When weeping for religious martyrs leads to the crucifixion of
innocents

The Independent – United Kingdom
Mar 26, 2005

Robert Fisk

`About suffering,” Auden famously wrote in 1938, “they were never
wrong,/ The Old Masters: how well they understood/ its human
position; how it takes place/ While someone is eating or opening a
window/Or just walking dully along.” Yet the great crucifixion
paintings of Caravaggio or Bellini, or Michelangelo’s Pieta in the
Vatican – though they were not what Auden had in mind – have God on
their side. We may feel the power of suffering in the context of
religion but, outside this spiritual setting, I’m not sure how
compassionate we really are.

The atrocities of yesterday – the Beslan school massacre, the Bali
bombings, the crimes against humanity of 11 September 2001, the
gassings of Halabja – can still fill us with horror and pity,
although that sensitivity is heavily conditioned by the nature of the
perpetrators. In an age where war has become a policy option rather
than a last resort, where its legitimacy rather than its morality can
be summed up on a sheet of A4 paper, we prefer to concentrate on the
suffering caused by “them” rather than “us”.

Hence the tens of thousands of Iraqis who were killed in the 2003
invasion and subsequent occupation, the hundreds of thousands of
Vietnamese killed in the Vietnam war, the hundreds of Egyptians cut
down by our 1956 invasion of Suez are not part of our burden of
guilt. About 1,700 Palestinian civilians from the Sabra and Chatila
refugee camps – equal to more than half the dead of the World Trade
Center – were massacred in Lebanon.

But how many readers can remember the exact date? September 16-18,
1982. “Our” dates are thus sacrosanct, “theirs” are not; though I
notice how “they” must learn “ours”. How many times are Arabs
pointedly asked for their reaction to 11 September 2001, with the
specific purpose of discovering whether they show the correct degree
of shock and horror? And how many Westerners would even know what
happened in 1982?

It’s also about living memory – and also, I suspect, about
photographic records. The catastrophes of our generation, or of our
parents’ or even our grandparents’ generation – have a poignancy that
earlier bloodbaths do not. Hence we can be moved to tears by the epic
tragedy of the Second World War and its 55 million dead, by the
murder of six million Jews, by our families’ memories of this
conflict – a cousin on my father’s side died on the Burma Road – and
also by the poets of the First World War. Owen and Sassoon created
the ever-living verbal museum of that conflict.

But I can well understand why the Israelis have restructured their
Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem. The last survivors of Hitler’s death
camps will be dead soon. So they must be kept alive in their taped
interviews, along with the records and clothes of those who were
slaughtered by the Nazis. The Armenians still struggle to memorialise
their own 1915 Holocaust of one and a half million at the hands of
the Ottoman Turks – they struggle even to keep the capital H on their
Holocaust – because only a pitiful handful of their survivors are
still alive and the Turks still deny their obvious guilt. There are
photographs of the Armenians being led to the slaughter. But no
documentary film.

And here the compassion begins to wobble. Before the 1914-18 war,
there were massacres enough for the world’s tears; the Balkan war of
1912 was of such carnage that eyewitnesses feared their accounts
would never be believed. The Boer war turned into a moral disgrace
for the British because we herded our enemies’ families into
disease-ridden concentration camps. The Franco-Prussian war of 1871 –
though French suffering was portrayed by Delacroix with stunning
accuracy, and photos survive of the Paris Commune – leaves us cold.
So, despite the record of still photographs, does the American civil
war.

We can still be appalled – we should be appalled – by the million
dead of the Irish famine, although it is painfully significant that,
although photography had been invented by the mid-19th century, not a
single photograph was taken of its victims. We have to rely on the
Illustrated London News sketches to show the grief and horror which
the Irish famine produced.

Yet who cries now for the dead of Waterloo or Malplaquet, of the
first Afghan war, of the Hundred Years’ War – whose rural effects
were still being felt in 1914 – or for the English Civil War, for the
dead of Flodden Field or Naseby or for the world slaughter brought
about by the Great Plague? True, movies can briefly provoke some
feeling in us for these ghosts. Hence the Titanic remains a real
tragedy for us even though it sank in 1912 when the Balkan war was
taking so many more innocent lives. Braveheart can move us. But in
the end, we know that the disembowelling of William Wallace is just
Mel Gibson faking death.

By the time we reach the slaughters of antiquity, we simply don’t
care a damn. Genghis Khan? Tamerlane? The sack of Rome? The
destruction of Carthage? Forget it. Their victims have turned to dust
and we do not care about them. They have no memorial. We even
demonstrate our fascination with long-ago cruelty. Do we not queue
for hours to look at the room in London in which two children were
brutally murdered? The Princes in the Tower?

