SUSPECT IN RACIST KILLING SAID TO BE POLICE ACADEMY CADET – PART 2
The Moscow Times
Thursday, September 14, 2006. Issue 3497. Page 2.
The 18-year-old suspect in the racially motivated killing of an
Armenian teenager in the Moscow metro in April was a police academy
cadet, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Nikita Senyukov was arrested Tuesday in connection with the stabbing
death of Vigen Abramyants, 17, on the platform of Pushkinskaya metro
station on April 22.
“He was a fourth-year student of a police academy under the Moscow
police,” said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the office of the
chief Moscow prosecutor.
Petrenko said Senyukov had admitted to the crime but said he acted
in self-defense after Abramyants attacked him.
She said Senyukov would be charged with murder later this week. If
convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
The police academy’s head, Alexei Bezyazychny, told Ekho Moskvy
radio that Senyukov had dropped out of the academy shortly before his
arrest. He said that Senyukov’s father is a retired senior officer
from the Interior Ministry.
Kommersant and Moskovsky Komsomolets on Wednesday linked Senyukov to
a group of Moscow students accused of bombing the Cherkizovsky outdoor
market in August, killing 12 people and wounding more than 50 others.
Investigators believe the attack was motivated by hatred for natives
of the Caucasus and Asian countries who trade at the market.
Four men have been detained in connection with the attack.
Petrenko, however, denied any link between the market bombing and
the metro attack.

ARMENIAN DASHNAKTSUTIUN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION (ADRF) IS GOING TO NOMINATE ITS OWN PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER IN 2008 IN ARMENIA
REGNUM
September 13, 2006
Armen Rustamyan: “ADRF may become opposed, if …”
As a REGNUM correspondent informs, on September 12, ADRF Supreme
Body representative, permanent parliamentary Commission on Foreign
Affairs Head Armen Rustamyan stressed that any decision on party’s
participation in presidential elections and its strategy should be
approved by the ADRF Supreme Assembly at its session in 2007. Besides
that, the party’s participation in presidential elections depends on
parliamentary elections’ outcomes in 2007.
“The party position may be changed after the parliamentary
elections. First, it depends on elections’ transparency and their
conducting without violations and second on MPs’ number at country’s
parliament. We realize; for further country’s development, guaranteeing
democratization’s process, securing by Armenia its own place in
region, fair elections without falsifications should be held. If
the elections are hold with violations, ARFD will become opposed,”
Armen Rustamyan stressed.
Besides that, if there is not necessary number of seats after
parliamentary elections, ARDF may refuse to take part in establishing
new government. “If we do not have necessary number of seats and
we are not able to solve accumulated questions, our governmental
participation will have no sense,” Armen Rustamyan concluded.

ANFAL AND LEADERS!
By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
Translated by Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
KurdishMedia
Updated: 9/13/2006 5:26:05 AM GMT
By Qadir Nadir, from: Hawal, Sulaymaniyah, independent weekly newspaper
in Sorani Kurdish, 9 Sep 06. p 3.
Although Anfal was the greatest act of dishonour to our nation,
it has been reduced by Kurdish leaders to such a degree that to
criticize the Kurdish leaders for insulting [our martyrs] creates
more reaction than the issue of their dishonoring of Anfal victims.
Besides, the anniversary celebrations they organize for their parties
are much more sumptuous and spectacular than the anniversary of Anfal
and Halabja tragedies.
In our country anything you write and say passes as truth. What is
happening here is unprecedented in the history of any nation. People
with background of serving the Ba’th party have now become
theoreticians of our national security; people who participated in
Anfal operations have been put in charge of running the small towns
where Anfal survivors are living; a “writer” who sold his pen to
Ba’th and was a Ba’thist agent is now in the prominent face of the
journal of Kurdish government.
I do not believe that the leaders of any other nations who have
suffered genocide such as the Jews, the Armenians and the Rwanda
people, have ever dared even to give shelter to even one perpetrator
of genocide.
