GENOCIDE IN SUDAN BEGS FOR ATTENTION
Tim Nonn
San Francisco Chronicle
April 16 2006
Darfur death toll will be spotlighted by Sunday of vigils.
I used to be a dedicated bystander. Whenever I caught a glimpse in
the media of the genocide in Sudan, I turned away.
One night, I stopped — and heard the story of a young Sudanese
mother who had walked for days through the desert with her children
until they reached the safety of a refugee camp. Her village had been
destroyed and her husband killed by government-sponsored militia. She
saved her children, and changed my life.
I asked my church to contribute funds for the refugees in Darfur. A few
months later, my tranquil existence as a husband, father and editor of
technical journals was turned upside-down when I was asked by national
church leaders to form a grassroots interfaith campaign called Dear
Sudan. Our goal, as part of a larger movement, is to stop the genocide.
How do we persuade others not to turn away?
A bystander rarely allows himself or herself to confront genocide.
The risk of making a moral choice is too great. A bystander refuses
to think about genocide. It’s just another issue, the refrain goes,
and it doesn’t involve me. Thinking about genocide is dangerous
because one must make a conscious moral decision about being a
bystander. Could we live with ourselves knowing we made the choice
to ignore mass murder? It’s better to convince oneself that it is
not happening or cannot be prevented. What could one person do?
Today, the official U.S. position is supportive of international
intervention to protect innocent civilians in Darfur. President Bush
said recently, “The genocide needs to be stopped.” But some foreign
governments argue intervention is premature or inconvenient. “Wait,”
they say, as 500 Darfurians die each day. In years to come, they also
may say, “We never knew,” or, “We apologize.” We apologize to the
Armenians. We apologize for Nanking. We apologize for the Holocaust.
We apologize for Cambodia. We apologize for Bosnia. We apologize for
Rwanda. We apologize for Darfur.
Since early 2003, more than 400,000 people have died in Darfur and
2.5 million have been uprooted. Jan Egeland, head of U.N.
humanitarian operations in Sudan, said security has collapsed, and
today, humanitarian operations and the lives of more than 300,000
people are immediately endangered.
In an age of genocide, the moral choice to be a bystander damages the
human bonds that make society possible. Martin Luther King Jr. called
these bonds an “inescapable network of mutuality.” A bystander may
refuse to make a choice about genocide in Darfur because he or she
claims the truth is unclear. Maybe it is time to start thinking with
our hearts. Our hearts might not be entirely clear about all of the
facts, but somehow they connect us to the suffering people of Darfur.
There is a certain truth in compassion. Maybe it is this truth —
the recognition of mutuality — that will help us get through the
violence tearing apart our world.
The voices of many Americans are being raised in a national movement
to end the genocide in Darfur. From high school and college campuses
to places of worship to the steps of government buildings, people
are making hope visible by refusing to be bystanders.
On Sunday, April 30, in vigils from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco,
we will stand together against the genocide in Darfur.
Please join our vigil on the Golden Gate Bridge. Don’t turn away.
Yehuda Bauer, a prominent scholar on the Holocaust, said: “You shall
never be a perpetrator. You shall never be a victim. You shall never
be a bystander.”
Tim Nonn lives in Petaluma and is national coordinator of Dear Sudan.
(Vigil registration is at ). Contact us at
[email protected].

EYE OF THE STORM: READING PUTIN’S MIND
By Amir Taheri
Jerusalem Post
April 16 2006
Talkbacks for this article: 16
President George W. Bush has described his Russian counterpart Vladimir
Putin as “a strategic ally” and “a friend we can trust.” But as the
diplomatic maneuvers to pressure Iran continue, can Washington count
on Moscow?
Of all the powers involved in the current showdown with the Islamic
Republic, only Russia is in a position to tip the balance between a
peaceful resolution and war.
To start with, Russia, which is building an Iranian power plant
near Bushehr, could slow down, or even suspend the project pending
a diplomatic resolution of the crisis.