If, of course, the dead have a spiritual value, then their death must
become real to us. Rome’s most famous crucifixion victim was not
Spartacus – although Kirk Douglas did his best to win the role in
Kubrick’s fine film – but a carpenter from Nazareth. And compassion
remains as fresh among Muslims for the martyrs of early Islam as it
does for the present- day dead of Iraq. Anyone who has watched the
Shia Muslims of Iraq or Lebanon or Iran honouring the killing of
Imams Ali and Hussein – like Jesus, they were betrayed – has watched
real tears running down their faces, tears no less fresh than those
of the Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem this week. You can butcher a
whole city of innocents in the Punic War, but nail the son of Mary to
a cross or murder the son-in-law of the Prophet and you’ll have them
weeping for generations.

What worries me, I suppose, is that so many millions of innocents
have died terrible deaths because their killers have wept over their
religious martyrs. The Crusaders slaughtered the entire population of
Beirut and Jerusalem in 1099 because of their desire to “free” the
Holy Land, and between 1980 and 1988, the followers of the Prophet
killed a million and a half of their own co-religionists after a
Sunni Muslim leader invaded a Shia Muslim country. Most of the Iraqi
soldiers were Shia – and almost all the Iranian soldiers were Shia –
so this was an act of virtual mass suicide by the followers of Ali
and Hussein.

Passion and redemption were probably essential parts of our parents’
religious experience. But I believe it would be wiser and more human
in our 21st century to reflect upon the sins of our little human
gods, those evangelicals who also claim we are fighting for “good”
against “evil”, who can ignore history and the oceans of blood
humanity has shed – and get away with it on a sheet of A4 paper.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
March 26 2005

AZERBAIJANI DIASPORAS TO GREATER ACTIVITY
[March 26, 2005, 17:40:33]

Bulent Gurjam, Chairman of the “Azerbaijani House” in Belgium, held a
press conference on March 25 for media representatives at the State
Committee to Work with Azerbaijani living in Foreign Countries.

B. Gurjam touching up the work done by his organization and its
goals. He noted that an opening ceremony of the monument of Dede
Gorgud attended by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in 2004 had
been held in front of the central building of the World Customs
Organization in Brussels. Azerbaijani House issued a booklet devoted
to the Khojaly genocide in four languages and organized a photo-stand
dealing with this topic.

Representative of the State Committee said that a joint meeting of
Azerbaijani Diaspora Organizations had been held in Vienna on March
17-23 and Novruz Bayram had been celebrated. He stressed the
importance of holding such events in Europe in order to withstand
lies disseminated by Armenian lobby and bring the truth of Azerbaijan
to world community’s notice. On the occasion of the Genocide of
Azerbaijani Day (March 31) Azerbaijani compatriots together with
members of Turkish Diaspora will march on April 2 to the OSCE office
in Vienna.

Then were answered a questions of the mass media representatives.

Russia’s regional allies could fall like dominoes following Kyrgyz uprising
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

AP Worldstream
Mar 26, 2005

MOSCOW _ The swift overthrow of the man who ruled Kyrgyzstan for 15
years has turned up the heat on other autocratic rulers across the
ex-Soviet landscape, threatening to topple many of Russia’s closest
allies like dominoes and chip away inexorably at the Kremlin’s
regional clout.

This week’s overthrow of the government in Kyrgyzstan was the third
uprising in Russia’s sphere of interest in less than two years. Unlike
Georgia and Ukraine, however, the tussle between the government and
the opposition had nothing to do with a wider, East-West competition
for influence in the post-Soviet region.

Instead, it centered on a heretofore weak and divided opposition
capitalizing on the deep unpopularity of an increasingly autocratic
president. Russia has depended on such leaders to promote its strategic
interests.

Already, the ripples of revolution have been felt far beyond the small,
mountainous country in Central Asia. In Belarus, on Russia’s western
edge, police clashed Friday with demonstrators calling for President
Alexander Lukashenko’s resignation.

“Today’s gathering must send a signal to the West, Russia and our own
bureaucrats that Belarus is ready for a serious change,” said Andrei
Klimov, an opposition leader. “Our aim is to start the Belarusian
revolution and force the resignation of Lukashenko, the last dictator
of Europe.”

In tightly controlled Uzbekistan, which borders Kyrgyzstan to the west,
opposition leaders from various movements issued a joint statement
expressing admiration for the rapid-fire Bishkek coup.

“We are sure that the process of democratic reforms that started in
Kyrgyzstan will highly influence all parts of Central Asia,” they said.

The domino effect would have deep ramifications for Russia.

