Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Dec 8 2004

Pearl Harbor lost in shuffle
Most schools skip marking Dec. 7, 1941, attack, instead honoring
Memorial, Veterans Day.

By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press and Leader

GLENDALE — To those of the World War II generation, Dec. 7 will always
be remembered as the date which will live in infamy.

But for many local educators and students, apparently it’s just
another day.

One sixth-grade Columbus Elementary school student quizzed by a
reporter Tuesday incorrectly guessed that Pearl Harbor was a plane.
His friend hit a little closer to the mark. He thought it had something
to do with a war.

But even as the rest of the country commemorated the 63rd anniversary
of the attack on Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 — the event
that marked the United States’ official entry into World War II —
local schools went about business as usual.

“We talked about it in each of the classrooms, but not as a unified
school,” said Kirk Dunn, Glendale Adventist Academy’s principal. Most
teachers at each school had the choice whether to address the event,
but it was not known how many teachers mentioned it.

No events to commemorate the event were planned at Flintridge
Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge, spokeswoman Karen Kahler
said. History teachers might have addressed the topic in Tuesday’s
lessons, but Kahler could not confirm that.

Glendale Unified School District teachers were also given the
opportunity to talk about Pearl Harbor with students Tuesday, but
it wasn’t known how many did. Sixth-grade Columbus Elementary School
student Kostik Galstyan said he believed the schools should specially
mark such an event.

“I know how my life is because of the [Armenian] Genocide,” Kostik,
11, said.

Hoover High School student Ben Silva, 14, said he thought
administrators should have at least made a mention of the anniversary
in his school’s daily morning announcements.

“They should have — it’s an important day,” Ben said.

At Hoover High, school officials commemorate D-Day — the day that
Allied soldiers landed in Normandy in a drive to defeat Nazi soldiers
— Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Co-Principal Kevin Welsh said.

“I think, when we memorialize and remember [Sept. 11], there’s always
a little bit of recollection that America was caught off guard. It
was the most serious intelligence setback since Pearl Harbor,” he
said. And it seems that only in context of the 9/11 terrorist attacks
that students seem to recall the date that Franklin D. Roosevelt
declared would “live in infamy.”

At Glendale Community College, students and professors were also more
concerned with upcoming final exams than remembering Pearl Harbor,
but the attitude is also due to an emotionally charged past year,
said Roger Bowerman, history professor and division chairman of
social science.

“Particularly since the invasion of Iraq, we’re at greater unease at
remembering something like that. The campus has its flag at half-staff,
but I don’t believe people see it or know why,” Bowerman said.

Part of the problem in remembering these history-changing dates
and events is partly because they are merely just dates to this
generation. If students were more aware of the ‘why’ behind some of
these dates, they would probably remember them better, he said.

“If it were not brought up by the press or films or TV, people
would kind of forget, because people are [uninterested in history]
in the United States. Many of them don’t remember when the [American]
Civil War was or even what caused it. History in public schools is
very names and dates driven,” he said.

–Boundary_(ID_o7bs5l5D5vfELg8z5q+x8A)–

Blair challenged to tally Iraq war dead

Gulf Daily News, Bahrain
Dec 8 2004

LONDON: British diplomats and peers joined scientists and churchmen
to urge Prime Minister Tony Blair to publish a civilian death toll
in the Iraq war even as gunmen bombed two churches in the Iraqi city
of Mosul yesterday and insurgents killed an American in Baghdad,
taking the US combat toll to 1,000.

In an open letter to the premier, the 44 signatories said Blair had
rejected other death counts from the war – figures span 14,000 to
100,000 – without releasing one of his own.

The group urged Blair to commission an urgent probe into the number
of dead and injured civilians and keep counting so long as British
soldiers remain in Iraq.

“Your government is obliged under international humanitarian law to
protect the civilian population during military operations in Iraq,
and you have consistently promised to do so,” they wrote in the letter.

The inquiry, they added, should be independent of government, conducted
according to accepted scientific methods and subjected to peer review.

Signatories included Air Marshal Sir Timothy Garden, who spent 32 years
in the military; Sir Stephen Egerton, a former British ambassador to
Iraq; human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger and the Lord Bishop of
Coventry, Colin Bennetts.

Meanwhile, another American was killed in Baghdad, taking the US
combat toll to 1,000.