It is only in our country that it is so easy to be a traitor and
sell yourself and then find respect and position. Yes, still we can
hear from the Kurdish officials some nationalist slogans, but when
you look at what is happening in the areas which suffered Anfal,
chemical attacks and Arabisation, you can realize clearly that what
they say is all lies and deception.
I read a story told by a woman who has survived Anfal.
I could not help weeping passionately when I read what she said about
her child. She says she had a little child who was ill. She was taking
care of him and hugging him to her chest when an Arab officer came
to take the child away from him. She hugged him even more closely
to her heart. But the Arab officer kicked her and smacked her hard
then took the child away. She says: Still there is a fire burning in
my liver when I remember his last look and his last two words: Daye,
Daye (Mum, Mum).
I read this and could not stop my tears from flowing as I could vividly
imagine this mother in her night of loneliness and helplessness. And
then, thanks to our leaders, apart from tears what else can we
do? Those leaders who have been sheltering the Anfalists for fifteen
years, and think that the best projects for Anfal women is to force
them to sell bread and eggs on the streets. And the government that
so far has changed five cabinets but has worked more for the comfort
and power of Anfalists than the victims of Anfal.
Let everyone put herself or himself in the place of an Anfal woman. Can
anyone even endure thinking even for few minutes? My own child had only
a simple ailment and he called me in this way. This shattered my soul.
Then how could be the state of the mother who heard her child for
last time? How can she live on? How many terrible stories must she
imagine every day? Has a dog eaten his child after he was killed?
When I read this story I cannot help but think of all those people
who shelter Anfalists and ignore the plight of these women as
criminals too.
I am sure the survivors of Anfal have suffered a lot in the last
fifteen years under the Kurdish political rule. None of the leaders
have ever visited them to tell them: the seats of power and prosperity
we enjoy now are the result of your sacrifice. That is why we will
become the fathers for your orphans. We will have even more kindness
to them [than to our children] and we will never let them to be forced
to wear torn shoes and ragged clothes. They must be as happy as our
children. Instead of your [martyred] brothers, we will become your
brothers and friends. We will not allow anyone to look at you with
disrespect. In place of your fathers, we will make your pains and
suffering the real daily concern of all our party members!
Everyone knows that the process of Anfal and chemical attacks aimed
at the elimination of the Kurdish people. Yet during 15 years of
Kurdish rule no serious major project for serving and benefiting Anfal
victims have been established although they enjoy annual revenues of
several billion dollars. To add insult to injury, the perpetrators
of Anfal roam freely ; they have power and they have roles. Also
internationally nothing has been done to promote the cause of Anfal
and bring onto international political agenda.
Then can we say that these leaders any national honour and dignity
in relation to Anfal?

POLL FINDS MUSCOVITES HOSTILE TOWARDS SKINHEADS, JEWS, AND MIGRANTS
UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
September 12, 2006
While 76% of Muscovites are hostile towards skinheads, a large number
of them share the neo-Nazis’ view of certain non-Russian ethnic groups,
according to an August 31, 2006 article in the national newspaper
Trud. Citing a poll of city residents’ attitudes towards non-Russians,
the paper reported that 1/3 of residents feel antipathy towards Jews
and Tatars, slightly higher numbers feel the same way about Armenians
and Georgians, and over half of residents are hostile towards Azeris
and Chechens.
The author of the article lists some possible reasons for these
attitudes, ranging from a large influx of migrants who tend to
cluster together in certain neighborhoods, negative perceptions of the
purportedly ill-gotten wealth of some migrants and, paradoxically,
the extreme poverty of others, and the fact that most migrants are
working-age men who are seen by some as competitors for the affections
of Russian women.
The paper reported that this fall, the Moscow City Duma will consider
a bill that envisions the creation of a commission to prevent ethnic
discrimination by fining violators 5-30 times the monthly minimum wage.
The fines will be doubled for any racist agitation of actions on
school grounds.