Moscow wants desperately to form a free-trade zone that could restore
some of its Soviet-era economic power, but that requires cooperation
from Kazakhstan and Belarus. Today, those countries are in safe hands
from Moscow’s point of view, but the opposition forces might not see
such an alliance in their nations’ interest.

The fourth partner in the proposed project, Ukraine, already has
suggested it could pull out if new President Viktor Yushchenko’s
government decides it is not in the national interest.

Moscow needs oil- and gas-rich Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan
to help maintain its status as a top energy transporter, and Tajikistan
and Armenia, which both host Russian bases, as outposts for its
military in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

New, opposition-led governments in any of those nations could cut
into Russia’s strategic sway.

After losing its stake in last year’s political battle in Ukraine,
the Kremlin has taken a careful approach to Kyrgyzstan, making no
visible effort to help keep its longtime leader from losing power.

“The Kremlin has never recovered from the Ukrainian trauma and
apparently decided to stay away out of fear that an attempt to
influence events there will backfire again,” Fyodor Lukyanov, the
editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, told The Associated
Press. “It was simply following the events.”

Under Kyrgyzstan’s President Askar Akayev, Bishkek hosted both U.S.
and Russian military air bases just 30 kilometers (20 miles) away
one from another _ another reason why neither Moscow nor Washington
seemed to be overtly backing either side in Kyrgyzstan.

“No one needs destabilization in Kyrgyzstan. It’s a rare case when
the interests of Moscow and Washington converge,” Lukyanov said.

Gleb Pavlovsky, a leading Russian political strategist linked to
the Kremlin who took part in Ukraine’s election campaign, said that
Moscow had failed to keep ex-Soviet nations in its orbit because its
efforts were belated and badly organized.

“We were late in launching this policy, and we have received a good
beating,” he said during a television talk show.

Stanislav Belkovsky, another top Russian political analyst with
reported links to officialdom, said that Russia’s passivity in
Kyrgyzstan had shown that Russia had in fact abandoned its ambitions
to play a dominant role on the ex-Soviet space.

“The revolution in Kyrgyzstan has shown that Russia can’t and doesn’t
want to control the post-Soviet space,” Belkovsky said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday against placing
excessive hopes in the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose
alliance of 12 ex-Soviet nations which Moscow has sought to dominate.
With surprising candor, Putin said that the CIS was merely a discussion
forum that couldn’t bring forth serious economic cooperation _ what
he called a forum created for the “civilized divorce” of the former
Soviet republics, in contrast to the European Union, which was built
to foster real cooperation.

“All disappointments come from excessive expectations,” Putin said.

Kyrgyz opposition leader claims control a day after president ousted in massive protests
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA

AP Worldstream
Mar 26, 2005

Kyrgyzstan’s interim leader chose key officials for a new government
and moved quickly to try to quell widespread disorder and looting
following the ouster of longtime President Askar Akayev.

Hundreds of youths wandered the rain-slickened streets of Bishkek in
mobs, wielding sticks and throwing stones at cars. Helmeted police
in bulletproof vests chased them and fired shots in the air.

Akayev’s whereabouts remained a mystery, although a statement
purportedly from him said he was out of the country temporarily,
denied he had resigned, and denounced what he called the opposition’s
“unconstitutional coup d’etat.”

Opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev emerged from the Parliament
building and said he had been named acting prime minister and
president.

“Freedom has finally come to us,” Bakiyev told a crowd in Bishkek.
Celebrations also were reported in southern Kyrgyzstan, where the
popular uprising began earlier this month in the impoverished Central
Asian nation.

But looting continued in the darkened capital Friday night, with
shots fired near the central department store on the main avenue,
witnesses said.

“The city looks as if it has gone mad,” said Felix Kulov, a prominent
opposition figure who was released from prison during Thursday’s
uprising and appointed coordinator of law enforcement.

At Akayev’s lavish residence on Bishkek’s outskirts, a security
guard who identified himself only as Col. Alymkulov said the house
was empty and untouched by looters.

Bakiyev’s appointment as acting president was endorsed by a newly
restored parliament of lawmakers who held seats before this year’s
disputed elections, which fueled protests against Akayev.

Bakiyev chose mostly prominent opposition figures for the posts of
foreign, defense and finance ministers and chief prosecutor. For the
job of interior minister, he picked Myktybek Abdyldayev, a former
chief prosecutor who had been fired Wednesday by Akayev.

He appointed them as acting ministers, thereby avoiding the need for
approval by parliament’s upper house.

Bakiyev also signed an order appointing a communications minister and
governors of the northern Chui and the southern Osh and Jalal-Abad
regions, which were the epicenter of anti-Akayev protests.