The soldier killed was on patrol in Baghdad when guerillas opened
fire with rifles.

At least four Iraqi National Guard troopers were also killed in two
incidents, one in the capital and another further south.

No one was killed in the bombings in Mosul; smoke billowed from
one of the northern city’s Armenian churches and one of its oldest
Chaldean churches was ablaze and a wall shattered. The attackers were
not identified.

“Gunmen came in, took the guard’s weapon and a couple of mobile
phones. Then they made everybody leave the church. After that there
was an explosion that did a lot of damage,” a worshipper said.

Teenagers Act Out Tragedy to Reduce Tensions
By Anna Smolchenko, Special to The Moscow Times

Moscow Times
Dec 8 2004

Mike Solovyanov / MT

Actors performing the scene where a Russian boy, Yasha, is killed
trying to stop fighting between his Ingush and Ossetian friends.

A diverse group of teenagers with no acting experience has taken to
the Moscow stage with a play aimed at overcoming ethnic tensions
between Ingush and Ossetians.

They came from Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Moscow and St. Petersburg
— and had only met one week before the show.

The play, “The Time Is Right,” staged at the Central House of Artists
on Stary Arbat on Nov. 26 was no commercial production, but a drama
therapy project organized by the nonprofit Podval theater studio.

The 15- to 19-year-olds first met in a recreation center near Moscow,
where they got to know each other and took a crash course in acting.

“I don’t know how much it has to do with theater, but I do know it
has to do with love and faith,” said Yulia Shevelyova, the director
of Podval, introducing the teenagers’ performance.

The group uses art therapy techniques, role-play and training to
reach out to children and teenagers.

Podval takes its name from its home in the basement of an old
building on Ostozhenka. Shevelyova, a singer by training, and Vitaly
Vorobyov, a former engineer, founded the group in 1986. For the last
11 years Podval has been using drama to break down barriers between
Lithuanians, Poles and Russians living in Lithuania; Azeris and
Armenians; Jews and Russians; Catholics and Protestants in Northern
Ireland; and most recently, Chechens, Ingush and Ossetians.

The Beslan school attack in September that left more than 330 people
dead, including many children, reopened old wounds between the
Ossetian and Ingush peoples, who share bitter memories of interethnic
clashes in 1992. According to Podval, in that conflict 350 Ingush and
192 Ossetians were killed and more than 30,000 Ingush and 5,000
Ossetians were displaced from their homes.

The play, staged three months after the Beslan tragedy, brought
together Ingush and Ossetian teenagers to speak out against hate and
violence. Wearing blue, white and red T-shirts, the colors of
Russia’s national flag, they sang and danced variations of the
Caucasus lezghinka, at times intertwined with rap, and Russian round
dances.

The play’s storyline begins in August this year, just before the
Beslan school attack. On a trip to Moscow an Ingush boy, Amir, meets
Astemir and Ezira, a brother and sister from North Ossetia, through
his Russian friend Yasha. Amir falls in love with Ezira and is eager
to win her heart.

The tension between Amir and the girl’s brother is palpable, and when
the Beslan tragedy unfolds, it crushes the last hopes of the Ingush
Romeo. Fueled by mutual suspicion and grief, the Ingush and Ossetian
characters resort to threats and violence. They only stop when their
Russian friend, Yasha, is killed after trying to stop the fighting.

“Yulia Semyonovna [Shevelyova] prepared the play’s basic storyline,
but the words and dances were ours,” said 16-year-old Amir Matiyev,
from Nazran, Ingushetia, who played Amir.

Onstage the teenage actors, in lines they wrote themselves for the
play, slammed police corruption and posed several searching
questions.

“Why do we have to feel like foreigners in our own country’s
capital?” asked one actor, who played an Ingush in the play.

“As long as you pay, you can smuggle whatever you like, including a
nuclear warhead,” said another character.

“Why did television lie about the number of hostages?” asked a third.

“What else can a man do who has lost everyone overnight?” asked
15-year-old Ezira Dzioyeva from Beslan, playing the part of Ezira,
referring to the North Ossetians who have said they are ready to take
up arms to avenge their relatives.

Matiyev said that two of his friends had died in Beslan, but he had
never felt any hatred toward Ossetians, Russians or any other ethnic
group.