OIC TOURISM MINISTERS TO HOLD NEXT MEETING IN SYRIA IN 2008
Author: S.Agayeva
Trend
13.09.2006
The next meeting of the Tourism Ministers Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) will be held in Syria in 2008. The decision was made
at the Tourism Ministers Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
which was held on 11 – 12 September in Baku,Trendreports.
As a result of the Forum two documents were approved, a Resolution
and the Baku Declaration. The Declaration included material which
condemned the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, fires in the
occupied territory of Azerbaijan, as well as termination of the
culture and historic heritage of Azerbaijan.
“It is an important decision.” Abulfaz Garayev, Azerbaijani Minister
for Culture & Tourism, said.
This material serves as a serious warning to Armenia, as well as to
Countries that support the Armenian aggressors.
According to the Minister, during its chairmanship at the organization
over the subsequent two years, Azerbaijan will contribute to the
development of tourism in Islamic countries. Participants of the
conference took a resolution to intensify relationships to protect
the culture and historic heritage in the territory of the OIC member
countries.
The Ministers decided to hold meetings to discuss actual problems in
2007 and 2008 in Pakistan and Iran respectively.

UN RESOLUTION ON FIRES IN SECURITY ZONE CALLED ACCEPTABLE IN NAGORNO KARABAKH
REGNUM
September 14, 2006
“Taking into account the final result, in particular, the intention
to send an OSCE mission to the region, supported by UN experts, in
order to asses long-term and short-term threats, which may lead to
a regional ecological disaster, the UN resolution may be considered
to be acceptable for the NKR,” Nagorno Karabakh Foreign Minister
Georgy Petrosyan is quoted by a REGNUM correspondent as stating,
commenting on resolution concerning fires in territories, occupied
by NKR, adopted at 60th session of UN General Assembly. The minister
stressed, such process is a logical sequence of the initiative of
the Karabakh authorities.
In particular, Georgy Petrosyan informed that the NKR authorities
were concerned with fires, which seriously damaged the republican
agriculture. In that connection, the NKR foreign ministry addressed
with a note to the Office of OSCE Chairman-in-Office personal envoy on
September 15, requesting to carry out crisis monitoring in the zone,
which borders on Azerbaijan.
Two weeks later, the OSCE mission monitored those areas, as a result
of it, the OSCE chairman-in-office personal envoy submitted a report,
in which accusations of the Azerbaijani side of alleged arsons
of settlements in the NKR security zone were refuted, the minister
reported. According to him, the NKR authorities were first instances,
which addressed to OSCE, requesting to send a monitoring group to
the region. The fact was dissembled by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,
submitting a report to UN General Assembly.
Mr. Petrosyan assured that NKR was ready to receive new OSCE mission
in order to uncrown Azerbaijani myths.
According to him, putting a question at the UN itself is unacceptable,
as well as some formulations in the resolution. “Attempts to transfer
to UN questions, which should be solved by the OSCE Minsk Group,
may not contribute to talks’ advance; they just postpone possible
prospect of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement,” the minister
stressed. According to him, the fact should be specially stressed
that the resolution and, in particular, its content is “a result of
the consensus between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is lately a rare
occurrence; it should be welcomed, especially when the atmosphere
of trust is lacking between the parties.” According to the minister,
such projects should be discussed only with participation of all three
conflict parties in order to avoid problems during their decisions’
implementation. “NKR positions remain unchanged; we are going to
cooperate with international institutions; we are ready to contribute
to functioning of the OSCE expert group, comprised of specialists
from neutral countries,” Georgy Petrosyan stressed.

THEATER REVIEWS: THE CAR PLAYS
Steven Leigh Morris
LA Weekly, CA
Wednesday, September 13, 2006 – 6:00 pm
Including this week’s picks The Car Plays, San Francisco Mime Troupe
and the Second Annual Latino New Works Festival
THE CAR PLAYS One creative solution for a theater without a space is
to take their show on the road. If there’s no road available, try a
parking lot. That’s what Moving Arts is trying in The Car Plays ,
a distant echo of Wolfskill Theatre Company’s drive-in version of
Marat/Sade , several years ago, in a parking lot for an audience
viewing from their cars and listening via speakers provided by the
theater.