The new leaders’ immediate challenge in the strategic nation _ it
has both Russia and U.S. military bases and borders on China _ was in
halting vandalism and looting that left major stores in Bishkek gutted
and damaged by youths who roamed the capital overnight. Kulov urged
police, who have virtually disappeared from the streets, to return
to work or face punishment, but he acknowledged few had shown up.

“It’s an orgy going on here,” Kulov told reporters. “We have arrested
many people, we are trying to do something, but we physically lack
people.”

A shopping center on the main avenue was destroyed by fire and
strewn with wreckage, as smoke hung in the air. At another shop
gutted by fire, children and the elderly searched through what was
left after looting overnight. Cars were picked clean, their windows
and tires gone.

After weeks of intensifying protests in the south, propelled by
widespread anger over the disputed elections, events moved quickly
on Thursday and Friday, with crowds taking over government buildings
in the capital with little resistance and the sudden flight of Akayev.

The Red Cross reported dozens injured in the turmoil Thursday, while
lawmaker Temir Sariyev said three people had been killed and about
100 injured overnight.

“An unconstitutional coup d’etat has been staged in Kyrgyzstan,”
Akayev said in the statement distributed to some media in Kyrgyzstan.

“My current stay outside the country is temporary,” the statement
said. “Rumors of my resignation are deliberate, malicious lies.”

In the e-mailed statement, with the sender listed as the Kyrgyz
presidential press service, Akayev said he had given orders not to
use force during the uprising, ignoring the advice of his aides,
and that he had left the country to avoid bloodshed.

Akayev’s spokesman, Dosali Esenaliyev, said he did not know of the
statement’s existence, and its authenticity could not be determined.

The Russian news agency Interfax said Akayev and his family were in
neighboring Kazakhstan, but it later cited unspecified sources as
saying he had left that country.

Kulov said Akayev “had a chance to resign, but he fled.”

“He wanted to go to Russia, but the Russians didn’t accept him,”
he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin wouldn’t object if
Akayev wants to go to Russia. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander
Yakovenko said Moscow doesn’t know where Akayev was.

Bakiyev told the crowd in Bishkek that Akayev was “not on the territory
of the republic. I don’t know where he is.”

Akayev’s departure made Kyrgyzstan the third former Soviet republic
in the past 18 months _ after Georgia and Ukraine _ to see popular
protests bring down long-entrenched leaders widely accused of
corruption.

Putin, on a visit to Armenia, said “it’s unfortunate that yet again
in the post-Soviet space, political problems in a country are resolved
illegally and are accompanied by pogroms and human victims.”

He urged the Kyrgyz opposition to quickly restore order, and praised
them for helping develop bilateral ties during their earlier work in
the government.

The 60-year-old Akayev had led Kyrgyzstan since 1990, before it gained
independence in the Soviet collapse.

The takeover of government buildings followed similar seizures
by opposition activists in the country’s impoverished south. The
protests began even before the first round of parliamentary elections
Feb. 27 and swelled after March 13 run-offs that the opposition said
were seriously flawed. The ballots put Akayev’s son and daughter
in parliament.

Several thousand people in the southern town of Jalal-Abad celebrated
Akayev’s ouster, said Gamal Soronkulov, opposition chief of security
in Jalal-Abad. He said police started patrolling the town and that
security has been stepped up to avoid the looting that plagued Bishkek.

The town’s main square has been renamed Liberty Square, Soronkulov
said. Jalal-Abad saw the first seizure of a government building by
the opposition on March 4.

Opposition supporters in Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city,
were preparing to hold similar celebrations Saturday, a police
official said.

There was no sign the new leadership would change policy toward the
West or Russia.

Acting Foreign Minister-designate Roza Otunbayeva said she would recall
the country’s ambassador to the United States, Baktybek Abdrisayev,
who has refused to recognize the new government.

Kyrgyzstan has been a conduit for drugs and a potential hotbed
of Islamic extremism. There was no indication, however, that the
opposition would be more amenable to Islamic fundamentalist influence
than Akayev’s government has been.

___

Associated Press writers Steve Gutterman and Kadyr Toktogulov
contributed to this story from Bishkek.

New Leadership Is Established In Kyrgyzstan
By Karl Vick

washingtonpost.com
Mar 26, 2005

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, March 25 — A day after chasing out a president
who ruled this mountainous former Soviet republic for 15 years,
Kyrgyzstan’s new leaders named an interim government Friday and
struggled to suppress the looting and arson that have ruined scores
of shops in the capital.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a former prime minister turned opposition leader,
was returned to his former post by parliament. He was also given the
duties of president, the title held since 1990 by Askar Akayev, who
disappeared Thursday as demonstrators surged into his headquarters,
known as the White House, in the third successful street revolt in
a former Soviet republic in 16 months.