After finishing the performance, Dzioyeva started to cry. “I played
myself,” she said in the wings. “It wasn’t hard.” She said that she
and the other actors had tried to express what they felt and that the
play “reflects all our realities.”

Like some of the other teenagers in the play, she said it was her
first time in Moscow. “Tomorrow we are leaving,” she said with tears
in her eyes.

Vladimir Pozner, Channel One television anchor and president of the
Russian Television Academy, told the audience before the performance
that the play hoped to show a way to heal ethnic divides. “There is
nothing sillier, more stupid and shameful than rejecting or disliking
another person because he speaks a different language or has a
different skin color,” he said.

Pozner, who is a Podval trustee, hosted two television programs in
the early 1990s that brought together teenagers from different parts
of the Soviet Union affected by ethnic conflict, including witnesses
of a tank incursion into Lithuania and pogroms in Baku, Azerbaijan,
and Osh, Kyrgyzstan. “It’s through the kids that we can find
solutions that adults fail to find,” Pozner said.

The play was sponsored by Charities Aid Foundation, a British-based
charity that has been working in Russia since 1993, as part of its
response to the Beslan tragedy.

Through its LifeLine program, CAF has raised some $2.5 million for
medical treatment for victims of the Beslan tragedy, including
plastic surgery and the purchase of artificial limbs. It is also
offering longer-term help, such as psychological counseling.

More than $53,000 was raised for the Beslan LifeLine drive by
Independent Media, the parent company of The Moscow Times.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

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

“Christian-Moslem Co-Existence Constitutes

a Vital Dimension Of The History Of The Middle East”

Declared His Holiness Aram I

ANTELIAS, LEBANON – “One cannot understand fully and accurately the history
of the Middle East, with its upheavals and tensions, challenges and
achievements, without the Christian-Moslem co-existence which remains a
vital dimension of the history of this region. In fact, Christianity and
Islam have made a significant contribution to the history of the Middle
East, particularly in the areas of culture, science, civilization and
politics. The centuries old Christian Moslem co-existence has developed
mutual understanding and trust among the peoples of the region. That is why
I often remind our Western friends that Christian-Moslem dialogue in the
Middle East is not an intellectual notion, but an existential reality and an
integral part of the daily life of the people. And, in view of the growing
concern for Christian-Moslem dialogue, I often remind our friends in the
West that Christian-Moslem dialogue in our part of the world is deeply
rooted in our common history. For centuries not only Christians and Moslems
have talked to each other, but they have lived together, worked together,
dreamed and struggled together and have sustained their life by common moral
and human values”, said His Holiness Aram I.

Referring to the latest bombings of the Armenian and Chaldean Churches in
Iraq, His Holiness Aram I said: “I cannot understand and accept these
bombings of churches in Iraq. How such a thing happens between followers of
two religions who have lived together for centuries as one community and as
good neighbors. I cannot understand such an attitude towards Christians who
have been inseparable part of the Middle Eastern society and have played a
major role in all aspects of the society life. I consider these bombings
serious attempts aimed at endangering the Christian-Moslem co-existence,
undermining the importance of common values and aspirations which have
sustained the life of the Middle Eastern societies, and questioning the
importance of human rights and religious liberties. Such attempts also
underestimate the unity of the Arab world and the credibility of the Arab
cause. Therefore, I urge and appeal to the leaderships of Christian and
Moslem communities in Iraq to come together and to re-affirm the
Christian-Moslem co-existence as well as their national unity” concluded his
remarks His Holiness Aram I.

##

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.

Explosions strike 2 churches in Mosul

International Herald Tribune, France
Dec 8 2004

MOSUL, Iraq — Gunmen bombed two churches in the tense city of Mosul
on Tuesday, stoking fears of ethnic and sectarian unrest ahead of an
election next month.

The insurgent war of attrition against U.S. forces and their Iraqi
supporters claimed another American life in Baghdad, taking the U.S.
combat death toll to 1,000 since last year’s invasion.

At least four Iraqi National Guard soldiers were also killed in two
incidents, one in the capital and another farther south.

No one was killed nor, it appeared, wounded, in the bombings in
Mosul. Smoke billowed from one of the northern city’s Armenian
churches and one of its oldest Chaldean churches was ablaze and a
wall shattered. The attackers were not identified.