Here 20 plays (of 10 minutes or less) are performed inside 20 cars,
lined up in four rows of five. Though performances run from 6 to
10 p.m., your ticket is good for an hour, or five plays. From the
theater’s foyer, a carhop escorts you to the first vehicle, where
you’ll climb in with one or two passengers.
Stage managers shut the doors until the actors arrive.
I saw a rehearsal for Paul Stein’s “Two Fellas, One Fella.” Gary
Marschall and Jon Amirkhan jangled car keys and eventually climbed
in the front seats, bickering about Amirkhan’s crude Armenian taste
and Marschall’s American arrogance. Dialogue revealed they had walked
a considerable distance for this “pick up,” which concerned a body
in the trunk; here, things started to turn Tarantino-esque. Moving
Arts promises an experience unlike most, and is truly living up to
its name. Moving Arts at THE STEVE ALLEN THEATER, 4773 Hollywood
Blvd., Hlywd.; Sat., Sept. 16, hourly perfs 6-10 p.m.; $15. (866)
811-4111.

KOSOVO PRINCIPLES SHOULD BE APPLIED TO ABKHAZIA, S OSSETIA-PUTIN
ITAR-TASS, Russia
13.09.2006, 16.07
MOSCOW, September 13 (Itar-Tass) – Russian President Vladimir Putin
is certain that in the Abkhazian and South Ossetian settlement the
same rules that are applied to Kosovo should be used. The president
believes the disruption of the Russian initiative in the Dniester
region is a mistake of European diplomacy.
“It is inadmissible to apply one rules for Kosovo and other –
for Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” said Putin answering questions
of participants in a meeting of the international discussion club
Valdai. A verbatim report of the meeting that was held on September 9
is published on the official Kremlin website. The Valdai discussion
club brings together leading political analysts, Russian affairs
experts and the heads of leading foreign policy and research think
tanks.
The President’s meetings with the club’s participants have already
become a tradition. This was the third such meeting. During the
three-hour discussion, Putin expressed his views on a number of key
foreign and domestic policy issues and answered numerous questions
put to him by the club’s participants, it is said on the website.
“(Regarding Kosovo) there is resolution 1244 (of the UN Security
Council) and nobody has cancelled it,” Putin said. “It is inadmissible
to manipulate public opinion and neglect decisions adopted by the UN
Security Council.”
The president stressed that international actions “in this sphere
should be coordinated and should be taken based on considering the
interests of all participants in this process.”
“We should once again think what will happen next if Kosovo
independence is recognized and legally formalized,” Putin said. “An
what will happen next in this region of the world? We had been told
that everything would be all right in Iraq. And now only Kurdish
flags are hoisted in Iraq’s Kurdistan, there are now no Iraqi flags
there. What will happen next in this region, in Europe? Has anybody
thought about it, no? But it is necessary to think,” the president
emphasized.
Putin stressed that international actions “should be universal.” “What
is the difference between the Kosovo situation and Abkhazian or South
Ossetian? There is no difference whatsoever,” he noted. “So as soon
as we begin to manipulate public opinion or make attempts to do this
we will encounter problems. People will feel deceived. Both in South
Europe and the Trans-Caucasian region. Such policy cannot be recognized
moral. It has no prospects,” Putin pointed out.
The president confirmed that Russia is ready to work with the European
Union in settling “any complicated, severe or conflict situation
wherever they emerge.”
“This certainly can also be said about the post-Soviet space. It is
Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it is the Dniester region,”
Putin added.