The United States and Russia, which both maintain military bases
in the poor, largely Muslim country of 5 million people, signaled
Friday they were ready to do business with the new leadership that
was taking shape.

“Who’s running our country?” asked the banner headline in a newspaper
here in the capital.

Bakiyev said he was, and called on his countrymen to prevent a repeat
of the looting and violence that erupted after nightfall Thursday,
causing at least three deaths and scores of injuries.

“As the prime minister and the acting president of Kyrgyzstan, I
address you and ask you to be wise, be patient and happy,” Bakiyev
told a respectful crowd of several thousand in front of the White
House, which protesters had overrun 24 hours earlier. “Let’s work on
concrete things now.”

But Akayev appeared to argue that he was still the legitimate leader.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, where Russian media reports said he took
refuge before leaving for some other destination, a statement bearing
his name declared that “an unconstitutional coup d’etat has been
staged in Kyrgyzstan.”

It said that “my current stay outside the country is temporary.
Rumors of my resignation are deliberate, malicious lies.” The statement
said he had possessed the means to suppress the insurrection but chose
not to, so as to avoid violence. There was no way to authenticate
the statement.

A mountainous nation with a nomadic heritage, Kyrgyzstan is one of
five sparsely inhabited republics in Central Asia that were ruled
from Moscow during Soviet days. Akayev, a physicist and former
Soviet legislator, led it into independence and governed as one of
the region’s more tolerant leaders. But, remaining year after year,
he came to be widely viewed in the country as an authoritarian ruler
who used his power to enrich his family.

On Friday night, officials organized civilian patrols to bolster
the handful of uniformed police officers who returned to duty after
disappearing from the streets in face of the demonstrators’ advance.
Gunfire sounded about midnight, apparently warning shots that combined
with a rainstorm to disperse a crowd of hundreds of youths approaching
a shopping center.

“God forbid anybody would have to have such a revolution,” Felix Kulov,
a political prisoner who was freed from jail Thursday, said of the
violence. “It was a rampage of looting, just like in Iraq.” On Friday,
Kulov was put in charge of security services.

By day, the capital, which sprawls at the foot of the mountain range
that defines this striking country, was almost serene. Traffic was
steady, and city work crews in orange vests kept busy clearing debris
from the scores of stores looted or burned overnight. “Who needs to
tell us to do this? This is our work. This is our responsibility,”
said Jildash Abdikulov, who was supervising a crew in front of a
charred store.

Knots of men stood sentry outside the barricaded gates of the city’s
main market, an improvised warren of steel shipping containers and
stalls. The mood was subdued, not tense, and women and children joined
men thronging the sidewalks in the spring weather.

In the city’s main square, crowds listened for much of the day
to speakers who mounted a portable podium one after another. They
alternately congratulated the gathering for the revolution, condemned
Akayev as greedy and urged control of the streets after dark.

“We’re all really frustrated because of what happened last night,”
one woman told the crowd, which was sprinkled with young men who had
tied red cloths around their coat sleeves to show they were militia
volunteers.

A day after the government fell, there were suggestions that dissidents
in other parts of the former Soviet Union might try to replicate
the revolt’s quick, unforeseen success. In Uzbekistan, which borders
Kyrgyzstan, opposition parties issued a joint statement expressing
certainty that “the process of democratic reforms that started in
Kyrgyzstan will highly influence all parts of Central Asia.”

In Minsk, the capital of Belarus, about 1,000 people gathered near
the palace of President Alexander Lukashenko in hopes of touching off
a larger movement, but they were dispersed by riot police, according
to the Associated Press.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the appearance of taking the
revolution in stride. After backing the losing side in revolts in
Georgia and Ukraine, the Kremlin made no public effort to protect
Akayev, though Putin said he would be welcome in Russia.

“We know these people pretty well,” Putin told reporters during a
visit to Armenia, referring to the opposition. “And they have done
quite a lot to establish good relations between Russia and Kyrgyzstan.”

“For its part, Russia will do its best to keep up the current level
of relations between the states and improve relations between the
people,” he said.

But some Russian analysts called the development bad news for Moscow.
“The Central Asian region now faces a risk of Islamization,” said
Sergei Markov, an architect of Putin’s quasi-authoritarian governing
policy known as managed democracy, according to the Knight Ridder
newspaper chain. “In addition, drug trafficking from Central Asia to
Europe via Russia will certainly grow.”

Akayev was a favorite of Washington, which welcomed his early
initiatives to reform a Soviet-style economy and nurture democratic
institutions. But there were signs Friday that the United States was
readily accepting his demise.

As Bakiyev worked his way Friday from the plaza podium toward the
parliament building behind a human chain of security volunteers,
he told reporters he had spoken with the U.S. ambassador in Bishkek,
Stephen Young. “He says, and I agree with him, that we are going to
work together,” Bakiyev said. “We will continue our cooperation.”

