Gonata, Athènes, se jouent quantité
de petits drames humains, au rythme de vingt combats par jour, dans
une procession interminable de gueules cabossées. Les corps
vacillent, saignent, tombent. Les faciès n’ont plus qu’un vague
cousinage avec la photo qui orne le passeport de leurs détenteurs. Et
le décorum suit, forcément. De tous les sites olympiques, celui de la
boxe force le trait, par goût ou pour les besoins du protocole, nul
ne le sait trop. La salle de Péristéri a le service de sécurité le
plus zélé, la musique la plus forte, les bénévoles les plus blondes,
les Américains les plus bruyants. Tout ici fleure bon la dramaturgie
de bazar, l’antichambre désaffectée de l’excellence, sans que les
douleurs soient moins vives, les défaites moins insupportables.
Jeudi, à l’heure du café: l’Américain Vanes Martirosyan monte sur le
ring la tête enfouie sous un capuchon, dans l’idée de démolir le
Cubain Lorenzo Aragon Armenteros. La foule relative est excitée, elle
semble venue expressément pour ce combat. Eurosport et NBC sont en
direct. Un quart d’heure de gloire – durée d’un combat des poids
welters aux Jeux – pour Vanes Martirosyan, 18 ans, Californien
d’origine, débarqué d’Arménie à sa tendre enfance.
Son père est un ancien soldat, qu’une grenade a privé de la main
gauche. Ses trois entraîneurs sont des militaires recyclés. Coiffé
d’un bonnet de laine blanc, Basheer Abdullah éperonne sa multitude
avec semblable vigueur, enfants des ghettos noirs de la côte Est ou
des barrio latino de Californie. L’ancien sergent chef a pour
subalternes Robert Michael, vingt-six années de combats dans le 5e
corps de marines, et «Coach Bradley», vingt-quatre années de
paquetage dans la 82e division aéroportée, cent kilos d’autorité, une
propension manifeste à forcer le respect. Mission: hisser la bannière
étoilée au mt d’honneur. Méthode: la règle des trois «f»; fight,
fair, fuck.
La boxe amateur américaine ne gagne plus et les télévisions s’en
détournent. Il fallait tenter la fermeté. «Dès qu’un jeune de notre
internat manifeste des aptitudes, il est convoité par les managers de
la boxe professionnelle, minaude Basheer Abdullah. Ce sont des
gosses, ils ne résistent pas à la tentation de gagner davantage
d’argent. Alors ils partent, et nous devons recommencer le programme
olympique avec une autre recrue.»
Les cadors du boxing business, Don King et Bob Arum en tête, envoient
leurs émissaires dans les combats d’arrière-garde, humer l’odeur
sacrée des masses laborieuses. Ils sont quelques-uns à hanter la
salle de Péristéri, facilement reconnaissables à leurs costumes
sombres. Aucune velléité de férocité talentueuse ne leur échappe, ni
les meilleurs éléments, qu’ils apptent avec une prime à la signature
d’un demi-million de dollars. «Nos gars reçoivent 1500 dollars
d’argent de poche par mois. Ils logent dans un campus, à Colorado
Springs», soupire Basheer Abdullah.
Vanes Martirosyan n’a pas démoli Lorenzo Aragon Armenteros. L’inverse
serait plus exact. A sa décharge, le Cubain est rompu à la boxe
olympique et à son système de comptage abscons. Lui, il ne connaîtra
jamais rien d’autre.

Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA)
SDA – Servizio di base in Italiano
20 ago, 2004
Svizzera-Turchia: visita diplomatica delegazione svizzera, senza
Calmy-Rey
BERNA,
La Commissione della politica estera (CPE) del Consiglio degli Stati
si rechera’ in Turchia il 30 agosto per una visita diplomatica di
quattro giorni. Scopo del viaggio sara’ la cura delle relazioni
bilaterali tra i due Stati. Durante il soggiorno i delegati elvetici
incontreranno il ministro degli esteri turco Abdullah Guel. Non
esiste ancora, invece, una data per un eventuale incontro con la
consigliera federale Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Oltre a curare i rapporti diplomatici ed economici con Ankara, ha
anticipato il segretario della commissione, Paolo Janke, la
delegazione svizzera discutera’ anche di un eventuale ingresso della
Turchia nell’UE, delle questioni curda e armena, dei problemi di
sicurezza, di diritti umani e dei conflitti che insaguinano l’Iraq e
il Medio Oriente.
La CPE ha in programme anche visite a Erzurum e Istanbul con lo scopo
di incontrare politici locali, organizzazioni non governative (ONG) e
fautori dell’adesione all’UE.
Il gruppo di lavoro elvetico, che conta sei membri, come ha precisato
oggi all’ats il segretario Jenke, sara’ in Turchia dal 30 agosto al 3
settembre e sara’ guidato dal presidente della CPE, Peter Briner
(PLR/SH). La Confederazione intende cosi’ dar seguito all’invito
fatto dai deputati turchi. E’ la prima volta che una delegazione del
Consiglio degli Stati si reca in Turchia.
Il viaggio era previsto da tempo, ma in seguito alla piccola crisi
diplomatica, provocata l’anno scorso dall’annullamento della visita
della ministra degli esteri Micheline Calmy-Rey da parte di Ankara,
la spedizione e’ stata rinviata.
Nel settembre 2003, infatti, Ankara aveva ritirato l’invito ad un
incontro rivolto alla Calmy-Rey, in seguito alla decisione del Gran
Consiglio vodese di riconoscere come genocidio il massacro perpetrato
nel 1915 dall’Impero ottomano ai danni del popolo armeno. Lo scorso
dicembre poi, una maggioranza di consiglieri nazionali aveva
trasmesso un postulato al Consiglio federale affinche riconoscesse il
genocidio.

armenianow.com
August 20, 2004
Sona:”I Gave Up My Soul . . .
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Photos by
Ruben Mangasaryan
Editor’s Note: Compared with early years of independence,
life, finally, is getting much better for many people in Armenia.
But for many more – especially those outside the capital, recovery has
neither come, nor appears on any horizon.
They exist on the fragile fringe of society.
But like those who are surely building a new republic, these whose lives
have been damaged by the changes of time own Armenia, too. And they should
not be overlooked.
Photojournalist Ruben Mangasaryan, whose work over many years has included
attention toward the marginalized and socially exiled, is currently working
on a special project “Poverty in Armenia”.
Over the next several months, ArmeniaNow will highlight Ruben’s work, in
hopes that the unfortunate large number represented by his few subjects will
receive due recognition.
ArmeniaNow reporter Vahan Ishkhanyan joined Ruben during the first of his
photo investigations. . .
. . . and Live Underground.”
It has been two years since Sona has been able to go to her “job”, under the
wall of Kumayri Museum in Gyumri, where she would sit and beg for money.
Because of an illness, Sona Davtyan, 39, grew old right away and she can
hardly move. Her stomach is swollen, fluid seeps into it. People mock her as
if she were pregnant.
The face of 39
“Water collects, my stomach gets swollen, it becomes even more swollen in
the evening. I drink about a bucket of water,” she says.
The museum is about 4 kilometers away from her apartment. She can no longer
go there, so she does her begging closer to home. The farthest she can get
is the building of the Regional Government where “there are rich ones
wearing ties”.
Before, it was easy, she would sit under the wall and passersby would throw
her money. Now she has to come up to them herself and beg. It makes her job
harder, more troublesome. “Some give, some curse. There are more of those
who curse than those who give,” Sona says.
Until 1988 Sona was working at a factory. The earthquake took her job and
her apartment and made her a beggar. Now, the lingering effects of
earthquake are quickly taking her life.
The effect? “I gave up my soul and live underground,” she says.
Before, when she was healthy, she would collect 500-600 drams a day. That’s
more than a dollar, and enough for food and other expenses. Now she collects
less. She can hardly move and is always moaning.