Russia has another card to play in the shape of its proposal to set
up a special uranium enrichment project for Iran to cover the needs
of the Bushehr plant during its entire life-span of 37 years. (At
present there is an agreement for Russia to provide the plant with
fuel for the first 10 years.) To make it easier for the Teheran
leadership to save face, the Russian proposal could be modified to
have part of the enrichment process done in Iranian facilities and
with the participation of Iranian technicians.
All that, however, may lead nowhere because President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad may actually want a military conflict with the US as the
opening shot in his promised “clash of civilizations.”
Ahmadinejad seems convinced that the US, plagued by bitter internal
dissensions, does not have the stomach for a fight with the Islamic
Republic and its radical allies. Thus he may want a clash over the
nuclear issue, which, thanks to the Goebbelsian presentation of it,
is seen by many Iranians as a matter of nationalistic pride.
The Russian position at the Security Council is crucial because China,
which also has a veto, would not be prepared to isolate itself by
siding with Iran if Russia sided with the United States. If Russia
vetoes, so will China. If Russia does not veto, the most China might
do is abstain.
THE BUSH administration knows all that. This is why it is beginning
to build up pressure on Russia ahead of the next G-8 summit, scheduled
to be hosted by Putin in July.
The American calculation is that Putin, having won the presidency
of the G-8 for the first time, is unlikely to start his tenure by
splitting the group to please the mullahs.
Nevertheless, it will not be easy for Putin to make an unambiguous
choice between Teheran and Washington. Russia needs the Islamic
Republic as part of Moscow’s effort to curtail US influence in Central
Asia, the Caspian Basin and the Middle East.
As regional allies, Teheran and Moscow have already succeeded
in curtailing American influence in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan. In Tajikistan, Teheran – which sided with the US
against Russia a decade ago – is now switching back to Moscow. In
Trans-Caucasia, Teheran and Moscow have sided with Armenia against
Azerbaijan and Georgia, both of which are in the American camp.
In Afghanistan, Teheran and Moscow have been working closely for more
than a decade and are currently engaged in developing a joint strategy
in anticipation of an American withdrawal once Bush leaves office.
Moscow also needs Teheran to prevent the US from imposing its proposed
model for the exploitation of the Caspian Sea. The US, backed by
Britain, proposes a division of the Caspian among its littoral states
so each can conclude separate contracts with foreign nations. Of
the five littoral states of the Caspian only two, Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan, are favorable to the US proposed model.
Russia and Iran are against. They propose that the Caspian be treated
as a single unit in which all activity, including exploitation of
energy resources and navigation, require the consent of all littoral
states. (The fifth littoral state, Turkmenistan, has tried not to
take sides but is closer to Iran and Russia.)
Having lost all of its Arab clients of the Soviet era, Moscow also
needs Teheran as a bridgehead to the Middle East, the Persian Gulf
and the Indian Ocean. The current analysis in Moscow is that once Bush
is gone, Iran will emerge as the dominant power in Iraq and will need
Russia as a strategic partner in developing such major oil fields as
Majnun, which sits astride the Irano-Iraqi frontier.
It is also in conjunction with the Islamic Republic that Russia
envisages making a comeback in such places as Syria and Lebanon,
where Iranian influence is already well-established.
THE US is not the only strategic rival that Russia has identified.
Also looming on the horizon is China, which many Moscow analysts see
as a potential threat to Russian interests in Asia and the Middle East.
In that context a Sino-Iranian axis could isolate Russia in Western
Asia and the Middle East and even shut it out of chunks of Central
Asia.
Another reason why Moscow needs the Islamic Republic is related to
the so-called Islamic time-bomb that is ticking in the heart of the
Russian federation. With birthrates among ethnic Russians in free
fall, the federation’s Muslims, now a fifth of the population, are
slated to double by the middle of the century.
The Islamic Republic, although a Shi’ite power, could nevertheless
play a role in discouraging secessionist tendencies among Russia’s
Muslims. Conversely, a hostile Iran could use its immense experience
in exporting terrorism to make life difficult for Russia.