In the words of the Russian head of state, “it is not always possible
to coordinate actions and this causes damage to security issues
in Europe.” He said, “Thus, for instance, has happened during the
Dniester region settlement when we were just one step away from this
settlement and fears of our Western, American and European partners
disrupted this settlement, disrupted these agreements and brought
everything back to zero point.” The president stressed, “I believe
that it is a major mistake of European diplomacy.”

GUAM CONFLICTS NOT TO BE DISCUSSED AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Today.Az
13 September 2006 [19:46] – Today.Az
The issue on “Unresolved conflicts in GUAM, their impact on the
international world, security and development” has not been included
into the agenda of the UN General Assembly 61st Session by Russian
proposal.
Russian Foreign Ministry official Mikhail Kaminin said most committee
members supported Russian proposal at the General Committee’s meeting,
APA reports.
The Committee chairwoman Khalife decided that it is unadvisable to
include GUAM’s issue into the agenda yet.
Kaminin said Russia was against politicization of this issue and
presenting to the General Assembly format.
“Russia thinks it is not efficient to reconsider settlement mechanism
of the Nagorno Karabakh, Georgia-Abkhazia, Georgia-South Ossetia and
Transnistrian conflicts.”

MUSIC, A HEALING MEDIUM ON SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS
By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
The Daily Star
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Musicians come to the rescue of war victims with benefit concert and CD
INTERVIEW
BEIRUT: “We felt that we were trapped,” says Ghazi Abdel Baki, as he
sits in the colorful seventh-floor headquarters of his production
house for documentaries, animations and music. The noontime sun is
filtering through fabric panels that loop down from the glass ceiling
of a rooftop office. The labyrinthine spaces of Forward Productions,
situated in the neighborhood of Sakiat al-Janzir, between Verdun
and Raouche, include recording studios and editing suites and rooms
stuffed with low-slung couches and pillows.
Abdel Baki, who is 36 going on 37 this month, is a drummer by training
and a composer and producer by trade. At present, he is recalling
the initial motivation that sparked “We Live … ,” a compilation by
Lebanese musicians created under the summer’s siege.
“We didn’t know where the horizon of this war was,” he explains,
meaning that while Israel was bombing Lebanon during the months of
July and August, no one knew when it would end.
“If we had known where the horizon was, we might have lived this period
differently,” adds Carol Mansour, Abdel Baki’s partner at Forward and
a documentary filmmaker with boundless energy and an impressive head
of auburn curls.
“Moving around the city was very difficult,” explains Abdel Baki. “And
the feeling was very difficult. In the beginning, we felt all our
projects had been halted in their tracks. It was very abrupt. There
was no build-up to this. We were not prepared for a war.
We had to shift from being productive people very quickly.”
Less than a week into the conflict, Abdel Baki and a handful of
musicians he has known and worked with for years decided to meet up at
the Blue Note Cafe on Makhoul Street, between Hamra and the American
University of Beirut, one of the longest-standing and most-fabled
music venues in Beirut.
Among them was Charbel Rouhana, one of Lebanon’s best known oud
players, who performs regularly at the Blue Note; bassist Abboud
Saadi, whom Abdel Baki describes as “the godfather of all the modern
musicians;” and Ziyad Sahhab, an up-and-coming oud player, singer and
composer, who, at 23, is set to release his second album on Forward
next month.
“The Blue Note is like our second home,” explains Abdel Baki. “And
it was one of the few places that was open at the time. We stayed
from noon until seven in the evening, just discussing things.”
A friend from Kuwait, Meshal al-Kandari, was also with them. A
marketing manager for mobile phones who writes poetry and, as it
turns out, song lyrics – he got stuck in Lebanon when the war broke
out. Beirut was meant to be a stopover on his way to the rather more
rollicking Spanish island of Ibiza.
At the end of that first and ultimately only Blue Note session, Abdel
Baki, Kandari and company left with a plan. Kandari would orchestrate
a benefit concert for Lebanon in Kuwait with Rouhana and a band of
musicians who would join them there from locations as far flung as
Armenia (Arthur Satyan) and Minnesota (Tom Hornig).