The State Department said that Young had met with Bakiyev on Thursday
evening and that the ambassador had been in regular telephone contact
with him and other interim leaders.

A Western observer who lives in Bishkek said Akayev had worn out
his welcome with his own people. When protests first erupted in the
southern part of the country, an area both poorer and ethnically
distinct from Akayev’s native north, the incumbent dismissed the
uproar and refused to meet with the opposition.

“The fact is the government didn’t have much support and it just
started crumbling,” said the observer, who spoke on condition that
he not be further identified.

On Thursday, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov was briefly made acting president
because of his position as speaker of the legislative assembly, the
Interfax news agency said. But on Friday he was replaced by Bakiyev,
a native of Jalal-Abad, a city in the south and an early center of
opposition. Bakiyev served as prime minister from 2000 to 2002, before
resigning after security forces killed six protesters in a clash.

The government he began putting in place Friday is drawn largely from
other mainstream politicians who had fallen out of favor with Akayev.

Kulov, for instance, once served as mayor of Bishkek. Roza Otunbayeva,
a frequent guest on English-language news shows, has been named
foreign minister, a post she held under Akayev. She said a presidential
contest may be set for June.

Residents said this country’s sense of close kinship made Thursday
night’s violence particularly hard to accept. Smoke was still pouring
from one downtown mall at midday. Pizza shops and other businesses
were missing windows. By afternoon, shop owners were emptying their
shelves and preparing to guard stock too heavy to pack up.

Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V. Rev. Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

THE CATHOLICOSATE OF CILICIA PARTICIPATES IN THE CONFERENCE DEDICATED
TO DISCUSSING THE ISSUE OF MIGRANTS

The Life and Service Unit of the Middle East Council of Churches
organized a conference in Beirut form March 15 to 17 for the committee
of services to refugees, migrants and the displaced. Representatives
from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Jerusalem and Lebanon participated in
the conference. Ms. Nelly Vekilian represented the Catholicosate of
Cilicia in the conference.

The main purpose of the conference was to discuss the best way
for solving the problem of refuges, migrants and the displaced. The
participants discussed the issue of migrants and the displaced settled
in the Middle East. They focused on the legal, social and economic
hardships these migrants and displaced people face and on their living
conditions. The discussions were held through a series of lectures,
personal accounts and workshops.

At the end of the conference, the participants stressed the importance
of developing the role of the church in problems related to migrants,
refuges and the displaced. A special plan was devised for this purpose.

##

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
Ecumenical activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer
to the web page of the Catholicosate, The
Cilician Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is
located in Antelias, Lebanon.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V. Rev. Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

HIS HOLINNES ARAM I MEETS WITH THE REPRESENTATIVE
OF PRIME MINISTER OMAR KARAME

His Holiness Aram I met with minister Sebouh Hovnanian, the representative
of Prime Minister Omar Karame, on March 25. The PM wanted to know His
Holiness Aram I’s views concerning the current situation of Lebanon in
general and the formation of a new government in particular.

His Holiness praised the initiative of appointed PM Karame to form a
national unity government.

“Now more than ever national unity is a priority and it is essential for
brining the country out of its current political stalemate,” he said.

His Holiness also stressed the importance of sorting the political situation
of the country and organizing the upcoming parliamentary elections. He said
the elections should be free and democratic and held in the presence of
international observers.

The Catholicos said that the elections should be held on the basis of the
new electoral law, and added: “Accordingly, if it would be difficult to form
a national unity government presently, our proposal is that a government
comprised of people trusted by the Lebanese communities be quickly
established, in order for the political life in the country to normalize.”

Aram I said that Lebanese people’s calls for the truth concerning the
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri should be one of the
priorities of the new government.

The Catholicos added that as a constituent member of the Lebanese society,
the Armenian Community holds firm to Lebanon’s sovereignty, integrity and
independence and is ready to fulfill its national duties by actively
participating in the political life of the country.

##

View picture here:

*****

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

Radiation holds key to Inca riddle
By Mary Ann Albright, Corvallis Gazette-Times

Corvallis Gazette Times, OR
March 27 2005

An Oregon State University researcher is using modern technology to
unravel the mysteries of an ancient South American culture.

The Inca empire marked momentous state occasions with a ritual called
capacocha. These ceremonies linked the capital of Cuzco to remote
Inca provinces through the sacrifice of children and the burial of
precious objects.

OSU researcher Leah Minc used neutron activation analysis to identify
the compositional elements of 15th century pottery found in several
sacred burial sites. Establishing the artifacts’ makeup allowed her
to pinpoint their origins, and ultimately to better understand the
capacocha.

The findings were published in the March issue of the Journal of
Anthropological Archaeology and illustrate the possibilities of
archaeometry, a field that applies scientific analysis to
archaeology.

“This study gives us a whole different perspective on ancient
societies,” Minc said. “It was exciting to be able to shed light on
an ancient ritual in a way that no other technology would allow.”

Minc came to OSU last summer from the University of Michigan, where
she conducted these analyses. When the University of Michigan closed
its radiation center, Minc looked for a new institution with the
capabilities her research required.

The OSU Radiation Center “has a lovely reactor,” Minc noted. “All of
this requires the artifacts be placed in the neutron flux of a
nuclear reactor.”

Steve Reese, acting director of OSU’s Radiation Center, explained as
simply as he could how neutron radiation analysis works:

“You insert the sample into the reactor and bombard it with neutrons
that activate the sample. The elements in the sample absorb the
neutrons and become radioactive. You look at the radiation they emit,
and that tells what atoms are present.”

Minc looks at the types and quantities of trace elements in a sample
to determine its geographic origin based on its chemical
“fingerprint” or “signature.”

By applying this procedure to the Inca pottery, Minc determined that
both imperial and provincial people contributed to the burial gifts.
She compared samples from five sites, mostly in Peru and Argentina.

Contrasting the raw materials used to make the different ceramic
vessels allowed Minc to demonstrate that all of these sacrificial
burials were part of the capacocha ritual. The geographical scope of
the ceremony supports archaeologists’ belief that imperial Inca
leaders used the ritual to link the political heartland of Cuzco to
outlying provinces.

Minc spent several years on this project, but OSU’s resident
archaeometrist has plenty of other cultures she wants to study. One
current venture uses analysis of late Bronze Age Armenian pottery to
examine that society’s market system and trade routes.

Reese says Minc’s work will add to the radiation center’s prestige,
attracting more research grants and funding.

Prior to Minc arriving and beginning an archaeometry program, OSU
primarily used neutron activation analysis for geochemical analysis,
Reese explained. He believes Minc’s work opens up new possibilities
for the university’s radiation technology.

Glendale News Press
March 26 2005

N.Y. to host arms cases
Local men Garegin Gasparyan, Tigran Gevorgyan are accused of dealing
military weapons.

By Jackson Bell, News-Press and Leader

Two local men accused of belonging to an organized crime ring that
plotted to smuggle military firearms into the United States will have
their cases moved to New York, federal officials said Friday.

Garegin Gasparyan, 28, of Burbank and Tigran Gevorgyan, 21, of
Glendale, are among 18 alleged members of a crime syndicate accused
of trying to sell $2.5 million worth of weapons — including
rocket-propelled grenade launchers and shoulder-to-fire
surface-to-air missiles — to an FBI informant. The informant posed
as an arms trafficker with ties to Al Qaeda, prosecutors said. The
two were arrested locally March 16.

Gasparyan and Gevorgyan agreed Friday in a Los Angeles federal
courthouse to have their case handled by the New York U.S. Attorney’s
office, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s local
office.

“They waived their hearing, essentially agreeing to appear in New
York,” Mrozek said. “It’s [New York’s] case, we were just assisting
them in the initial proceedings out here.”

Armand Abramian, a 27-year-old Glendale man police were searching for
at the time of the arrests, has contacted authorities through his
lawyer, said Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Los Angeles
office.

“Earlier in this week, his attorney was negotiating his surrender,
but it was unclear if he was in custody earlier today,” Eimiller said
Friday.

Representatives from New York’s FBI office were unavailable late
Friday.

The arrests were a result of a year-long investigation that included
15,000 wire-tapped phone conversations, according to the criminal
complaint unsealed March 16 in a New York federal court. The suspects
were arrested during roundups in Los Angeles, New York City and
Miami.

The ring’s alleged masterminds — Arthur Solomonyan and Christiaan
Dewet Spies, both of New York — were arrested after meeting with the
informant to finalize plans to import the military weapons from
Eastern Europe, prosecutors said.

The suspects sold eight illegal machineguns and other assault weapons
to the informant, prosecutors said.

Gasparyan and Gevorgyan were being held Friday at Metropolitan
Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, Mrozek said. U.S.
Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Johnson set bail at $500,000, but
prosecutors have until Wednesday to appeal the bond setting to a New
York judge, he said.

* JACKSON BELL covers public safety and courts. He may be reached at
(818) 637-3232 or at [email protected].

NEWS Press
24 mars 2005

Amnesty International – TURQUIE – La liberté de la presse menacée par
le nouveau Code pénal

par Amnesty International

Ces jours derniers, les groupes de presse turcs ont exprimé leur
préoccupation au sujet du nouveau Code pénal, qui doit entrer en
vigueur le 1er avril 2005. Des organismes professionnels, tels que le
Conseil de la presse et la Société des journalistes de Turquie, ont
appelé le gouvernement à revoir de toute urgence la nouvelle
législation, dont ils craignent qu’elle ne limite la liberté de la
presse. Le ministre de la Justice, Cemil Cicek, a déclaré que le
gouvernement pourrait revoir cette législation. Amnesty International
partage les préoccupations des organismes de presse et exhorte le
gouvernement à prendre des mesures pour mettre le droit turc en
conformité avec le droit et les normes internationaux relatifs aux
droits humains concernant la liberté d’expression.

Certes, le nouveau Code pénal introduit beaucoup de changements
positifs – tout particulièrement en supprimant les articles
discriminatoires à l’égard des femmes – mais il contient encore de
nombreuses restrictions aux droits fondamentaux. Certaines
dispositions, que les autorités ont déjà utilisées par le passé en
violation des normes internationales relatives à la liberté
d’expression, ont été conservées. Par exemple, l’article 159 de
l’ancien Code pénal, qui qualifiait d’infraction le fait « d’insulter
ou de dénigrer » diverses institutions publiques, et dont Amnesty
International avait demandé l’abrogation à plusieurs reprises,
réapparaît à l’article 301 du nouveau Code pénal, dans un chapitre
intitulé « Crimes contre les symboles de la souveraineté de l’État et
contre l’honneur de ses organes » (articles 299 à 301). Amnesty
International craint que ce chapitre ne soit utilisé pour poursuivre
des personnes pour la seule expression légitime de leurs désaccords
et opinions.

Par ailleurs, certains nouveaux articles semblent introduire de
nouvelles restrictions aux droits fondamentaux. Par exemple,
l’article 305 du nouveau Code pénal qualifie d’infraction les « actes
contraires à l’intérêt fondamental de la nation ». L’explication
écrite qui accompagnait le projet de Code pénal lors de son examen
par le Parlement citait, à titre d’exemple, des actes tels que « la
propagande en faveur du retrait des soldats turcs de Chypre ou d’un
règlement de ce problème au détriment de la Turquie […] ou le fait
de prétendre, contrairement à la vérité historique, que les Arméniens
ont été victimes d’un génocide après la Première Guerre mondiale ».
Amnesty International considère que toute condamnation pénale pour de
tels propos – sauf en cas de volonté ou de probabilité de déclencher
des violences dans un délai imminent – constituerait une violation
flagrante des normes internationales relatives à la liberté
d’expression.

En outre, beaucoup des articles du nouveau Code pénal prévoient des
peines plus élevées lorsque le « crime » a été commis par voie de
presse et laissent entrevoir la possibilité de condamner des
journalistes à des peines de prison. Le président du Conseil de la
presse, Oktay Eksi, a qualifié la nouvelle législation de « revers
fâcheux pour la liberté d’expression et la liberté de la presse ».

Complément d’information

Le nouveau Code pénal a été présenté par le gouvernement comme moins
restrictif et plus démocratique ; il a été adopté précipitamment par
le Parlement en septembre 2004 sous la pression de l’Union
européenne. Cette pression semble avoir eu pour conséquence de
limiter les consultations avec les membres de la société civile, tels
que les représentants de la presse et les groupes de défense des
droits humains, et pourrait avoir contribué à la persistance de
certains problèmes dans la nouvelle législation.

Amnesty International est aussi préoccupée par des aspects du Code
pénal portant sur d’autres domaines que la liberté d’expression. Par
exemple, l’article 122 du nouveau Code pénal, qui interdit la
discrimination pour des raisons « de langue, de race, de couleur, de
genre, d’opinion politique, de croyance philosophique, de religion,
de confession, etc. », a été amendé au dernier moment afin que l’«
orientation sexuelle » n’y figure pas. Amnesty International déplore
donc le fait que la discrimination fondée sur la sexualité ne soit
pas considérée comme une infraction dans la nouvelle législation.

En outre, l’organisation s’inquiète du maintien d’un délai de
prescription pour les affaires de torture. En effet, même si le
nouveau Code pénal allonge ce délai, les procès d’auteurs présumés de
torture sont souvent reportés délibérément jusqu’à ce que les
poursuites soient abandonnées pour cause de prescription, ce qui
contribue à créer un climat d’impunité. Étant donné que cette
situation se produit souvent et que la torture est une norme
impérative du droit international général, Amnesty International
considère qu’il ne devrait pas exister de prescription pour ce crime.

–Boundary_(ID_EnjyZxuY/JV1MUHktsVwyw)–