Add to all that the fact that Iran is the biggest market for Russian
arms, including aircraft and submarines. The loss of the Iranian orders
could force entire lines of Russian weapons industries to close down.
The two neighbors have also signed trade contracts worth $80 billion
over the next decade. And Russia hopes to build most of the seven
nuclear power plants the Islamic Republic wants to set up in the next
10 years. The fact that more than 30,000 Russian technicians work in
Iran adds an important human dimension to the relationship.
Big power games, oil, Islam, trade, arms and terrorism are some of
the factors that make it hard for Putin to side with the Bush in the
coming confrontation with the Islamic Republic.
But there is another, perhaps more important, factor: Putin can never
be sure that when the crunch comes, Washington will not strike a deal
with Teheran, leaving Moscow in the lurch.
The writer, an Iranian author and journalist, is editor of the
Paris-based Politique Internationale.

LEADER OF NMSII SIMEON SAXE-COBURG GOTHA VISITED ARMENIANS IN PLOVDIV
Focus News, Bulgaria
April 16 2006
Plovdiv. The Leader of the National Movement Simeon II (NMSII)
Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha and his wife Margarita visited the city
of Plovdiv today on invitation of the Armenian Community that is
celebrating Easter Holidays, FOCUS Agency reporter announced. The
guests were met by the Archpriest Kevork Hacherian and leaders of
the Armenian Community. Children from the Armenian school dressed in
national costumes congratulated Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha and his wife
Margarita and offered them traditional Armenian bread “Lavash”.
Later Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha and his wife Margarita were present
at the liturgy in the Armenian Church in the city of Plovdiv.

ARMENIAN POLISHED DIAMOND PRODUCTION DOWN BY OVER 60% IN Q1
Tacy, Israel
April 16 2006
Armenia’s polished diamond production during the first quarter of
2006 fell by over 60 percent as compared to the first three months
of 2005, according to Gagik Mkrtchian, Head of gemstones and jewelry
at the Armenian Trade and Economic Development Ministry.
Mkrtchian says polished sales fell 66.7 percent to nearly US$42
million, while exports were down 63 percent to nearly US$40
million. Mkrtchian attributes disruptions at Shogakn, Armenia’s
largest diamond cutting plant, for the drop. Mkrtchian expects that
Shogakn, which produces 40 percent of Armenia’s polished diamonds,
will resolve its ‘internal organizational problems’ soon.

GERARD ALEXANDER: EUROPE’S NEW SPEECH LAWS ATTACK DEMOCRACY
Dallas Morning News, TX
April 16 2006
Three disturbing trends now under way in Europe together represent
the greatest erosion of democratic practice in the world’s advanced
democracies since 1945.
First, anti-Nazi laws are being adopted in places where neo-Nazism
poses no serious threat. Second, speech laws have been dramatically
expanded to sanction speech that “incites hatred” against groups
based on their religion, race, ethnicity or other characteristics.
Third, these incitement laws are being interpreted so loosely that
they chill not just extremist views, but mainstream ones, too.
The result is a serious distortion and impoverishment of political
debate.After 1945, Germany passed strict anti-Nazi laws. Given what
had happened between 1933 and 1945, it seemed like airing pro-Nazi
or anti-Semitic views was the equivalent of shouting “Fire!” in the
crowded theater of Austria and Germany’s troubled cultures. As it
turned out, of course, neo-Nazis proved too marginal even to come
close to posing a danger to Germany or Austria’s new democracies,
with real neo-Nazis never winning even 5 percent of the vote. So the
necessity for these restrictions became less clear with time.
But instead of being pared back, anti-Nazi legislation spread,
gradually expanding to cover other historical events. In 1993, the
eminent Princeton historian Bernard Lewis told France’s Le Monde that
he questioned whether the mass murder of Armenians in Turkey was the
result of a predetermined – that is, genocidal – plan. Dr. Lewis was
later found guilty in a civil suit for having not been “objective”
regarding events that the European Parliament and other bodies had
officially certified as a “genocide.” Genocide-denial laws can now
be used to sanction professional historians whose research leads them
to unacceptable findings.
And the anti-Nazi slope has proved more slippery than that. Denial
laws have been supplemented by new laws that are even more prone to
sanctioning reasonable people.
Especially since the 1970s, Western Europeans have been passing
bans on any speech that “incites hatred” based on race, religion,
ethnicity, national origin and other criteria. This is spreading
to the European Union level, where a stream of rules now prohibits
the broadcast, including online, of any program or ad that incites
“hatred based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief,
disability, age or sexual orientation” or – crucially – is “offensive
to religious or political beliefs.”
The real danger posed by Europe’s speech laws is not so much
guilty verdicts as a chilling of political debate, as people censor
themselves in order to avoid legal charges and the stigma and expense
they bring. And the most serious chill is not of fringe racists but
of mainstream moderates and conservatives when anti-incitement laws
are allowed to sanction speech that causes “offense.”
After all, two views tend to cause offense in our day and age. The
first is the speech of bigots who denigrate members of other groups.
The second is speech by modern moderates and conservatives who believe
that problems like poverty, delinquency and poor health can often be
traced to bad choices and dysfunctional subcultures. And problems have
sooner or later been disproportionately concentrated within groups
of every race, ethnicity and religion. Identifying these causes is
a prerequisite to improvement. That isn’t bigotry, but it sometimes
causes offense to sensitized members of affected groups.
Laws against any speech that causes “offense” have the insidious effect
of conflating bigoted speech and constructive criticism. The result is
the stigmatization of certain kinds of thinking about social problems
and public policy that American conservatives, moderates and even many
liberals recognize as a legitimate part of serious debate. These speech
laws won’t ultimately silence extremists, whose careers won’t end
if they’re called bigots. But they can silence reasonable people who
don’t want that label and don’t want a scandal. Mainstream European
journalists, politicians and academics have already been charged
under these laws for just such constructive criticism.
The good news is that Europeans are questioning their illiberal
speech laws as never before. Such skepticism received a huge boost
from the events surrounding the Danish cartoons of Muhammad. Many
Muslims are insisting that European governments ban such cartoons
as they ban other “offensive” speech. In response, some Europeans
ask whether their governments shouldn’t get out of the business of
banning political speech altogether.
Europeans of all political stripes should seize this opportunity
to reverse the most dangerously illiberal trend in the world’s
advanced democracies. That would cease to make Europe a role model
for censorship and restore it as a model of core democratic rights,
expanding and not contracting Europe’s moral authority in the world.
Gerard Alexander is associate professor of political science at the
University of Virginia. A longer version of this essay appeared in
The Weekly Standard. His e-mail address is [email protected].

COMING UP IN SALT LAKE CITY: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Paul H. Johnson
Staff Writer
The Record, NJ
April 16 2006
It’s like a big family
NEW MILFORD — The Hovnanian School got its start 30 years ago in the
basement of St. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield by Armenian parents
looking for a way to teach their children about their home country’s
culture, language and history.
Today, the school’s lush River Road campus offers instruction in
English, Armenian and French to more than 200 students from New Jersey
and New York attending preschool to eighth-grade.
“The founders certainly wanted to give students an opportunity to
learn the culture and language of Armenia as well as give them the
opportunity to be good American citizens,” said Anahid Garmiryan,
principal since 2000.
The school is named after New Jersey real estate developer Vahak
Hovnanian, who was the principal donor.
At the school, children take classes in English and Armenian and
learn traditional Easter songs and dances.
“Language is a really big deal,” Garmiryan said. Armenian is taught
as early as preschool, alongside lessons in French and English.
“They learn it much more naturally and easily,” she said. “By the
time they are older, they are often fluent in all three languages.”
French teacher Angelique Chartrain, whose 3-year-old son, Helios,
attends the preschool, said the children enjoy it. “They come up to me
and say bon jour and comment ca va.” Chartrain teaches the students
French every day in 15-minute intervals, while entire classes are
taught in English and other lessons completely in Armenian.
Chartrain, who is not Armenian, said she is glad her son is attending
the school.
“Now he knows three languages,” she said. “It’s great for him.”
Garmiryan said the school was founded because many Armenians were
worried that they wouldn’t be able to teach their children about the
culture of Armenia, a country of nearly 3 million in the Caucasus,
bordered by Turkey, Georgia and Iran. About 50,000 people of Armenian
descent live in Bergen and Passaic counties, Garmiryan said.
The school works to impart a sense of Armenian culture and history
to its students. The country dates its history to prehistoric times
and Armenia has its own distinct language and alphabet. During World
War I, genocide killed about 1 million Armenians. Those deaths are
commemorated every April 25.
The Hovnanian School will host a 30th anniversary gala in the fall.
In November, it installed a replica of the Armenian alphabet on the
building facade written on obsidian stone. Miriam Miller Kaprieliam,
a parent, is helping to raise funds to install a garden learning
center on the grounds.
When the school was founded 30 years ago, most of the parents were
new immigrants or the children of recent immigrants, Garmiryan said.
“Now it’s more third- or fourth-generation parents,” she said.
Kaprieliam, of Haworth, said her daughter, eighth-grader Alexandra,
attends the school to better relate to her father and Armenian
grandparents.
“I wanted her to have a way to communicate with them,” said Kaprieliam,
who is not Armenian. “It’s an excellent education. It’s like a big
family.”
Students say they have a fierce attachment to the school and its
unique mission.
“The Armenian community is very close,” said eighth-grader Emmadora
Boutcher of Teaneck. She said she’s not Armenian, but her family sent
her to the school to learn different languages.
“My grandmother found this school,” she said. “She really liked how
you could learn two languages.”
“Everybody in this school knows each other,” said Varak Baronian of
New Milford, an eighth-grader. “It’s like a second home.”
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LOOK WHAT THE BUNNY LEFT!
By Sheryl Marsh
Daily Staff Writer
The Decatur Daily, AL
April 16 2006
Why eggs during Easter?
While Easter is a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead,
the holiday has elements with pagan origins such as decorated eggs
and cute little bunnies.
For centuries people have used the egg as a symbol of fertility and
new life. That concept – like the bunny, which is another fertility
symbol of new life – predates Easter but has been assimilated into
the Easter celebration.
Children throughout the world will participate in Easter egg hunts
today, although many searched for eggs last week.
The egg hunt makes Easter a big day for small children; however,
grandmothers like Deborah Adams of Hartselle try to instill in the
little ones that Jesus is the main focus of the day.
She and her husband, Wayne, plan to have their four grandchildren –
Anna Grace Cobb, Mary Katherine Cobb, Tyler Cook and Kaleigh Baker
– today.
“After church we’ll hide Easter eggs for the kids, but that’s just a
part of it,” said Adams. “We teach them that the main reason we have
Easter is because of the resurrection of Jesus.”
Easter eggs were originally painted bright colors to represent
spring. They were also used in egg-rolling contests or given for gifts.
Ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians and Hindus believed that
the world came into being with a giant egg. Most cultures around the
world consider the egg a symbol of new life and rebirth.
The Rev. Richard Lawson, rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church, said
Americans share the belief of other cultures that the egg symbolizes
new birth or new life. A story is behind colored eggs.
“I remember a story being told of a Christian saint being before
a Roman emperor who denied Jesus’ resurrection,” said Lawson. “She
pointed to an egg that God changed into a colored egg as a sign of
Jesus’ resurrection.”
Various cultures have unique decorating methods.
Austrian artists create patterns through fastening ferns and small
plants around the eggs and then boiling them. This results in a white
pattern once the plants are removed.
Germany and other countries pierce the ends of eggs with a needle
and blow the contents into a bowl. Then, they dye the hollow eggs
and hang them from shrubs and trees during Easter week.
Armenians decorate using the same process, but decorate the eggs
with pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary as well as other religious
designs.
Americans dye eggs and decorate them with various designs.
Some cultures play egg games. Romans celebrate Easter by running races
on an oval track and giving eggs as prizes. Also, like Americans,
they hold Easter egg hunts.
Children join in a search Easter morning to find eggs the Easter
bunny hid while they were asleep. Older children help the younger
ones look for eggs throughout the house.
Easter egg hunts are a community celebration of the holiday. Eggs
are hidden in public places and all the children in the community
are invited to participate, similar to the way Americans hunt eggs.
Normally, Marsha Keeney of Decatur would help hide eggs for her
grandchildren outside, but this year they will do like the Romans
and hide them inside.
Keeney said they have not been in their new home long, and “we have
landscaping to do, so we’ll hide them inside the house.”
Easter bunny
The Easter bunny reportedly originated as pre-Christian fertility
lore in Germany in the 1500s. Like the egg, the rabbit, one of the
most fertile animals known, served as a symbol of new life during
the spring season.
German settlers introduced the Easter bunny to American folklore
after arriving in Pennsylvania Dutch country in the 1700s.
The children built nests in their homes, barns or gardens. Boys used
caps and girls used bonnets to make the nests. Later, Easter baskets
became a tradition as Easter caught on throughout the country.
Adams and other grannies look forward to such traditions each year.
“I started giving my girls Julie and Jennifer personalized eggs and
a bunny each year when they were little. I still do that for them
and for the grandchildren.”
Some information for this story came from “Easter on the Net.”

SCOWCROFT LEADS SALT LAKE SYMPHONY
By Edward Reichel
Deseret News, UT
April 16 2006
When Barbara Scowcroft steps onto the podium next Saturday to conduct
the Salt Lake Symphony, she’ll be making history. She is the first
woman to lead the orchestra in its 30-year history.
Barbara Scowcroft “I don’t want to make an issue out of it, but I think
it’s an interesting fact,” Scowcroft said. “But I’m really thrilled
to be conducting the Salt Lake Symphony. They’re a wonderful group
of players.”
The centerpiece on Saturday’s program is Franz Schubert’s magnificent
Ninth Symphony, appropriately nicknamed, considering its length, the
“Great.” “It’s taxing and takes a lot of stamina, but it’s a fabulous
work,” Scowcroft said.
She added that there is so much to be uncovered in the Ninth.
“Schubert was influenced by Beethoven, and so you really have two
different styles in here – Beethoven’s drama and Schubert’s undulating
lyricism. The music is delicately textured, yet it contains an
enormous message.”
Also on Saturday’s concert will be the U.S. premiere of Dana Paul
Perna’s “. . . songe de voix perdues . . . ” (“. . . dream of the lost
voices . . .”) for flute and strings. Salt Lake Symphony principal
flute Laurel Ann Maurer will be the soloist.
“It’s a very beautiful piece,” Maurer said. “Dana’s music is
interesting, because it’s a mixture of modern techniques and
impressionism that blend with his Americanism. I love it.”
Perna wrote the piece in 2002 for Maurer, who premiered it in
Armenia. “I was scheduled to do a chamber orchestra concert in Armenia
in December of that year. So I called on some composers I’ve worked
with in the past to see if they had anything for flute and strings.”
When Maurer contacted Perna, he said he didn’t have anything but he
wanted to mull the idea over in his mind. “And what he came up with
was this beautiful piece of music.”
Laurel Ann Maurer The immediate genesis of the piece was the first
anniversary of 9/11. “That made a deep impact on Dana,” Maurer
said. “It reminded him of all the victims of Sept. 11 who died in
New York and Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. It made him think
of the victims’ children, who now can only hear the voices of their
parents in their dreams.”
Scowcroft, who is a member of the first violin section of the Utah
Symphony, has always been interested in conducting and has been
expanding her podium engagements in recent years. Besides guesting with
the Salt Lake Symphony this season, she is also the music director
of the Utah Youth Symphony and, since 2000, resident conductor of
the American Festival for the Arts in Houston, Texas.
She has also led the festival chamber orchestra in concerts at the
Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyo.
In addition to the Schubert and Perna pieces, Saturday’s concert
will also include the “Bacchanale” from Camille Saint-Saens’ opera
“Samson et Dalila.”

RUSSIA DOMINATES PIG OLYMPICS
By Natasha Rotstein
Special to The Moscow Times
Vladimir Filonov
The Moscow Times, Russia
April 18 2006
It wasn’t exactly the Turin Games, but there was plenty of
international rivalry at the third annual Pig Olympics.
Out of a field of 12 pigs in the roughly 4-meter sprint, the Russians
dominated, capturing first and second place, with the French taking
third. The Ukrainians, Chinese, Canadians and Latvians went home
without medals.
With 300 people in attendance, the Sunday spectacle was one of the
main draws at ZooRussia 2006 at Crocus Expo, which featured numerous
merchants hawking organic dog food, kitty litter and poodle vests.
Kostik Rystish Shvain, 2 1/2 years old, won the race.
“He’s the smartest, fastest, slyest and bravest of all,” Kostik’s
manager, Konstantin Petrunin, explained.
Petrunin is a deputy director for Euroweg Zerno, one of the companies
that sponsored pigs at the race. Euroweg Zerno, like the other
sponsors, specializes in agriculture-related products.
The 4-meter race was one of three events at the Olympics. The other
two were a race in which the pigs pushed a football across a field,
and a swimming event.
Kostik’s trainer, Vladimir Nishylov, said Kostik, a dark-haired pig
of Armenian extraction, had endured a rigorous daily regime of running
and “football practice.”
In the football-race event, Yelena Prikrastynaya, who lacks Kostik’s
speed but has great technical ability, led the Russians to a 16-3
victory.
Meanwhile, Deniska, also a Russian, captured first place in the
swimming competition, held in a small wading pool. Nelson, from South
Africa, and Yelena Prikrastnaya came in second and third, respectively.
Tatyana Kolchanova, one of the organizers of the Olympics, noted that
all the pigs in the competition, in fact, were Russian born and bred
and had been trained at Lyhavitza, outside of Moscow. But they have
sponsors from different countries.
Kostik’s owners said they had no plans to slaughter him. But Kolchanova
said on a more ominous note that the pigs would simply be sent to
their sponsors’ home countries.

SENTENCED AZERI OFFICER’S DEFENDERS POISED TO FIGHT TILL THE END
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
posted April 17 2006
Baku, April 14, AssA-Irada
The Hungarian court’s decision issued on Thursday to sentence an
Azeri officer to life in prison indicates Europe’s attitude toward the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, said MP Azay
Guliyev, member of the Coordination Council for Ramil Safarov’s Rights.
Ramil Safarov was convicted of killing an Armenian serviceman during
a NATO course in Budapest in a lengthy trial that many in Azerbaijan
labeled as unfair.
“I believe it was a ruling issued on Azerbaijan as a whole. It aims
to defeat the country in the Garabagh conflict,” Guliyev said.
Guliyev said the Council plans to renew the tactics in its activity.
It will also work to ensure a high-level representation of Safarov’s
rights in the court of appeals where the case will be filed.
The MP said the Committee suggests that Azeri judiciary bodies
immediately start talks with their Hungarian counterparts.
“The Budapest court’s ruling does not mean we have lost completely. I
believe that if Safarov’s rights are further properly protected,
it is possible to achieve a fair decision in the court of appeal.”
The Coordination Council on Friday forwarded an appeal to the Hungarian
higher legislative bodies, the Council of Europe, OSCE and other
influential international organizations. It voiced hope that the
court will take into account the Azeri officer’s condition at the
time of the incident, as well as Armenia’s occupation of 20% of Azeri
territories and the atrocities committed by Armenian troops against
innocent people, including the Khojaly massacre. “Unfortunately,
this has yet to happen,” the statement said.
The forensic expertise was conducted four times. Armenians insisted
on the accuracy of the first examination indicating that Safarov’s
actions were premeditated, while the defense says he was in emotional
distress when reacting to the Armenian officer Gurgen Markarian’s
insults, which is confirmed by the second and third one.