Abdel Baki would take tracks by all the musicians present and rework
them – in some cases re-record them – into the compilation that is
now complete, a copy sitting in its jewel case on a desk in Forward’s
office.
“Whatever needs to be done on the outside needs to be linked to people
on the inside,” says Abdel Baki, addressing a contentious issue that
has afflicted those working in all spheres of culture in Lebanon –
whether to create for an audience at home (showing solidarity) or
abroad (raising awareness).
Abdel Baki and Kandari embraced the debate and did both. For six
days in July, Abdel Baki worked on the CD. It wasn’t easy. After
that meeting at the Blue Note, many of the musicians holed up in
their respective hometowns. The proximity of the Forward studios
to the Israeli warships located off the coast of Beirut made for
particularly harrowing and disruptive acoustics.
“We had no electricity. Our morale was down. Here, you hear very well
the gunboats and in this glass structure,” he explains, one feels
palpably exposed to the threat of death.
Still, Abdel Baki, Rouhana, Saadi, Sahhab and Kandari managed to rework
and update the six tracks that now comprise “We Live … ” Kandari
added new lyrics to Rouhana’s “Loubnan Fawk Hamat al-Duniah.” Saadi
rejiggered a previously unrecorded, jazzy instrumental piece called
“Najwa’s Song.” Sahhab captured the mood of the time with a tracked
named “Safar,” the expression used when someone has traveled. Abdel
Baki messed around with a track slated for his upcoming album
“Communique #2,” a follow-up to his debut, “Communique #1.” The song
now carries the title “Under Siege.”
“Before the title was much more cynical,” he says.
What was it?
“Happy Citizen,” he smiles.
What is immediately striking about “We Live …” is that, considering
the circumstances under which it was produced, it is a far from
somber album. While not particularly cohesive in terms of style or
even quality – a compromise to context – it is resolutely energetic
and suitably manic.
“Beyond the bombing and all that is, in our opinion, being imposed
on us, we felt that we as musicians, we live,” says Abdel Baki. “Out
of total chaos musicians can still produce. That was the challenge,
and some people criticized us for this but the fact that we were
producing an album is itself [the point].”
As evidence of how technology kept people tethered together during
the war, Abdel Baki finished the album, “liquefied” the tracks by
converting them into MP3 files, enlisted a graphic designer in New
York to do the layout of the cover and the liner notes and then sent
everything to Kuwait, where Kandari, who had grabbed Rouhana and fled
Lebanon to make it on time to that benefit gig, set up a group called
Wafa (“loyalty” in Arabic) to produce the CD there.
Now, all proceeds from both the benefit concert and sales of the
CD are going directly to humanitarian aid and refugee relief groups
working on the ground and with the people in Lebanon. That in itself
posed an additional round of challenges.
Over the past month, much criticism has been leveled at the Lebanese
government’s Higher Relief Council (HRC) for inefficiency, ineptitude
and worse in terms of distributing aid.
Particularly in its documentary division, Forward carries a distinctly
progressive political bent – producing films about migrant labor in
Lebanon, for example. So Abdel Baki is well positioned to say he thinks
such criticism about the HRC is valid: “It’s totally politicized
and arbitrary,” he says. For this reason, the contributions from
“We Live …” are going directly to the people. “No bureaucracy,
no red tape,” Abdel Baki says. To keep this system transparent,
Kandari has created a blog to track the movement of funds.
The first edition of “We Live …” consists of 2,000 copies, and
Abdel Baki hopes to follow it up with a series of concerts
at Masrah al-Madina this fall. This is only a slight modification of
his original plans for the season.
“We’re two weeks behind, but October is still October,” he says,
stepping toward a door with a schedule of appearances taped to
it. “This is from before the war,” he says, running a finger down
the list. “This haunted us. This was a reminder to us every day.” It
seems to have worked.
“We Live … ” is available at CD-Theque, the Virgin Megastore
and online. For more information, please see or
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress