The Daily Advertiser
Thursday, March 17, 2005

Louisiana colleges open doors for foreign students as numbers rise

Marsha Sills
[email protected]

While the number of international students in the country declined 2.4
percent during the past academic year, the number of non-American students
in Louisiana has increased, according to a Institute of International
Education report.

The study ranked Louisiana 25th in the country the number of foreign
students on the state’s college campuses.

The Institute of International Education’s Open Doors 2004 annual report
documents foreign student mobility in the United States, as well as the
number of American students studying abroad. The IIE is a nonprofit agency
focused on education and cultural exchanges.

What brings a foreign student to study abroad in America varies. Ask
American students why they chose their school, and the answer would likely
change from person to person.

For Beatrice Talon, attending university outside of her native Haiti was the
only option if she wanted to study graphic design. Talon is in her third
year at UL and is the secretary of the International Student Council.

Talon and about 600 other international students are celebrating their
cultures and countries during International Week. She said the purpose of
the event is to open eyes in the community to the wealth of diversity
offered on campus in each student, including internationals.

“We’re hoping more people realize that we are on campus and that we have
activities,” Talon said. “We have a lot to offer with our different
traditions and cultures and all the stories we come with.”

Those stories are slipping away in some parts of the country as fewer
foreign students are attending college in the United States. The Institute
of International Education’s report attributes the decline to rising tuition
costs and students’ difficulty in obtaining visas, especially in scientific
or technical fields of study. Also, the IIE cites heavy recruiting of the
diverse students from other English-speaking countries.

This spring on UL’s campus, there are about 660 foreign students from about
100 countries, including lone students from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Equatorial
Guinea and Moldova.

Many of those students find out about the university through word of mouth
or on the Web, said Rose Honegger, director of the Office of International
Affairs. The department helps international students acclimate to American
university life.

“Word of mouth is how a lot of students know about our campus, but also our
office. We’ve tried to get our Web site linked and translated into many
other languages,” Honegger said. “I know, for example, some of our Japanese
students have found out about our campuses through links in the Japanese
language.”

This spring, foreign students make up 4.2 percent of the student body. Last
fall it was 4.3 percent. In the past five years, the number of
internationals has declined. In fall 2000, about 5.3 percent of the student
body was from another country.

On UL’s campus the dominant source of international students hail from
India, although since 2000, the number of Indian students enrolled has also
slightly decreased.

In fall 2000, 245 Indian students enrolled at UL. This spring, 207 are
enrolled. Honegger said she believes a number of Indian students learn about
the university by word of mouth.

“A lot of them (Indian students) say that they found out about our campus
through other students,” Honegger said. “A majority attend for computer
science and engineering department. They say they have a similar interest as
the professor that they want to work with.”

Nationally, Indian students are the largest pool of internationals who
choose to study in the United States, with a total of 79,376 students.

Last year, the state saw 6,621 foreign students or a 1.3 percent increase of
internationals enrolled in universities compared to the prior year. The
number of American students enrolled in Louisiana schools studying abroad
was only 1,901. UL has a number of exchange programs that encourage students
to study abroad in France, Mexico, England and Italy. The petroleum
engineering department is also part of the US-Brazil Higher Education
Consortia Program, offering an exchange program for students at universities
in Brazil.

Last year, LSU and Tulane had the highest number of internationals. About
1,813 international students were enrolled at LSU, while at Tulane there
were 1,043 internationals enrolled. The leading field of study for foreign
students in Louisiana is engineering with 29.2 percent, followed closely by
business and management with 18.7 percent. The leading country of origin was
India with 22.9 percent, or 1,514 students.

Foreign students who come to study in the U.S. leave their money here. The
report estimates a $12 billion economic impact on the U.S. economy and a
$126 million economic impact in Louisiana by foreign students and their
families on tuition and living expenses.

Originally published March 17, 2005

Mail&Guardian Online
Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:56 PM

SA officials liaise on US arms arrest

Jenni Evans | Johannesburg, South Africa

17 March 2005 11:42

South Africa’s police and Department of Foreign Affairs officials are
liaising on the reported arrest of a South African in New York on
weapons-smuggling charges, police said on Thursday.

National police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said they are waiting
for further information, and the Department of Foreign Affairs is expected
to release a statement on the matter later.

The United States embassy is also still gathering information on the
arrests, said its spokesperson, Judy Moon.

According to reports, Christiaan Dewet Spies was arrested with at least 17
other people in an FBI undercover operation at a hotel in Manhattan, New
York, earlier this week.

The reports said Spies (33) and an Armenian, Artur Solomonyan, as well as a
number of others allegedly conspired to transport weapons of war.

The informant was reportedly a South African living in Texas and was
arrested when he was delivering green cards to enable the team to travel to
fetch the weapons.

The investigation included about 15 000 wire taps.

Spies reportedly entered the US on a tourist visa in 1999 and was appealing
a deportation order that came after his arrest on a drug-possession charge.

Weapons involved
Although it is not clear exactly which weapons were involved, reports
referred to rocket-propelled grenades and surface-to-air missiles, as well
as links with Russia.

A researcher at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) said these weapons
are designed to bring down low-flying aircraft.

“They could be surplus weapons from Eastern Europe and Russia,” said Sarah
Meek, head of the ISS arms-management programme.

Although these regions have signed commitments not to sell weapons
stockpiled in old armouries, they could have been obtained from a corrupt
official “selling through the back door”.

There did not immediately appear to be an African weapons connection apart
from Spies’s origin, she said.

“It looks like a motley crew of Armenian and Eastern Europeans.”

Regional weapons mopping-up programmes, such as Mozambique and South
Africa’s Operation Rachel, and the Angolan disarmament programme following
the resolution of years of civil war, appear to be successful.

There are still arms caches in Angola but there does not seem to be any
large-scale trafficking.

“There are individuals who will try to get around legislation … but
security agencies seem to be pretty much on top of it,” Meek said.

Referring to the recent arrests of South Africans relating to international
arms investigations, Meek said South Africa should not be singled out.

“You will always have someone doing it for money. It is a global network. If
you are there and you have the right contacts, you can get into it, it’s not
just South Africa.”

She added that if it wants to, the South African government can invoke the
National Convention on Arms Control Act, which prohibits illegal arms
brokering. The Act has extra-territorial powers and enables authorities to
arrest South Africans internationally.

Armscor, Denel check records
Arms-procurement agency Armscor said it ran a human-resources check on Spies
in response to media enquiries and found no record of him.

“We pulled all the records and we don’t know such a person,” Armscor
spokesperson Billy Nell said.

Denel spokesperson Sam Basch said Denel is currently going through the human
resource and pension records at all its subsidiaries for mention of the man
who carries the name of a Boer war general.

Spies reportedly remains in US custody.

Recently, two Randburg engineering-company directors were arrested on
charges of possessing components for weapons of mass destruction, allegedly
linked to Libya’s now-abandoned nuclear-weapons programme.

In another unrelated matter, a group of South Africans is waiting to be
released from a Zimbabwe jail after being sentenced to 12 months for
breaching Zimbabwe’s aviation, immigration, firearm and security laws.

This related to an alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea and also saw
Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, pay a
R3-million fine in South Africa for his part in arranging the aircraft for
the mission. — Sapa

The Moscow Times
Thursday, March 17, 2005. Issue 3126. Page 3.

18 Suspected Arms Smugglers Were ‘Amateurs’

By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer

U.S. Attorney’s Office / AP

Photographs released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Tuesday showing
Russian military weapons that it said were to be smuggled into the United
States.

The 18 suspects in a plot to smuggle portable anti-aircraft missiles and
grenade launchers into the United States were most likely amateur
opportunists caught in a sting operation, experts on Russian organized crime
and arms proliferation said Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney David Kelly and FBI Special Agent Andy Arena told a news
conference in New York on Tuesday that authorities had arrested and charged
18 individuals with smuggling weapons into the country from the former
Soviet Union.

Five suspects were charged with conspiring to smuggle RPG anti-tank grenade
launchers and anti-aircraft Strela missiles, while the rest were charged
with smuggling machine guns and other weapons. Strela missiles and modified
versions of the grenade launchers could be used to shoot down commercial
airliners — a threat that last month prompted the United States and Russia
to sign an accord curbing the proliferation of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft
missiles.

Most of those arrested were from former Soviet countries, U.S. media
reported, while investigators identified Armenian Artur Solomonyan, 25, and
South African Christiaan Dewet Spies, 33, as the ringleaders.

Investigators said the two planned to travel to the former Soviet Union and
deliver missiles to an FBI informer, who had posed as an arms buyer on
behalf of al-Qaida, the Los Angeles Times reported.

U.S. media reported variously that the weapons were to have been obtained
from federal military arsenals in Chechnya, or from Armenia, Georgia and
Ukraine.

In a yearlong sting operation, the FBI informer bought only Kalashnikov, Uzi
and other assault rifles from the suspects, but discussed purchasing a
further $2.5 million-worth of missiles and other weapons. He also promised
to provide the smugglers with green cards to re-enter the United States.

Investigators said the informer had taped conversations with the suspects in
which Solomonyan offered to sell him enriched uranium, suggesting it could
be used to build a dirty bomb for detonation on the New York subway, Russian
media reported. But Kelly said none of the defendants appeared to have links
to terrorist groups.

The FBI informer had previously worked with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, helping to bust gunrunners in Miami, the New York Post
reported.

“On the whole, this looks pretty small-scale and opportunistic,” said Mark
Galeotti, director of the Organized Russian & Eurasian Crime Research Unit
at Britain’s Keele University, by telephone Wednesday.

“Serious criminals” do not make unsolicited offers to sell uranium, Galeotti
said, adding that in any case, “the United States has a very healthy
underground firearms economy of its own.”

He said that professional terrorists would be looking to acquire the latest
Igla and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, rather than Soviet-designed
Strelas, as leading airlines would soon be ready to deploy passive defense
systems on their airplanes.

Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow office of the Washington-based Center
for Defense Information, said the case looked similar to that of British
businessman Hemant Lakhani, who was suspected of offering to sell a
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile to a U.S. buyer last year. Lakhani has
denied any wrongdoing and maintained he was trapped in a sting operation.

E.SHEVARDNADZE: IT WAS BECAUSE OF RUSSIA’S SUPPORT TO ARMENIA THAT
AZERBAIJAN HAS LOST PART OF ITS TERRITORIES

YEREVAN, MARCH 16. ATMINFO. It was because of Russia’s support to
Armenia that Azerbaijan has lost part of its territories, ex-president
of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze says in his interview to a Georgian
Bureau “APA.” “Then Heydar Aliyev acted wisely and stopped the war,
and began developing economy and military sphere,” Shevardnadze said.

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

MARCH 11-17, 2005

HIGHLIGHTS:

SIXTEENTH “PRESS CLUB” SHOW

THERE WILL BE NO TRIAL: “HAYRENIK TV” PAID THE FINE

CPJ REPORT ON ATTACKS ON THE PRESS IN 2004: MORE OF DEATHS, LESS OF FREEDOM

SIXTEENTH “PRESS CLUB” SHOW

On March 14 on the evening air of the Second Armenian TV Channel the
sixteenth “Press Club show was issued. The cycle is organized by Yerevan
Press Club under a homonymous project, supported by the OSI Network Media
Program.

The heads of leading media, non-governmental, also journalistic
organizations of Armenia discussed in the context of the elections to the
local government bodies to be held in Armenia the parliamentary elections in
Moldova as well as the future of interstate unions GUUAM and CIS. The “Press
Club” participants expect the media to focus this week on the draft
amendments to the Constitution and Electoral Code, the visit of RA Minister
of Foreign Affairs Vardan Oskanian to headquarters of some international
organizations as well as the offer the US authorities made to Iran to give
up the development of nuclear weapons.

THERE WILL BE NO TRIAL: “HAYRENIK TV” PAID THE FINE

The hearings on the suit of the National Commission on Television and Radio
versus “Hayrenik TV” company, scheduled for March 15 at the RA Commercial
Court, were not held. NCTR demanded TV company to pay a fine. As YPC was
told at NCTR, “Hayrenik TV” paid the fine on March 3, after which the suit
was revoked. On February 15 the National Commission had filed a suit because
of the expiry of the deadline, legally stipulated for paying fine (see YPC
Weekly Newsletter, February 11-17, 2005). The sanction was imposed on
“Hayrenik TV” by the National Commission on January 18 for rebroadcasting
the programs of the French “Mezzo” TV channel and the demonstration of
unlicensed films.

CPJ REPORT ON ATTACKS ON THE PRESS IN 2004: MORE OF DEATHS, LESS OF FREEDOM

On March 14 the Committee to Protect Journalists released its annual
worldwide report “Attacks on the Press in 2004”.

The last year, CPJ stresses, is characterized by several alarming trends. In
particular, in 2004 the greatest number of journalists killed was recorded –
56, of which 36 were murdered. Only in 9 cases were the criminals punished.
Iraq was the most dangerous place for the representatives of the “fourth
estate”, with 23 journalists killed in the line of duty. Of the 122
imprisoned journalists in 2004 74 were charged with “antistate activities”:
everywhere, from China to Cuba, they were accused of sedition, subversion,
divulging state secrets and working against the interests of the state.
Attention was also drawn to a case from the USA, where for the first time in
three years a media representative was punished for the refusal to identify
the source. The reporter of WJAR-TV (Providence, RI) Jim Taricani was
sentenced to six months of home confinement.

As a positive precedent for the decriminalization of libel and insult and
therefore, for the strengthening of guarantees of the freedom of expression,
the decision of Inter-American Court of Human Rights to overturn the
criminal defamation conviction of a Costa Rican reporter was mentioned.

As to the post-Soviet countries, in the opinion of CPJ, press conditions are
deteriorating badly throughout Russia and most of the other former Soviet
Republics, except Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, where strong press freedom
traditions have been established. “Developments in Ukraine offer hope, but
elsewhere the press operates with less freedom than it did in the closing
years of Soviet communism”, the report stresses.

In the section of the report on Armenia it is noted that the government
failed to protect journalists during the demonstrations in April, and “in
some cases, authorities were directly involved in attacks on the press”.
Among the specific examples of attacks on press the report lists the events
of April 5 and April 13, 2004. “The impunity surrounding these attacks made
journalists more vulnerable”, CPJ thinks, illustrating this point by another
case of violence against the photojournalist on August 24, 2004 in
Tsaghkadzor.

Speaking of the broadcast media, the CPJ experts noted that “television
coverage of the spring opposition rallies and other politically sensitive
issues favored” RA President Robert Kocharian, “who ensured that TV stations
remained in the hands of government supporters or those who would not
criticize his policies”. The report also tells about the situation and
developments with regard to deprivation of “A1+” of air – “an independent
and influential TV station that has sharply criticized government policies”.

“Unlike television, the print media enjoy greater autonomy from government
control, but most publications are controlled by political parties and
wealthy businessmen, compromising their editorial independence and
professional standards”, the report says.

CPJ also pays attention to the continuing negligence of Armenian authorities
towards the appeals of journalistic associations, Council of Europe and OSCE
on decriminalization of libel and insult.

When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.

You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
[email protected]

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this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]

Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
375007, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 1) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 1) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer News
17/03/2005 12:49

British ambassador warns of threat to vital pipelines

Certain domestic forces opposed to democratic development in Azerbaijan may
jeopardize the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE)
pipelines any time, the British Ambassador to Azerbaijan Laurie Bristow told
ANS TV channel.

As for the security of the BTC pipeline, Bristow said that co-operation
between Azerbaijan and NATO in this area is possible. At the same time, the
ambassador, mentioning the successful involvement of the Azerbaijani army in
international anti-terror operations, said that Azerbaijan may ensure the
pipeline’s security using its own forces.
Last week Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov said that Azerbaijan’s vital
pipelines have come under a terror threat from Armenia.

The Dolphin
03/17/2005

Cadet Model UN team off to Edinburgh for world-class debate

Coast Guard News

COAST GUARD ACADEMY – Six cadets were selected to debate in Harvard
University’s World Model United Nations competition scheduled at Edinburgh,
Scotland, on March 28.
First Class Cadets Lauren Beck, Anton Destefano, Ben Stevenson and Stephen
Elliot, Second Class Cadets Travis Noyes and Sarah Smith are excited at this
opportunity to test their mettle in an international arena against the
world’s brightest academic minds.
“They will be busy in the next few weeks preparing the foreign policy
positions of Armenia and getting their academic affairs in order in
anticipation of this trip,” said Lt. Scott Borgerson, Academy Model UN
advisor. “Like last year, the selection process for the World Model UN was
very difficult, and demonstrated performance at previous conferences, club
participation, academic standing, military bearing and seniority were all
considered.”
Model United Nations is a simulation of the United Nations organization and
system, with each participating university or service academy representing a
different set of countries. Students act as their countries’ ambassadors and
political leadership, working to debate international politics and write and
pass resolutions. Success at Model UN depends not only on critical thinking
skills and knowledge of world politics, but also an ability to negotiate,
speak before large audiences, forge coalitions and understand the nuances of
international diplomacy.

©The Dolphin 2005

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Attacks on the Press in 2004

ARMENIA

The Armenian government failed to protect journalists during violent
demonstrations in April against President Robert Kocharian. In some
cases, authorities were directly involved in attacks on the press.

On April 5, police stood by during an opposition rally while two dozen
men attacked several journalists and cameramen. A Yerevan court
convicted two men of the attack, fining them 100,000 drams (US$182) each
for “deliberately damaging property,” the journalists’ cameras. Some
victims and the opposition media claimed that the trial was merely a
government attempt to create the appearance of accountability, the U.S.
government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

During another opposition rally the next week, police destroyed the
cameras of journalists from the Russian TV station Channel One and the
daily Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Time). At least four journalists were
injured when police officers used batons, stun grenades, and water jets
to disperse several thousand demonstrators.

The impunity surrounding these attacks made journalists more vulnerable.
In August, Mkhitar Khachatryan, a photojournalist with Fotolur news
agency who was reporting on environmentally damaging housing
construction in central Armenia, was beaten by an unidentified man who
threatened him with death and forced him to hand over his photos.
Khachatryan had been taking photos near the mansion of a former police
chief.

Although a private citizen was sentenced in October to six months in
prison for the assault, a security guard for the police chief who
reportedly ordered the attack was neither detained nor charged, the
Yerevan-based Association of Investigative Journalists in Armenia reported.

Television coverage of the spring opposition rallies and other
politically sensitive issues favored Kocharian, who ensured that TV
stations remained in the hands of government supporters or those who
would not criticize his policies. For the second year in a row,
politicized media regulators kept A1+, an independent and influential TV
station that has sharply criticized government policies, off the air.
The National Council on Television and Radio-a government body that
regulates broadcasting frequencies and is stacked with Kocharian
supporters-shuttered A1+ in April 2002 and has since rejected eight
applications from the station for a broadcasting license.

Broadcasting authorities also kept local television channels that were
moderately independent-such as Yerevan station Noyan Tapan, which was
also shuttered in April 2002-off the air. No new frequency tenders are
planned until 2009.

Unlike television, the print media enjoy greater autonomy from
government control, but most publications are controlled by political
parties and wealthy businessmen, compromising their editorial
independence and professional standards. According to the U.S.-based
media training organization IREX ProMedia, low salaries encourage
widespread corruption among reporters.

Journalists also faced declining legal protection, with the government
continuing to ignore calls from press freedom organizations, the Council
of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
to repeal criminal defamation and insult laws added to the Criminal Code
in April 2003. The statutes threaten journalists with up to three years
in prison and have increased self-censorship, according to IREX.

—

Foster’s Online
Thursday, March 17, 2005

Exhibit commemorates Armenian Genocide and Jewish Holocaust with works of
two survivor artists

Samuel Bak’s `Yiakor Theme.’

KITTERY, Maine – Haley Farm Gallery will open `Survival Through Creativity’
exhibit featuring works by Berj Kailian and Samuel Bak – two survivor
artists of the Armenian Genocide and Jewish Holocaust respectively. The
exhibit commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the
60th anniversary of the Jewish Holocaust.

Opening receptions are Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20, 2005, 3-5
p.m. at Haley Farm Gallery, 178 Haley Rd., Kittery, Maine

`Survival Through Creativity’ reflects the artists’ creative outlook toward
life having endured, witnessed and survived the atrocities of the 1915
Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks and the WWII Jewish
Holocaust by Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Works of Samuel Bak are available in
cooperation with the artist and Pucker Gallery.

Berj Kailian, myth and symbol series.

Berj Kailian was born in Armenia in 1914. Her extended family was one of the
last to be driven out. Her father, imprisoned and tortured was later asked
to dig his own grave and was buried alive by the Turkish authorities. Only
nine months old, Kailian was wrapped and tied to her mother’s back and along
with her three siblings began the forced marches through Armenia. Through
the arduous trip her siblings were lost and are presumed dead. Kailian was
wrapped in old newspapers to be kept warm; she was given away three times
but returned to her mother to remain a survivor as they reached Yerevan,
present-day Armenia’s capital. Kailian’s mother worked for the Armenian Red
Cross and they lived with other wretched refugees in devastating conditions
until 1919 when they were sent funds by an uncle in the to travel to America
via Russia and Japan. Berj Kailian now lives in Weymouth, Massachusetts and
is perhaps the only Armenian-American woman artist survivor of the Armenian
Genocide.

`I carry the memories with me every single day of my life. But you have to
survive and you just have to accept that dark companion that is with you
everywhere you go. Art was a natural selection because I could express a
great deal of thought and emotion through it in my own way. I’m still doing
it; maybe it’s an escape,’ says Berj Kailian. `I use earth
pigments…everything comes from the earth. I tear, I dig, I use sand and
earth, or gravel. I think that’s the hurt…but I can’t go beyond that. I’ve
been fortunate. I’m a survivor. A slice of bread given to me by my mother
was to be shared….and is to this day representative of nature and love for
humans.’

Samuel Bak was born in 1933 in Vilna, Poland and was recognized from an
early age as possessing extraordinary artistic talent.

As Vilna came under German occupation in 1940, Bak and his family were
forced into the Vilna ghetto, and later to a labor camp, from which he was
smuggled and given refuge in a monastery.

At the end of the war, his mother and he were the only surviving members of
his extensive family. Bak, has spent his life dealing with the artistic
expression of the destruction and dehumanization which make up his childhood
memories.

He speaks about what are deemed to be the unspeakable atrocities of the
Holocaust. He has created a visual language to remind the world of its most
desperate moments.

`I feel the necessity to remember and take it upon myself to bear witness to
the things that happened in those times, so that human beings today and
those of tomorrow, if it were only possible, are spared a similar destiny on
earth. So I have chosen the way of creating images of a seeming reality,
imbuing them with a multitude of layers, from clear and unknown symbols to
the most private and intimate feelings of a world that has its own apparent
logic. I hope that the complexity of these paintings might go beyond my
private story and beyond the vicissitudes that mark the Jewish people and
their fate.’ says Samuel Bak.

Haley Farm Gallery – Mainely Global Art Gallery, Gift Shop and Meeting Place
– opened in January of 2005 and offers works by local, national and
international artists, unique artistic gift items, and a meeting place. The
gallery owners are Jackie Abramian and Harout DerSimonian.

Haley Farm Gallery is located at 178 Haley Road in Kittery, Maine. Gallery
Hours for March and April, 2005 are: Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.,
Thursday & Friday, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m., with Saturday and Sundays by chance. For
further information or to schedule a group visit, contact the gallery at
(207) 439-2669, or email to [email protected], or visit

The Messenger

Thursday, March 17, 2005, #048 (0822)

Caucasus plagued by too many – and too loose – arms

The withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgian territory, the
requirements of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, the attempts
to resolve frozen conflicts in the region, and Georgia’s attempt to build a
modern army all mean that the issues of armaments and their control in the
Caucasus are of great importance.

Armament norms are strictly defined in Caucasus. According to CFE, the three
countries of the Southern Caucasus – Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia – have
equal quotas. Each is permitted 220 tanks, 220 armored cars, 285 artillery
systems above 75 millimeters, 100 fighter aircraft and 50 military
helicopters. The number of military personnel was originally limited to
40,000, but Armenia and Azerbaijan were later able to increase this number.

Despite the official statements with their precise quotas, ever since they
were agreed it has been difficult to hold countries to the agreement.
Russia, in particular, is well in excess of its limitations for the region
and argues that the war in Chechnya and instability in the Southern Caucasus
makes this necessary. It continues to maintain military bases in Georgia and
Armenia and possesses quantities of armaments that exceed the quotas
permitted Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Furthermore, the separatist regimes of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, all of which possess their own arms that are
beyond the control and scrutiny of international organizations, make the
limitations entirely ineffectual.

According to data, for example, the unrecognized republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh has more armaments than Armenia. Equally, according to the
agreement, Karabakh army personnel must be included in the quota defined for
Azerbaijan, but clearly it would be ludicrous to do so. Azerbaijan has
recently threatened that if the ongoing conflict with Karabakh is not soon
resolved peacefully, it may have to resort to force, but its is clear from
the data that Karabakh is more than capable of defending itself, even
without Armenian help.

Georgia is also too weak militarily to seek to resolve its internal
conflicts through force, and this has caused several Georgian analysts to
call for a strong rearmament program. Given the huge increases in defense
spending since the Rose Revolution, it appears that the government is
hearing their calls for military build-up to back up the country’s peaceful
overtures to the Sukhumi and Tskhinvali regimes.

In the meantime, however, both regimes continue to receive arms from Russia.
It is difficult to imagine that the Georgian military would be strong enough
at any point in the near future to overcome resistance in the breakaway
republics, and perhaps this is a good thing – a guarantee of peaceful
dialogue.

The high number of arms in these regions should be of concern to everybody,
however, as there is no control over the weapons, which can easily pass into
the hands of terrorists. There are a high number of tanks and heavy
artillery, and many ordinary citizens possess automatic weapons. The arrest
of Armenian and Georgian nationals charged with attempts to smuggle arms is
one sign of amount of uncontrolled weapons in the area.

Back in Georgia, the increased defense spending is aimed not only at
providing extra weight to Georgian efforts to resolve the frozen conflicts,
but also to enable the country to integrate into NATO as soon as possible.
This remains a top priority for the government, and it is receiving support
from a number of western countries and institutions, led by the United
States. Membership of NATO is likely to be held up, however, by the
continuing existence of Russian bases on Georgian soil, and unresolved
frozen conflicts.