YOU GET SURPRISED, WE’LL REMEMBER
Lragir.am
08 Sept 06
Roger Robinson, chief executive of the Yerevan office of the World Bank
was one of the heroes of the evening TV program of Armenia on September
6. He participated in an account of the indices of the economic state
in Armenia in 2005. Robinson expressed surprise about the economy of
Armenia. It was “kind surprise” though: what a good economy it is, that
displays such wonderful tendencies of development in these conditions.
I remembered the famous joke about surprise. Two men decide to steal
one of the oxen of a peasant ploughing his field. One of them stands at
the top of the hill and cries, “I’m surprised, I’m so surprised”. When
the peasant working in the field turns around, the other friend steals
one of the oxen of the peasant. Meanwhile the poor peasant asks why he
is surprised. “I am surprised how you plough the field with one ox,”
says the man on the hill. The ingenuous peasant turns to his plough,
sees only one ox and says, “I’m also surprised”.
It is difficult to say whether Robinson was like one of these
ingenious men who cries about his surprise, and the government of
Armenia is the other, who uses the opportunity and takes away the
“ox of the peasant”. However, the viewers watching Robinson that
evening surely feel like this peasant and tell themselves, “I’m also
surprised”. And there is reason to be surprised. It is surprising
what Robinson has to do in Armenia if the state of the economy is so
good. It is surprising that with a two-digit annual economic growth
for over 6 years the foreign debt of Armenia does not decrease or
remains the same but continues growing.
It is surprising that with a two-digit economic growth the government
of Armenia begs the Diaspora to help develop rural settlements
situated near the border. It is surprising that foreign functionaries
in Armenia, who are paid from and live on foreign budgets, are
tenaciously trying to persuade the Armenian public that life in
Armenia is not as bad as it may seem, moreover, real life is not what
the Armenians imagine.
Maybe it is not surprising. Maybe Robinson knows why it is so,
therefore he is not surprised at such things. However, it would be
better if he told what he knows to the Armenian viewers, otherwise
the viewers are surprised like that ingenuous peasant. Or at least the
public would be surprised at what Robinson is surprised. Or if he would
not tell, he could at least bring several million dollars from the
World Bank for the government of Armenia to work out an Anti-Surprise
Policy, which would enable maintaining that until 2020 the level of
surprise in Armenia will be lower than the natural level. In that case
the Armenian people would remember Roger Robinson forever, and he would
continue to be surprised, this time on the Armenians who remember him,
not the economy. However it depends on how they will remember.
JAMES HAKOBYAN

UN to assess fires’ environmental impact on occupied Azeri lands
ANS TV, Baku
8 Sep 06
[Presenter] The UN General Assembly is concerned about the fires
started in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. This has been
reflected at a resolution adopted by the assembly.
[Correspondent over video of the UN building] The UN General Assembly
in New York has adopted a resolution on the fires started in occupied
Azerbaijani territories. The press secretary of the Azerbaijani
permanent representative office in the UN, Surxay Sukurov:
[Sukurov, speaking by phone] The UN General Assembly has expressed
its considerable concern about the fires in occupied Azerbaijani
territories and urged the immediate launch of an environmental
operation there. The UN General Assembly has adopted this important
decision and underlined the participation of the sides in the
operation.
[Correspondent] The General Assembly believes it was extremely
important to conduct such an operation in order to build confidence
between the sides. Another important aspect is that the OSCE and the
appropriate UN bodies will jointly perform a special mission.
[Sukurov] Experts from the appropriate UN body entitled “the UN
environmental programme” and the OSCE will jointly fulfil a special
mission to study the situation. Another important aspect is that the
UN notes [in the resolution] that international bodies should help
Azerbaijan put out, prevent fires, study the short-term and long-term
negative impacts and restore the lands.
[Correspondent] Azerbaijan thinks that it is very important that
the UN has taken such a decision. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov:
[Mammadyarov, speaking to journalists] The OSCE chairman is organizing
a mission. This issue was discussed in Brussels yesterday [7 September]
and the discussions will continue. We will send the mission to
the fire zone to assess the situation. Along with international
experts, Azerbaijani and Armenians experts will join the mission
as well. Representatives of the UN environmental programme, OSCE
representatives and probably representatives of the [OSCE Minsk Group]
co-chairs will join it. Once the mission has assessed the situation
to see what needs to be done and which measures should be taken,
everything is noted in this resolution [as heard]. An environmental
operation should be carried out. That is the issue of rehabilitation,
erosion, etc.
[Correspondent] Mammadyarov said that as soon as the resolution
is adopted the environmental operation will be carried out on the
occupied territories which have been set alight.
Ulviyya Ismayilova, ANS.

Armenia unhappy about UN resolution on fires in Karabakh
Mediamax news agency
8 Sep 06
Yerevan, 8 September: The UN General Assembly has voiced serious
concern about the fires “on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan”
and said that an environmental operation should be urgently carried
out to put out the fires and deal with the consequences.
The UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution “On the
situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” submitted by
Azerbaijan without putting it to the vote on 7 September.
The Armenian delegation did not destroy the consensus but dissociated
itself from it.
[Passage omitted: details of the UN debate on the resolution]
Armenia’s permanent representative to the UN, Armen Martirosyan,
said at the debate that Armenia had been surprised that the draft
resolution had been submitted to the UN because all the conflicting
parties had agreed to the OSCE experts’ fact-finding visit to the
region. He said that the submission of the resolution to the UN had
pursued “some political purposes”.
He said that although Armenia had supported the text of the resolution,
the country was still against discussing the issue at the UN and
for that very reason the Armenian side had dissociated itself from
consensus.
[Passage omitted: Azeri envoy to the UN says that the two countries
have for the first time agreed on a document]

ARMENIA SHOULD SEND PEACEMAKERS TO LEBANON
Lragir.am
08 Sept 06
While the Armenian government is waiting until the mandate of
peacemaking force to Lebanon under the auspices of the UN is made
clear to decide on our participation to this mission, on September
8 the topic “Armenian Peacemakers in Lebanon. Pro et Contra” was
discussed at the Armenian Center of Strategic and National Studies.
All the participants were for our participation in the international
peacekeeping mission, and everyone had their reason. If we participate,
the Armenian community in Lebanon will feel safer, Armenia should have
its word in the world and the region independent from the existence
of an Armenian community in one country or another, with an active
policy we may downplay our smallness, etc.
And the following evaluations were already different.
Davit Hovanisyan, professor at Yerevan State University, thinks
that the Armenians consulted the leaders of the Armenian community
of Lebanon and they were against. Davit Hovanisyan thinks that
the community will be for the participation of Armenia in this
international mission.
The former minister of defense of Armenia Vagharshak Harutiunyan
thinks we can participate in the so-called rear peacemaking, sending
to Lebanon mine clearance teams, doctors, providing assistance
in reconstruction of infrastructures in Lebanon. According to
Vagharshak Harutiunyan, he mandate of the international forces is not
an obstacle. “All the conflict parties, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah,
agree to stationing peacemakers.” Unlike Iraq, where our peacemakers
are only part of the anti-Iraqi coalition. Vagharshak Harutiunyan
says the Armenians were sent to Iraq because there was a proposal
on behalf of the United States, whereas with regard to Lebanon our
government should take the initiative, therefore the question is
constantly being delayed. “In the case of Iraq the United States
expressed an emphasized wish, and made an aggressive proposal,”
says Armen Aghayan, member of the Civil Initiative for Defense of
Liberated Areas. He thinks that the inability of our government
to make independent decisions may lead to not sending Armenian
peacemakers to Lebanon. The question of participation of Armenian
peacemakers in Lebanon is solved in Washington, Brussels, Moscow,
says Alexander Iskandaryan, political scientist.
Edward Antinyan, representative of the Liberal Progressive Party
justified the Israeli attack on Lebanon, but he pointed out that it
is wrong to strike the peaceful population and non-military objects.
Edward Antinyan suggests going to Lebanon after establishing and
expressing an official standpoint. And the officials are waiting.
Edward Antinyan is against an absolutely pro-Lebanon standpoint in
going to Lebanon. It should be noted, however, that peacemakers go
to the given place not as a supporter of one of the sides but as a
peculiar wall, a human border between the two conflict parties.
Perhaps the deputy ambassador of Egypt to Armenia decided to speak
after listening to the words of Edward Antinyan. Sayid Shafey Abdul
Mohseh says if we accept that the Israelis have the right to return to
their historical homeland, we should also accept that Israel today is
an aggressor, there are occupied areas. “There is not a single Arab
country Israel has not had problems with.” According to the deputy
ambassador, the question of Armenian peacemakers is the problem
of Armenia.
And one may only suppose when, how and to what extent the government
of Armenia will take into account the opinion of the participants of
the meeting.

Inner City Press, NY
Sept 7 2006
The UN and Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen
Conflicts Unchanged; Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, September 7 — The UN General Assembly met past 6
p.m. Thursday to approve by consensus a resolution entitled “The
situation in the occupied territories”… of Azerbaijan. Armenia
disassociated itself from the consensus, expressing its displeasure
at the title and at the notion of its dispute with Azerbaijan being
considered in the UN. Other self-declared stakeholders in this frozen
conflict by proxy spoke before the resolution passed. The United
States, which considers itself an interested party with respect to
every disagreement and territory, spoke in favor of the resolution.
So did Ukraine, on behalf of “the GUAM states” — Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova. Turkey spoke in favor, as did Pakistan on
behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
All this diplomatic firepower was brought to bear on a
final resolution consisting of five paragraphs, primarily directing
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to assess
fires in the affected territories, to involve the UN Environment
Program in rehabilitation and to report back to the UN General
Assembly by April 30, 2007.
Still waiting, per WFP
What were the two days of negotiations about? asked an
observer in the General Assembly’s cheap seats, where few of the
headphones are working.
Armenia does not want to the issue before the UN, and
objects to the phrase “occupied territories of Azerbaijan” when
referring to Nagorno-Karabakh and environs.
If the UN is involved in the Palestinian occupied
territories, about which an UN agency gave a briefing on Thursday,
and in similar issues in Abkhazia, why has it not been involved in
Nagorno – Karabakh? What is the UN’s involvement in Nagorno –
Karabakh?
The UN Security Council passed four resolutions on
Nagorno – Karabakh between April and November of 1993. Resolution 822
called for a cessation of hostilities. Resolutions 853, 874 and 884
continued in that vein. The ceasefire, such as it was and is, was
negotiated by Russia in May 1994. Since then the main venue of
action, or inaction, has been the 11-nation Minsk Group of the OSCE,
with Russia, France and the U.S. as co-chairs. Since all three are
members of the UN Security Council’s Permanent Five, with veto
rights, one might wonder why they prefer this other venue. To assess
UN involvement in the territories in 2006, Inner City Press on
Wednesday asked the UN Spokesman’s Office. The oral answer was that
even the UN Development Program has no operations in Nagorno –
Karabakh, only the World Food Program. Then on Thursday the following
was provided:
The Joint UNEP / OCHA Environment Unit has been working in close
collaboration with colleagues in UNEP, who have been in direct
contact with representatives from Azerbaijan and Armenia and the
OSCE, which sent a mission to the region in July of this year. The
Joint Unit, through our relationship with the Global Fire Monitoring
Centre, which is our partner on forest fire-related matters,
identified experts last month who could, potentially, go on an
assessment mission. The OSCE has been requested to undertake another
mission and is considering it. It sought UNEP’s advice on experts,
which in turn contacted the Joint Unit. We have, therefore, brokered
a relationship between the Global Fire Monitoring Centre and the
OSCE. So our identified experts are speaking with staff from OSCE.
The Joint Unit will continue to support all those involved in this
issue.
There are areas in the world which the UN does not impact
via Security Council resolutions, but in which it is a major
humanitarian player. Nagorno-Karabakh, like for another example
Casamance in Senegal, is not one of those regions. It is sometimes
said that if you live in a region in the clutches of one of the
Permanent Five members of the Security Council, you’re out of luck at
the UN. But the list of those out of luck at the UN is longer than
that. And Nagorno – Karabakh… is on that list.
In the General Assembly chamber, the scaffolding is now
done, so the meeting was held there. The first part of the meeting,
headlined by Jan Eliasson and Mark Malloch Brown, concerned conflict
prevention. Sitting in the lower audience seats, few of the
headphones worked or provided sound. Sitting behind the S’s, one
could see that among those nations not attending the GA session on
conflict prevention was… Sierra Leone, regarding which
Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently issued a report, S/2006/695,
stating in part that “the continued border dispute between Sierra
Leone and Guinea remains a source of serious concern.” While the
report does not name it, the dispute surrounds the diamond-rich town
of Yenga. As usual, follow the money.
Regarding another, higher profile occupied territory,
Thursday at noon the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) briefing on Gaza revealed among
other things that while the U.S. Overseas Private Investment
Corporation says it will pay on its insurance policy on the Gaza
power station, rebuilding will take 18 months and power is for now
sporadic.
At UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric’s noon briefing, Inner
City Press asked three questions, one of which, concerning housing
subsidies by governments to UN employees, was summarily preempted
with the statement that an answer will come in the near future. On
Cote D’Ivoire, where a toxic dumping has resulted in the disbanding
of the cabinet, the UN Spokesman responded that the Ivorian prime
minister called the UN’s head of peacekeeping and, as usually,
everyone should stay calm. The benefits of this chaos to
still-in-power Laurent Gbagbo are apparent to some. On whether the
UN’s envoy on extra-judicial killings will as requested visit Nigeria
as well as Lebanon, a response one supposes will come.
Mr. Dujarric’s sometimes-fellow briefer at noon, Pragati Pascale,
gave a preview of the afternoon’s General Assembly action including
on Nagorno – Karabakh, then fielded following her statement about a
gavel passing, fielded a strange but concrete question about whether
it was the same unique gavel, with wood looking like flame, used when
the budget cap was lifted. Even before 5 p.m. she responded: ”
President Eliasson will, indeed, pass the fancy ceremonial gavel to
the incoming President. This was a gift to the General Assembly from
Iceland. President Eliasson did receive a copy of the gavel from the
Secretary-General at the end of the main part of the session last
December, so he can take that home as a remembrance of his time
here.” Speak, memory! So to their detriment say those of Karabakh…
Feedback: editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter’s mobile: 718-716-3540
Search WWW Search innercitypress.com
At the UN, Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly’s Surface, While
Incoming Council President Dodges Most Questions
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, September 5 — Nagorno Karabakh, one of the world
most frozen and forgotten conflicts, surfaced at the UN on Tuesday,
if only for ten minutes. The General Assembly was scheduled to vote
on a resolution concerning fires in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan. The diplomats assembled, or began to assemble, at 4 p.m..
At 4:15 it was announced that in light of ongoing negotiations, the
meeting was cancelled, perhaps to reconvene Wednesday at 11:30.
Sources close to the negotiations told Inner City Press
that the rub is paragraph 4 of the draft resolution, which requests
that the Secretary-General report to the UN General Assembly on the
conflict. Armenia wants the matter to remain before the Minsk Group
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has
presided over the problem for more than a decade. Leading the OSCE’s
Minsk Group are Russia, France and the United States, members of the
veto-wielding Permanent Five on the UN Security Council, nations
which Azerbaijan claims have ignored its sovereignty as well as
blocking Security Council action, as for example Russia has on
Chechnya.
Of the fires, Azerbaijan has characterized them as
Armenian arson, and has asked for international pressure to allow it
to reach the disputed territories where the fires have been.
Nagorno-Karabakh, per WFP
At a July 13, 2006 briefing on the BTC pipeline, Inner
City Press asked the Ambassador of Azerbaijan Yashar Aliyev about the
pipeline’s avoidance of Armenia. We cannot deal with them until they
stop occupying our territory, Ambassador Aliyev said. “You mean
Nagorno – Karabakh?” Not only that, Amb. Aliyev answered. That’s only
four percent. Few people know this, but Armenia has occupied twenty
percent of our territory.
Both Amenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and UN
Ambassador Armen Martirosian have said publicly in the past month
that if Azerbaijan continues pushing the issue before the United
Nations, the existing peace talks will stop. Armenian sources
privately speak more darkly of an alliance of Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova, collectively intent on involving the UN in
reigning in their breakaway regions including South Ossetia,
Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria — examples of what some call the
micro-states. Armenia is concerned that in the UN as opposed to OSCE,
Azerbaijan might be able to rally Islamic nations to its side.
It is not only to predominantly Muslim nations that the
Azeri’s are reaching out. The nation’s foreign minister Elmar
Mammadyarov met recently with this Swedish counterpart Jan Eliasson,
the outgoing president of the General Assembly.
Following Tuesday’s General Assembly postponement, Inner
City Press asked Mr. Eliasson if, in light of his involvement in
reaching the 1994 cease-fire, he thinks the GA might have more luck
solving the Nagorno-Karabakh than the OSCE has.
“I hope so,” he said. “I’m in favor of an active General
Assembly.” He recounted his shuttle diplomacy to Baku in the early
90s. And then he was gone.
Elsewhere in the UN at Tuesday, the income president of
the Security Council, Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis held a
press conference on the Council’s plan of work for September. Inner
City Press asked when the Council will get the long-awaited briefing
on violations of the arms embargo on Somalia. Amb. Vassilakis
responded about a meeting on September 25, at Kenya’s request, on the
idea of the IGAD force in Somalia. Inner City Press asked what has
happened with the resolution on the Lord’s Resistance Army of which
the UK has spoken so much. It will be up to them to introduce the
motion,” Amb. Vassilakis replied. He did not reply on the issue of
the outstanding International Criminal Court indictments against LRA
leaders including Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti.
Inner City Press asked why, on Ivory Coast, the
long-delayed report by the Secretary-General’s expert on the
prevention of genocide has not been released. In this response, Amb.
Vassilakis grew animated, saying that one has to choose between
justice and peace. This implies that the finished report identifies
alleged perpetrators, as pertains to genocide, but is being withheld
either to facilitate peace, which has not come, or as negotiating
leverage over some of the perpetrators. To be continued, throughout
the month.
Rare UN Sunshine From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and
Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell in its Ear on Nigeria
BYLINE: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, August 29 — In Chad there are ninety political
parties and over seventy rebel groups, with a focus on overthrowing
Idriss Deby. Meanwhile Deby last Friday ordered Chevron and Petronas
out of the country, for failure to pay taxes.
Chad is the fifth poorest country in the world, with countries in
turmoil or trouble along at least half of its perimeter. To the west,
Niger and to the east, on the other side of camps housing over
200,000 refugees from Darfur, lies Sudan. To the south, the Central
African Republic with its own rebel groups. In the tri-border area
of the Sudan, Chad and the CAR is a lawless zone of mercenaries for
hire, and area none of the three governments control.
Tuesday the head of the UN’s operations in Chad, Kingsley
Amaning, provided reporters a lengthy and well-received briefing. He
began by sketching how the situation in Darfur is further
destabilizing Chad, spreading ethnic conflict and banditry across
borders. Mr. Amaning said that alongside 90 political parties, the
roster of rebel groups has grown from 47 to 72. Inner City Press
asked, as even invited political parties have, why the rebels are
excluded from Deby’s new national dialogue. There are a dozen refugee
camps in eastern Chad, each with fifteen to twenty thousand
residents, in a region where the average town size is only three
thousand. In fact, Mr. Amaning said, right now “the quality of life
of the refugees is higher than the quality of life of the local
population.”
Mr. Amaning, originally from Ghana and having previously
served the UN in Guinea, has been in Chad for a year and a half.
During that time, rebels marching on the capital N’djamena were
stopped only by a bomb dropped by the French air force. A colleague
of Mr. Amaning, OCHA Chad desk officer Aurelien Buffler, noted in an
interview that the official description of the French bomb was a
“warming shot.” He added that Chad is not even on the agenda of the
Security Council and that raising funds for development is difficult,
since donors don’t know where the money goes. Later this week 25
donors led by Canada will meet with Mr. Amaning in UN Headquarters.
The dichotomy seems to be that while emergency humanitarian funds can
be raised, long-term funds for development are more difficult. Mr.
Amaning said, “Humanitarians get resources, but we don’t follow up
political solutions with development so that people have jobs.”
Refugees in Chad per UNHCR
Inner City Press interviewed Mr. Amaning after the
briefing, and asked him first about specific vulnerable refugee camps
near the border with Darfur, Am Nabak and Ouve Casson. Mr. Amaning
confirmed that these camps will be moved, belated, to a lot north of
Biltine, now that it’s thought there is underground water on the
government-owned site.
Turning to history, the UN Security Council, history and
one of its veto-wielding Permanent Five, Inner City Press asked about
France’s involvement. Mr. Amaning said that the UN principles are to
oppose violent takeovers and to encourage dialogue. “I tell the
French Ambassador that instead of trying to explain what type of
intervention that was,” Mr. Amaning said, referring to France’s
bomb-drop in support of Idriss Deby, “they should say they did it on
behalf of the international community, so there would be no violent
overthrow.”
Speaking more generally, or regionally, Mr. Amaning said,
“If we do not stabilize Darfur,” weapons will continue to spread
throughout the region. “It’s a line that’s going to join up… from
DRC through Central Africa to the northern part of Uganda, to Chad
and the Sudan — where are we going?” At least Mr. Amaning is
asking.
For weeks Inner City Press has asked all and sundry in UN
Headquarters to confirm or deny that Ethiopian troops are present in
Somalia. Kofi Annan’s representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny
Fall, skirted the issue despite six questions from Inner City Press
last time he was in New York. Mr. Fall’s spokesman has told Inner
City Press to look elsewhere, since his office does not have a
monitoring mandate in Somalia. In a stakeout interview, the head of
the UN’s Department of Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari responded
with generalities. An email followed, that DPA relies for information
on Mr. Fall’s office — which has not monitoring mandate.
Kofi Annan’s spokesman’s office suggested that Inner City
Press contact the members of the group monitoring the UN’s Somalia
arms embargo. Group member Joel Salek confirmed receipt of Inner City
Press’ request, but said he would “give floor to Bruno [Schiemsky],
the Chairman of our Group, to answer your questions.” Time passed,
Inner City Press sent a second request. Mr. Schiemsky responded,
“Sorry, at this stage I have no comments. I need first to brief the
Sanctions Committee” of the Security Council.
Tuesday at the Security Council stakeout, Inner City
Press asked UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry who in the UN can speak
regarding Somalia. Amb. Jones Parry responded that the UK is working
on a resolution. Video here.
But when Inner City Press five minutes later asked the President
of the Council, Ghana’s Nana Effah-Apenteng, about Amb. Jones Parry’s
resolution, the Ghanaian Ambassador said no resolution has been
introduced. Video here. Meanwhile the Horn of Africa slides toward
regional war.
Earlier this year at the African Union summit in Banjul,
Kofi Annal pulled back from involvement in Zimbabwe, saying he was
deferring to the new mediator Ben Mkapa. Now documents from the AU
submit show that Mkapa never accepted the role of mediator. Tuesday
Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan’s spokesman if this now means that
the Secretary-General will re-engage. Video here, at Minute 21:50.
The spokesman said he will respond; this has not taken place by 6
p.m. deadline.
Nor as the spokesman answered Inner City Press’ question
of Monday, about why UNDP took funding from Shell Petroleum to write
a report on human development in the Niger Delta, where Shell has a
long record of violating human rights. I will get you an answer, the
spokesman said. We’re still waiting…
At the UN, from Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovans to Lezgines,
Micro-States as Powerful’s Playthings
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, August 25 — Because they are so often forgotten,
today’s report is micro-states. The thread ran through UN
Headquarters on Friday, from noon briefing to stakeout to UNCA Club
upstairs. Kofi Annan’s spokesman on his way to the podium stopped to
tell Inner City Press not to ask certain questions. Some involved the
housing subsidy story below, one involved the Casamance region of
Senegal, where fighting is raging and refugees flee.
Thursday Inner City Press had asked who in the UN, other than the
refugee agency UNHCR, was addressing Casamance. Friday the spokesman
whispered, “On Casamance I don’t have anything more than when UNHCR
has said.” So instead Inner City Press asked about a seminal
micro-state, Kosovo. At a press conference hours earlier in Pristina,
the UN’s mediator Martii Ahtisaari had announced that no package will
be put before the Security Council in September. Inner City Press
asked, but what of the postponed municipal elections? Video here, at
Minute 29.
The spokesman’s office arranged a conference call to
UNMIK in Pristina, where the acting press chief said no elections can
be held in the winter anyway. The OSCE, he said, estimates that to
schedule elections takes at least six months. So much for local
democracy, even in areas run by the UN. Kofi Annan’s incoming envoy
to Kosovo should have a better answer. We’ll see. Other data the
spokesman belated provided on Friday is being analyzed.
The micro-states theory is that if Kosovo becomes fully
independent, the same will happen — or be called for by Russia — in
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in Transdniestria and even Ajara in
Georgia. From this list we can drill down even keeper. Inner City
Press asked Kazakh Ambassador Yerzhan Kazykhanov about a civil
disturbance earlier in the week in Aktau on the Caspian coast,
involving attacks on immigrants from the striving micro-state of
Chechnya, on Azeris and the little-known Lezgines, who come from
Dagestan.
“There are many groups,” the Kazakh Ambassador said, adding that
his recent flight from Almaty to Aqtobe took nearly four hours. On
the map he pointed at Oral and noted that World War II passed
through. In his prepared remarks, Kazakhstan’s Ambassador stressed,
not without reason, that the “closure of the Semipalatinsk testing
site was one of the most significant events in the field of nuclear
disarmament.” Asked about Kazakhstan’s joint anti-terror operations
with China in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, like Chechnya
another potential micro-state blocked by one of the Permanent Five on
the UN Security Council, the Kazakh Ambassador assured that the
fighting of terror has nothing to do with refugees. We’ll see.
Slovakian limbo per UNHCR
But back to the micro-state of Casamance, which was part
of what’s now Guinea-Bissau until France took it. The civil strife
dates back at least to 1982, and yet the UN and Security Council do
nothing about it. At a stakeout interview on Friday afternoon, Inner
City Press asked the Council’s president Nana Effah-Apenteng if
Casamance is on his radar. No, the Ghanaian Ambassador replied.
“Maybe you are more up-to-date on this issue than I am.” Video here,
at Minute 8:47. A well placed source upstairs at the UN noted that
Senegal keeps it quiet. As Chechnya is to Russia, in a sense,
Casamance is to Senegal. Ah, the micro-states…
At deadline in Conference Room 3 in the basement, the disability
rights convention was being endlessly discussed. Ten days ago the
chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Convention, Don MacKay, said
that if current efforts to block the creation of a treaty monitoring
body are successful, the Convention may well not be enacted. “And
that would be shabby treatment,” Mr. MacKay said, citing a long
history of societies’ discrimination against the disabled.
Click here for video and here for the text of the draft Convention.
Inner City Press asked if the United States is among the
countries opposing any monitoring of countries’ performance under the
Convention, similar to the approach the U.S. took in derailing the
Small Arms meeting at the UN earlier this year. Mr. MacKay
acknowledged that the U.S. is among six or seven countries raising
such concerns, but stated that the U.S. position does not seem
“doctrinal” or doctrinaire.
The afternoon the conference would wrap up, the UN briefer Thomas
Schindlmayr resisted naming the countries opposed for example to the
reference to countries’ occupation. One journalist loudly left the
room. Later this list became clear, including the U.S., Australia,
Israel. And at 7:52 p.m., amid applause, the report was adopted.
.html

AZG Armenian Daily #171, 08/09/2006
UN
UN SECRETARY GENERAL PAYS VISIT TO TURKEY
On September 5, the Parliament of Turkey discussed the
issue of sending armed forces to Lebanon. Kofi Annan
visited Ankara on the same day. He met with Foreign
Minister Abdullah Giul, prime minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and president Ahmed Necet Sezer on the next
day of his visit.
In the course of his meetings with the Turkish
authorities, Mr. Annan discussed the issue of
participation of the Turkish armed forces in the
activities of the UN peacekeeping forces deployed in
Lebanon. According to Turkish Public TV, in the end of
the meeting with Prime Minister of Turkey, UN
Secretary General emphasized that the peacekeeping
forces are not aimed to fight Hezbollah.
Erdogan conditioned the disputes unfolded in the
country on the issue of deploying Turkish armed forces
in Lebanon by the UN’s delay to establish ceasefire in
Lebanon.
By Hakob Chakrian

Ambassador of Brazil handed copies of her credentials to FM Oskanian
ArmRadio.am
08.09.2006 15:34
Today the Ambassador of Brazil to Armenia Renate Stille handed copies
of her credentials to RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian.
Minister Oskanian congratulated Mr. Stille on appointment and wished
her success in carrying out her responsible mission.
Turning to the high level of relations between the two countries, Mr.
Oskanian particularly emphasized that Brazil is one of the first
countries to recognize Armenia’s independence.
The Foreign Minister highly appreciated the decision to open an
Embassy of Brazil in Armenia, which is the first in the region. He
expressed confidence that it will greatly promote the development of
Armenia-Brazil bilateral relations.
In her turn, Mrs. Stille expressed appreciation for the current level
of cooperation between the two countries.
The parties attached importance to the reinforcement of the legal
field established between the two countries, the effective cooperation
within international organizations and the activation of trade and
economic relations.

Days of Yerevan to be held in Moscow
ArmRadio.am
08.09.2006 15:55
September 9-11 Days of Yerevan will be held in Moscow in the framework
of the Year of Armenia in Russia.
Russian media report that the Days of Yerevan in Moscow will start
with the ” Golden Pomegranate” fair of Armenian goods, which will
be held September 9-10 in the Revolution Square.
About 100 restaurants of Armenian cuisine will be presented at the
fair. Clo thes, carpets, folk art items ad souvenirs will be presented
as well. 10 Armenian artists will present their paintings.
Armenian and Russian singers, folk groups and instrumental ensembles
will perform in the framework of the fair. September 10 the Armenian
Navy Band will perform in Pavel Slobodkin Center of Moscow.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Yerevan to host under 20 World Chess Championship
ArmRadio.am
08.09.2006 12:41
Yerevan is preparing to welcome the participants of the under 20 World
Chess Championship to be held in the Armenian capital. Secretary
General of the Chess Federation of Armenia Gagik Hovhannisyan told
“Armenpress” that about 130 chess players from 50 countries will
participate in the tournament.

European watchdog calls for clampdown on CIA
· UK is urged to take lead in monitoring agents
· Scathing attack on Bush, ‘the King John of USA’
Nicholas Watt in Brussels and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday September 8, 2006
The Guardian
The head of Europe’s human rights watchdog yesterday called for
monitoring of CIA agents operating in Britain and other European
countries, after President George Bush’s admission that the US had
detained terrorist suspects in secret prisons.
Terry Davis, secretary general of the Council of Europe, said CIA
agents operating in Europe should be subject to the same rules as
British agents working for MI5 and MI6.
“There is a need to deal with the conduct of allied foreign security
services agents active on the territory of a council member state,”
Terry Davis said. “In the UK there is parliamentary scrutiny of
the intelligence services but there is no parliamentary scrutiny of
friendly foreign services. The UK should be in the lead on this issue.”
As part of this process, diplomatic immunity should be reviewed.
“Immunity should not mean impunity,” he said.
Mr Davis also called for a ban on the transport of suspects in military
aircraft. At the moment the prohibition applies only to civil aircraft.
The former British Labour MP was scathing about President Bush. “Why
does the US need to keep people in secret prisons? I thought that was
settled by Magna Carta. But King John is alive and well and running
the USA.
“There is a smoking gun. We know where it is – it is in the hands of
George Bush. His fingerprints are on the gun.”
Mr Davis’s remarks came as the man leading the Council of Europe’s
investigation into the secret CIA prisons dismissed Mr Bush’s admission
as “just one piece of the truth”. In an attempt to step up pressure on
the US and European governments to come clean on the prisons, the Swiss
senator Dick Marty said: “There is more, much more, to be revealed.”
Mr Bush said on Wednesday he ordered the transfer of 14 al-Qaida
suspects from secret CIA jails to Guantanamo as a step to putting the
men on trial. That revived concerns about torture and mistreatment
of the detainees during their years in CIA custody, and the fairness
of the military tribunals sought by the White House.
Human rights activists expect details of the treatment of Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, said to have been the mastermind of the September 11 attacks,
and the other al-Qaida suspects held incommunicado will emerge now that
they are at Guantanamo and able to meet their lawyers. Administration
officials said yesterday that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of
state, had assured the International Committee of the Red Cross it
would have access to the prisoners and that discussions were under
way to arrange meetings.
However, the administration also said yesterday it had no intention of
satisfying European demands for fuller disclosure about the location of
the secret prisons. “If the European countries want to continue to try
to find out where the secret sites are, that is up to the Europeans,”
John Bellinger III, legal adviser to Ms Rice, told reporters.
He also argued, as has Ms Rice, that Europeans were to some extent
complicit with the clandestine detention. “Information derived from
questioning individuals was shared with European countries, and
it was shared in a way that saved European lives.” Washington also
wants to use such secret jails in the future, Mr Bellinger said. “The
president believes there needs to be a special programme if we capture
an al-Qaida leader.”
Mr Marty said he was not surprised by Mr Bush’s disclosures. “This is
no news for me,” said Mr Marty, who claimed earlier this year that 14
European countries colluded with US intelligence in a “spider’s web”
of human rights abuses. “I have always been certain that these prisons
existed, so I am not surprised.”
Other senior figures in the Council of Europe, who plan to intensify
their investigations into allegations that Romania and Poland played
host to many of the prisoners, also criticised the US. Rene van der
Linden, president of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly,
said: “Our work has helped to flush out the dirty nature of this
secret war which, we learn at last, has been carried out completely
beyond any legal framework.
“Kidnapping people and torturing them in secret, however tempting the
short-term gain may appear to be, is what criminals do, not democratic
governments. In the long term, such practices create more terrorists
and undermine the values we are fighting for.”
–Boundary_(ID_z1PG3nrK4vQ/V6YTGsfOCQ) —