And now, her daily needs include diuretics, which she cannot buy.
She says she expects no other treatment from this life.
“The ambulance has come twice. They do this (she shows how the doctors
pressed on her stomach with fingers) and go. They think by doing so it’ll
get better.” Now she cannot sleep from her stomach pains. “It hurts so much
that I can’t sweep anymore. I cannot bend down at all, if I bend down my
stomach will explode.”
Sona’s home is in the former park of the Polytechnic University, where
residents of Gyumri would walk, before the earthquake. All that’s left from
the park is the metal part of a rusty fountain and the round-shaped kiosk of
a café. Sona, five relatives, and the odd stray cat or dog in the kiosk.
Sona’s two daughters, who as she says were born from “a known mother and an
unknown father”, live with Sona. The younger, Arevik, 15, goes to school and
wants to become a handball coach. The elder, Armine, has a two-month old
child. Her husband, Samvel lives with them, too. He works at Gyumri Zoo,
cleaning up after animals. For it, he makes 20,000 drams (about $40 a
month).
Samvel’s arms are covered with cuts from top to bottom. Some wounds are
still fresh, others are old scars. He says when he gets nervous he cuts his
arms with a razor.
“I did it to myself. Cutting makes me high. When I’m angry I see my blood
and relax.”
Samvel, 29, has been convicted three times for fighting for fighting, and
has spent eight years in prison. But he’s been living straight for the past
four years. “I’ve become calmer now,” he says. “I clean under animals.”
The owner of the kiosk is Chichak, whose company is prostitutes and former
criminals. He grew up at an orphanage with Sona’s mother (her mother died
this year). Above Sona’s bed there’s a black and white photo that was taken
16 years ago. It is young Sona, pregnant with Arevik, and little Armine and
Chichak. Chichak raised Armine and he says she actually is his brother’s
daughter and that Sona is lying about the children, so that she is pitied
Home sweet home
Family relations have become entangled like the street animals that share
their lives. Besides the family, there are constant “guests” – old people
and women wearing shabby clothes, children with sooty faces and, like the
cats and dogs, one cannot figure out who is whose relative.
Chichak’s income is his pension.
“Life is very cruel. We’re starving, we miss fruits. The whole world has
eaten watermelons, we haven’t; it has eaten tomatoes, we haven’t. We give
what we get for the electricity, so that we at least see each other’s faces
in the evenings.”
He longs for the past. “Eh, it was very good during Soviet times.”
Last year, Sona, her mother and daughter were given a one-room flat near the
park. They took some of their belongings to the apartment, but do not live
there. Sona says with her bad health she cannot go four floors up. But the
real reason is not her physical state. Psychologically she cannot turn away
from the street, from Chichak’s kiosk which is her life and her way of
living.
It is hard to imagine how, for instance, she will take the street garbage –
which is their fuel – up to the apartment. In the kiosk it’s easy; they
collect whatever can be burnt from the nearby garbage pile. The fuel is
piled next to the kiosk – rags, plastic items, rubber . . .
Things that cannot be burnt are also collected in another pile, from which
scrap metal is occasionally sold for about $20 per ton.
They also collect from the garbage dress-up items. Sona wears rings that
were found in the garbage. And her nails are painted from discarded nail
polish.
But she didn’t find any lipstick and jokes that “the lipstick is left for
the next time.”
The old age that has come to her too early has left her hair young. She
jokes that if she finds dye “I’ll dye my hair gray.” And laughs as if on her
last breath.

Azeri foreign minister says setting up of NATO bases may take time
Ekho, Baku
20 Aug 04

Judging by the nature of Russian media reports, Moscow is most of all
concerned about Azerbaijan’s military development. The first question
journalists asked Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov at a
final news conference in Moscow was about Azerbaijan’s prospects for
entering NATO.
“I am always asked whether Azerbaijan wants to become a member of
NATO. This question had better be addressed to NATO members,”
Mammadyarov said.
Asked about the possibility of setting up NATO bases in Azerbaijan,
Mammadyarov said: “It is naive to think that military bases can be set
up overnight.” The minister also spoke about how difficult it was to
agree the issue of establishing military bases, namely, between
parliaments.
Touching on military and technical cooperation with Russia, he said
that the issue had been discussed at his meeting with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov. Mammadyarov mentioned that Azerbaijan and
Russia were already maintaining military and technical cooperation and
Azerbaijan had leased its Qabala radar station to Russia. Also, there
is an exchange programme between the defence ministries of the two
countries.
Speaking about the role of Russia in the region, the minister said
that Moscow should step up its role in resolving the Karabakh
conflict. “We are expecting the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen to say
their word in resolving the conflict,” the minister said. The minister
pointed to the inviolability of the territorial integrity principle.
Mammadyarov also spoke about the Caspian legal status and said that
Azerbaijan was counting on the speediest solution of the issue. “A
solution to this issue is not too far off,” he said. According to him,
the problem of dividing the Caspian should not be “viewed as a serious
one”. “The recent visit by the Iranian president to Azerbaijan and my
visit to Tehran have laid the foundations for progress,” the
Azerbaijani foreign minister said.
[Passage omitted: reported details]
“Azerbaijan stands for further cooperation with Russia in the energy
sector,” he said. Speaking about economic cooperation between the two
countries, he said “cooperation in the energy sector is part of
it”. “[Russia’s] LUKoil is actively working in Azerbaijan but there
are opportunities for other companies as well,” Mammadyarov said.
He also said that Azerbaijan was implementing a number of projects
towards establishing a transport corridor from Russia through
Azerbaijan and Iran to the Persian Gulf. Namely, both Russia and Iran
support the construction of the North-South railway corridor.
“Russia supports the idea of accessing the Persian Gulf through
Azerbaijan and Iran,” the minister said. He mentioned that Azerbaijan
had completed the construction of the railway to Astara [town on
Azerbaijan-Iran border], while Iran was building a railway line to the
town with the same name on its own territory. “When a railway bridge
between these two towns is built, the corridor will start working. An
agreement on the construction of the bridge has already been reached,”
he said.
Also, Azerbaijan is in talks with Greece on possible supplies of
natural gas there. “Agreements have been signed with Georgia and
Turkey and talks with Greece are under way,” he said when answering a
question about ways of exporting Azerbaijani gas. “I think more
customers will be found in Europe after Greece,” he added.
According to him, oil is now of higher priority than gas. “We hope
that first tankers with our oil will leave the port of Ceyhan [in
Turkey] in the summer of 2005,” he said and added that about 1m
barrels of oil are to be pumped through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline every day.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Aug. 19, 2004
Teri Bond Michael, [email protected]
(310) 206-3235
Sasha Stone, [email protected]
(310) 206-5490
$1.1 Million Gift to UCLA Establishes Rouben Mamoulian Endowed Chair in
Directing for Film and Theater
UCLA Film and Television Archive screens Mamoulian’s ‘Love Me Tonight’
during Festival of Preservation Aug. 21
The estate of Azadia Mamoulian, widow of film and theater legend Rouben
Mamoulian, has donated $1.1 million to the UCLA School of Theater, Film
and Television to establish an endowed chair in theatrical and motion
picture directing, announced Robert Rosen, dean of the school.
Mamoulian’s musical masterpiece, “Love Me Tonight” (1932), was recently
restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive and will screen at the
James Bridges Theater, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 21, as part of their
12th Festival of Preservation. For information, call (310) 206-FILM or
visit .
“To have an artist of the distinction of Rouben Mamoulian associated
with the chair is a great honor for us,” Rosen said. “It is particularly
appropriate since Mamoulian moved easily between stage and screen, just
as our students are encouraged to do during their time on campus.”
The Mamoulian Chair enables the school to invite film and theater
artists of great distinction to teach at UCLA and enhance the
curriculum. During the most recent academic year, the chair funded the
residencies of veteran award-winning directors Robert Butler, Barry
Primus and Joe Sargent in the Department of Film, Television and Digital
Media. The residency of distinguished musical theater director Jeremy
Mann also was funded and resulted in a sold-out Ray Bolger Musical
Theater production of “Into the Woods.”
Mamoulian’s films are known for their sex and seduction, wit, lyricism,
and highly inventive filmmaking techniques. “Love Me Tonight” is an
enchanting tale of an amorous tailor (Maurice Chevalier) who woos a
lovelorn princess (Jeanette MacDonald). The film was a landmark
collaboration between Mamoulian and composers Richard Rodgers and Lorenz
Hart. They produced a technique that was revolutionary at the time
wherein the story, action and dialogue were seamlessly integrated with
irresistible songs. The Packard Humanities Institute funded the
restoration of the print.
In addition to “Love Me Tonight,” the UCLA Film and Television Archive
has restored such Mamoulian classics as “Applause” (1929), “City
Streets” (1931), “The Song of Songs” (1933), “Becky Sharp” (1935), “The
Gay Desperado” (1936), “High, Wide and Handsome” (1937) and “The Mark of
Zorro” (1940).
Additional films directed by Mamoulian include “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
(1932), “Queen Christina” (1934), “We Live Again” (1934), “Golden Boy”
(1939), “Blood and Sand” (1941), “Rings on Her Fingers (1942), “Summer
Holiday” (1948) and “Silk Stockings” (1957).
Born and raised in Russia, Mamoulian studies law at the University of
Moscow and pursued his love of theater by taking acting courses in the
evening. He began his directing career on stage in London and New York
and received critical acclaim for his 1926 Broadway non-musical
production of “Porgy,” featuring an all-black cast. That hit led
Paramount studios to sign Mamoulian to direct the drama “Applause”
(1929).
Throughout his moviemaking career, Mamoulian returned frequently to the
stage, overseeing productions of the Gershwin opera version of “Porgy
and Bess” in 1935 and “Carousel” in 1945. He won much praise as the
original director of “Oklahoma” in 1943. In later years, he turned to
writing. He died in 1987 at the age of 90.
The Mamoulian Chair is part of UCLA’s Ensuring Academic Excellence
initiative, a five-year effort aimed at generating $250 million in
private commitments specifically for the recruitment and retention of
the very best faculty and graduate students. The initiative was launched
in June 2004. Its goals include $100 million to fund 100 new endowed
chairs for faculty across campus, increasing the number to 331. In
addition, campus officials plan to increase support for an estimated
3,500 graduate students per year by raising $100 million to fund
fellowships and scholarships in the UCLA College and $50 million for
fellowships and scholarships in UCLA’s 11 professional schools.
About the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television offers its students a
unique blend of scholarship and practical training, bringing together
the highest levels of professionalism with the social mission of a
public university. Its landmark integration of theater, film, television
and digital media and its outstanding faculty and facilities nurture
creative innovation, personal vision and social responsibility.
Comprehensive undergraduate and graduate programs are offered in acting,
animation, critical studies, design, digital arts, directing, production
and writing. The recipients of Oscars, Emmys, Tonys and other
prestigious awards, alumni include such notable artists as Allison
Anders, Carol Burnett, Charles Burnett, Nancy Cartwright, Francis Ford
Coppola, Susan Egan, David Koepp, Frank Marshall, Greg Nava, Alexander
Payne, John Rando, Tim Robbins, Eric Roth, John Rubinstein, Pietro
Scalia, Paul Schrader, Tom Schumacher, Tom Shadyac, Brad Silberling,
Penelope Spheeris, Gore Verbinski and many more.
About the UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is internationally renowned for its
pioneering efforts to preserve and showcase not only classic films and
television, but also contemporary, innovative moving image media. The
archive also is a unique resource for media study, with one of the
largest collections of media materials in the United States – second
only to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. – and the largest of
any university in the world. Its vaults hold more than 220,000 motion
picture and television titles and 27 million feet of newsreel footage.
The combined collections represent an all-encompassing documentation of
the 20th century.
-UCLA-
SS379
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 20, 2004, Friday
WHAT STANDS BEHIND THE PRESIDENTIAL DECREE ON REFORMING OF THE ARMED
FORCES
After publication of decrees on reforming of the Federal Security
Service, Interior Ministry and other security agencies of the
country, before going on vacations President Vladimir Putin issued
the decree entitled “Issues of the Defense Ministry.” This decree
approved the new statute of the Defense Ministry. The statute of the
General Staff of the Armed Forces formerly signed by Boris Yeltsin
lost its power. According to Putin’s decree, the General Staff
becomes a structural division of the Defense Ministry. Commenting on
this decree, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov emphasized that “The
President preserved the role of the General Staff as coordinator of
development and buildup of the entire military organization and not
only the Defense Ministry.” Ivanov fully denied the previously
published information saying that after changing of the top-ranking
officers the influence of the General Staff would decrease
noticeably. According to Ivanov, only a few divisions of the General
Staff will be transferred to the central staff of the Defense
Ministry. First of all, these are maintenance and human resources
services having no direct relations with the role of the General
Staff.
At his meeting with senior commanders of the Volga-Urals Military
District, Ivanov said, “The General Staff retains the main
operational department, the main intelligence department, the main
organizational and mobilization department and some other main
departments.” The Defense Minister stressed, “The tasks set for the
General Staff by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief are to think what the
Armed Forces should be like and to plan buildup of not only the Armed
Forces but also the entire military organization of the state
including the Interior Forces, Border Guards and other troops.”
It seems that these steps should strengthen the one-man command in
the Armed Forces and hence authority of the Defense Ministry.
However, it is obvious that Ivanov has made reform of the central
military governance bodies and has included the General Staff into
the structure of the Defense Ministry due to personal reasons. It was
known to everyone that former Chief of the General Staff Anatoly
Kvashnin and the incumbent Defense Minister had different views on
the role and meaning of the general Staff in the military
organization of the country. Kvashnin was striving for increase of
its role and actually wanted to separate the General Staff from the
Defense Ministry. Kvashnin said that the General Staff should command
the troops and the Defense Ministry should supply the troops with the
necessary things and exert civil control over them. Now the Defense
Ministry both commands and controls the troops including fulfillment
of such functions through the General Staff, which is its structural
element. Time will show how efficient this will be but it is already
clear that a person being far from the troops has been appointed on
the post of the Chief of the General Staff. This is Colonel General
Yury Baluyevsky, who has practically no experience of commanding of
large military formations of the size of an army, military district
and so on. Organization of the military inspectorate, the only
controlling body in the Defense Ministry, failed to solve the
problems of improvement of combat readiness of the Armed Forces.
Crimes and theft still take place in the Armed Forces. There is
practically no one who can protect servicemen except for the military
prosecutors. The due control over actions of commanders is absent.
All this leads to growth of crime among offices. Thus, according to
Chief Military Prosecutor Colonel General of Justice Alexander
Savenkov, in the current year alone almost 20 commanders of military
units, 43 officials of food, material supplies and financial services
were taken to court and 35 of them were already stated guilty and
sent to prison. The general notes that unfortunately there are facts
of theft and service power embezzlement practically in all military
districts and branches of Armed Forces.
According to Savenkov, among the people taken to court is Director of
the Yekaterinburg Artillery Institute Major general Shpangel, former
director of the border guards department of the group of the Russian
Federal Security Service in Armenia Lieutenant general Aboimov. Among
the sentenced there is also director of the food service of the North
Caucasus Military District Colonel Serkin, who has misused the powers
for two years in purchase of food for the troops. Buying food
products of poor quality at excessive prices he incurred damage
bigger than 34 million rubles. Director of the food base of the Far
Eastern Military District Lieutenant Colonel V. Ivannikov and
director of the food service of the hospital of this district V.
Voichik were sentenced to long terms in May. In ten days of October
2002 alone, these officers wrote false information in the documents
and stole food products worth 1.3 million rubles. The General
Prosecutor’s Office disclosed these crimes. Facts of misspending of
money in the Defense Ministry are regularly revealed by the
Accounting Chamber. The military are somehow afraid to speak about
their own sins. It is not beneficial for officers of the Defense
Ministry to wash their dirty linen in public; that is why control
over observance of laws in the Armed Forces on the part of the
top-ranking officials of the Defense Ministry is reduced.
The President reduced the number of deputy defense ministers to four.
The Defense Minister is allowed to have two senior deputies among
these four. Senior deputy defense ministers are Chief of the General
Staff Yury Baluyevsky and Colonel General Alexander Belousov, who
also has no experience of commanding of a military district. In
capacity of deputy commander of a military district Belousov worked
only for four years. It is also already known obviously who will be
ordinary deputy defense ministers. It is very likely that commander
of logistics will remain General of the Army Vladimir Isakov and
commander of armament will remain Alexei Moskovsky. Hardly anything
will be radically reformed in the departments subordinated to the
Defense Ministry. Three months are allocated for the entire reform of
the Defense Ministry. This period is too short. In any case, new
services will appear during this period. These will be troops
quartering service, financial service, human resources policy service
and ideological service. Of course, they will not be born on an empty
place. The staff of the deputy defense minister for construction and
quartering and the main military budget and financing department will
be transformed into service. Officers of the main ideological
department will be unluckiest because their department will be
included into the main personnel department. Reforms will also touch
on the staff of the defense minister.
It is planned that money allowances of officers and employees of the
central staff of the Defense Ministry will be increased
significantly. But will their activities become more efficient? Is it
possible that this will create a gap between those who serve in the
troops and those are serve in the so-called “Arbat Military
District?”
In the post-Soviet history the Defense Ministry has been reformed for
five years. This means that beginning from 1992 a new structure of
the Defense Ministry has been approved once almost every 30 months.
The structure changed but the contents of the troops governance
somehow remained the same. We do not wish everything happen according
to the old scenarios this time again.
Translated by Pavel Pushkin

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
August 20, 2004 Friday 10:04 AM Eastern Time
CSTO wants UN stronger role in provision of peace
By Alexandra Urusova
MOSCOW
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) wants a stronger
role of the United Nations in the provision of peace, participants in
Moscow consultations of CSTO member countries said on Friday.
Diplomats of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and
Tajikistan attended the consultations.
“There was a detailed exchange of opinions on main items on the
agenda of the 59th session of the UN General Assembly,” a source in
the CSTO press service said. The delegates also discussed the CSTO
attitude to the Proliferation Security Initiative and a common
position in fundamental areas of the CSTO activities.
The delegates called for regular exchange of opinions about key
issues, concerning their interests and security.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
August 20, 2004 Friday 6:26 AM Eastern Time
Putin calls for diversification of Russian-Armenian relations
By Mikhail Petrov
SOCHI
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for diversification of
Russian-Armenian relations. Opening a meeting with Armenian leader
Robert Kocharyan, Putin noted a decrease in bilateral trade turnover.
“We know the reasons behind it – a very low degree of diversification
of relations,” the Russian president said.
Putin said he was interested in exchanging opinions with Kocharyan
over this important issue.
The low degree of diversification of relations caused losses in trade
turnover. “A closure of one company for upgrades cut supplies of one
kind of product and, consequently, resulted in a dramatic decrease in
the overall turnover,” the head of the Russian state said.
For his part, Robert Kocharyan confirmed that “changes on the diamond
market led to certain roughness in relations,” meaning the
cancellation of quotas for supplies of Russian diamonds to Armenia.
As for the companies closing for upgrades – such as the Armenal
aluminum producer – “it is expected to double supplies after the
modernization, according to Kocharyan.
“In all other positions, in economy on the whole, we have been making
headway,” the Armenian president said.