In a city of 1.2 million where the two main Sunni Muslim communities,
Arabs and Kurds, are already on edge following a rout of U.S.-trained
police last month by Sunni Arab insurgents, the strikes were the
latest in a series of attacks on Christians.

The small Christian community of about 650,000, or 3 percent of the
population, has suffered from a surge in militant Islam since the
fall of Saddam Hussein’s secular regime. Some people have fled or
closed down traditional businesses, notably selling liquor, which
flourished in Iraq despite a Muslim religious ban.

At least one Christian leader has been quoted recently as saying he
would form an armed militia to protect the community.

“There were two or three families in the church,” a frightened
worshiper from Mosul’s ancient Tahira Chaldean church said after the
attack on the white stone building, parts of which are said to date
from the seventh century. “Gunmen came in, took the guard’s weapon
and a couple of mobile phones. Then they made everybody leave the
church. After that there was an explosion that did a lot of damage,”
said the man, who asked not to be named.

Christians have been attacked several times in the past four months.
Coordinated car bombings, four in Baghdad and one in Mosul, killed at
least 12 people in August; five Baghdad churches were bombed on Oct.
16 at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least eight
people were killed in two church bombings in the capital on Nov. 8,
and a car bomber attacked police guarding the hospital where the
wounded had been taken.

The unidentified American soldier killed on Tuesday was on patrol in
Baghdad when guerrillas opened fire with rifles. Earlier in the day,
the Pentagon had issued a revised combat casualty toll of 999 and
the death thus took the toll since the invasion on March 20 last year
to 1,000. A further 275 U.S. troops have died in accidents or other
incidents not classified as being killed in action.

The American death toll rose sharply last month during the U.S.
assault on Sunni insurgents in the city of Falluja. At least 71
Americans were killed there.

A total of 9,765 U.S. troops have been wounded.

No official figures are available for the numbers of Iraqi dead.
Estimates have ranged from about 14,000 to tens of thousands of
civilians and about 5,000 troops in the war.

Separately, a two-day military court hearing closed Tuesday into the
case of a U.S. soldier charged with murdering an Iraqi man and making
a false statement regarding the incident.

Specialist Brent May, 22, of Salem, Ohio, is charged with the August
murder of an Iraqi civilian in Baghdad’s impoverished Sadr City,
the scene of fierce clashes between American-led coalition forces
and Shiite rebels allied to the firebrand cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

May also faces one charge of falsifying an official statement, or
deposition, regarding the alleged murder.

Scoop, New Zealand
Dec 8 2004

Powell Remarks to OSCE Ministerial Meeting

Speech: US State Department

Remarks to the Ministerial Meeting of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe
Secretary Colin L. Powell
NDK Conference Site
Sofia, Bulgaria
December 7, 2004

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I join my colleagues in thanking
you, your government and the Bulgarian people for so graciously
hosting us and for serving so successfully as our Chairman-in-Office.
The United States looks forward to close cooperation with next year’s
Chairman-in-Office, our distinguished colleague who we are very
pleased to see here today from Slovenia Dimitrij Rupel. All the best
to you, Dimitrij..

Friends: The Helsinki process has been and remains a key catalyst for
peaceful, democratic change. My personal experience with the Helsinki
process dates from 1990, when as Chairman of the American Joint
Chiefs of Staff I represented the United States at the first Military
Doctrine seminar, which was held in the Hall of the Congress in
Vienna. And it was a fascinating moment for me to sit with all of the
military leaders from throughout Europe–NATO, the Warsaw Pact and
all of the other non-aligned nations of Europe–for the first time. A
new era of hope had just dawned for a Europe whole, free and at
peace.
We can be proud of our accomplishments, but we also know that
Helsinki’s great promise has yet to be realized in many important
areas.

Within our OSCE community, incidents of anti-Semitism, racism, hate
crimes and discrimination against Muslims are on the rise. We must
renew our shared determination to combat racial and ethnic hatred,
xenophobia and discrimination in all participating states.

In parts of our OSCE community, frozen conflicts still remain frozen
fifteen years after the end of the Cold War. In the months since our
last ministerial meeting, there has been little headway made toward
resolution of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh or in breakaway
regions of Moldova and Georgia. A new push from the OSCE and by the
leaders of participating states is needed.

Russia’s commitments to withdraw its military forces from Moldova,
and to agree with Georgia on the duration of the Russian military
presence there, remain unfulfilled. A core principle of the CFE
Treaty is host country agreement to the stationing of forces. The
United States remains committed to moving ahead with ratification of
the Adapted CFE Treaty, but we will only do so after all the Istanbul
commitments on Georgia and Moldova have been met. And we stand ready
to assist with reasonable costs associated with the implementation of
those commitments.

We are closely following events in Ukraine, and heartened by efforts
to ensure an outcome that reflects the will of the Ukrainian people
and respects the rule of law. The international facilitators have
provided valuable assistance. What is important now is for all sides
to cooperate fully in the implementation of the December 3 decision
of the Supreme Court.

All of us in the OSCE community have an interest in a swift, peaceful
outcome through a democratic process. The Government of Ukraine
expects the OSCE to observe the re-running of the second round, and
we urge other participating states to join the United States in
providing the OSCE with the resources, both fiscal and manpower
resources, to carry out this mission.

At the same time, we continue to be concerned by the unfulfilled
promises of democracy and respect for fundamental freedoms in some
OSCE states. We remain concerned about developments in Russia, most
notably those affecting freedom of the press and the rule of law.
Belarus remains an egregious example of a participating state failing
to live up to its OSCE commitments on human rights, democracy and the
rule of law.

Some countries have recently argued that the OSCE’s field work
constitutes interference in internal affairs, that the OSCE has
“double standards,” and that the OSCE has concentrated its efforts in
the former Soviet republics and has done it for political reasons. I
categorically disagree. All OSCE participating states signed up to
the proposition that fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of
law are of legitimate concern to us all.

OSCE’s 17 field missions are among its most important assets. The
missions are working for democracy, human rights and conflict
resolution, and, they’re working from the Balkans to Central Asia. In
Georgia, the OSCE’s Border Monitoring Operation is contributing to
stability on a sensitive border, and its mandate should be extended
for another year. We all need to make sure that the missions have the
support and the resources necessary to do their jobs.

For our part, the United States takes seriously its commitments to
respect human rights, practice democratic government and uphold the
rule of law. We have sought to lead by example with transparency and
openness. At the OSCE’s annual human dimension meeting, we hosted a
side event on the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq. These
abuses were contrary to U.S. law and policy, and the United States
chose to organize this event to show the steps being taken to
investigate and hold accountable those responsible.

The United States bases its faith in the OSCE’s future not just on
past successes, but on the significant contributions this pioneering
organization is making today. In the past twelve months alone, the
record has been impressive. The OSCE and its Parliamentary Assembly
undertook a Herculean effort to mobilize swiftly to observe and
facilitate two seminal national elections in Georgia. And, in
response to a request for help from Afghanistan, the OSCE sent its
first election assistance team outside Europe and Eurasia. OSCE’s was
the leading voice from Kabul that reassured the world that the
outcome of the election truly reflected the choice of the Afghan
people. The OSCE’s landmark work in fighting intolerance has become
the standard by which other organizations’ efforts are measured. And
the OSCE has adopted concrete steps to combat international terrorism
and trafficking in persons.

The United States always welcomes suggestions for ways to further
strengthen the OSCE. We are open to increasing the OSCE’s activities
to promote security and economic development, but not at the expense
of the OSCE’s core democracy and human rights work.

Here in Sofia, the OSCE must continue to advance an active and
ambitious agenda. The United States strongly supports the creation of
special representatives to address anti-Semitism, racism and
discrimination, and anti-Muslim sentiment. We adopted new measures to
fight corruption. And the OSCE would take an important step forward
by responding positively to requests from the Palestinian Authority
and from Iraq for election observers.

Mr. Chairman, Colleagues, I am confident that the OSCE will rise to
the challenges of a changing Europe and a changing world. I am also
confident that this valuable organization will continue to serve as a
major force for human dignity, democracy, prosperity and security and
will do so in the months and years to come and will do so
successfully.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

2004/1314

[End]

Released on December 7, 2004

OSCE Vows to Work Intensively on Conflict Resolution Issues

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Dec 7 2004

Solomon Passy, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and the Bulgarian Foreign
Minister, said in his closing statement at the OSCE Ministerial Council
in Sofia on December 7, that the organization will work intensively
to solve the conflicts in the post-Soviet space.

“In the months and years ahead, we will continue to work
intensively to achieve lasting settlements in Georgia, Moldova and
Nagorno-Karabakh. Courageous decisions will be required from all the
parties concerned and the OSCE must remain fully engaged,” Solomon
Passy said.

In his remarks to the Ministerial Council, U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell said on December 7 that “a new push from the OSCE” is
needed to solve frozen conflicts.

United Press International
Dec 7 2004

Outside View: Kofi Annan — time to go

By Youssef M. Ibrahim
Outside View Commentator

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 7 (UPI) — U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan is the uppermost utopian model of international public
servants, a Nobel Prize laureate, a pride to his native Africa. These
are all the reasons he needs to leave the United Nations now.

Annan has been mortally wounded by allegations that his son, Koju,
and close U.N. associates profited from the United Nations’
oil-for-food program.

The program was put in place in 1996 for the purpose of feeding the
Iraqi people during the harsh regime of economic sanctions imposed on
Iraq.

While the program has probably saved millions of Iraqis from
starvation, it was allegedly badly misused by some U.N. officials in
collusion with hordes of oil merchants as well as senior Iraqis,
including Saddam Hussein himself, to steal at least $10 billion.

Annan almost certainly had nothing to do with either the alleged
misbehavior of his son or the manipulation of the entire oil-for-food
program by Saddam, the oil merchants and their suspected U.N.
accomplices.

The U.N. officials who ran the undertaking reported not to Kofi
Annan, but rather to the Security Council. Why the Security Council
members, particularly the United States, did not do more at the time
is a question indeed.

But the harm was done at the expense of the Iraqi people, and — just
as distressing — it all happened on Kofi Annan’s watch. The suspects
are now under an independent investigation conducted by the former
chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Paul Volcker.

But we already know that Koju Annan is accused of using his father’s
name to extract at least $130,000 from a Swiss company involved in
the oil-for-food deal. Compared with the others, it seems he was not
a smart manipulator, but rather a small player.

One undersecretary-general of the United Nations, Benon Savan, an
Armenian Cypriot who has largely disappeared from public view and is
on leave from the United Nations, is being investigated for allegedly
realizing illicit profits in the tens of millions of dollars, perhaps
as much as $100 million, in return for turning a blind eye to
Saddam’s scheme of using discounted oil sales to hoard his billions
outside the sanctions system.

I met Savan three times in Vienna as a reporter covering OPEC
meetings of oil ministers as well as in New York at his U.N. office.

By virtue of his job, I have no doubt, he had access to these “oil
vouchers,” which are tickets to buy Iraqi oil at discounted prices.

It remains for the investigation to determine if he and others
resisted the temptation to sell those vouchers to oil traders who
then lifted the oil and paid the U.N. guys a cut.

Since 1996, when the oil-for-food came into effect, we suspected that
a lot of cuts, a lot of vouchers and a lot of money was tucked into
the pockets of some officials.

Still we have to wait for due process. Annan does not have to wait.
The buck stops at his office door on the 38th floor of the United
Nations tower building. He must assume responsibility.

Given the ferocity of his and the United Nations’ enemies — centered
in the George W. Bush past and future administration along with
American jingoistic neo-conservatives — Annan should be in no doubt
he will have to go eventually.

When the previous Bill Clinton administration went after Boutros
Boutros-Ghali, Annan’s predecessor, it did not relent until he left.

Compared to the current gang in the White House, the Pentagon,
Congress, the Senate and the various right-wing think tanks, the
Clinton folks were nice guys.

Here are some thoughts for Kofi Annan: One has to fight fire with
fire. If I were he, I would have the following quiet reflection:

“For reasons including Machiavellian twisted ones, it would be far
better for me, Kofi Annan, to leave sooner rather than later. I am
facing a feeding frenzy by these sharks that this White House is only
going to agitate among its media friends, administration and think
tanks.

“If I left now, however, I would pull the carpet. For starters, my
departure would be dignified and principled. Second, the world will
hold it against those barbarians who time and again have tried to
come after the United Nations to paralyze it and run amok with their
unilateral policies of world domination.

“I, Kofi Annan, do not need the United Nations now. It is the United
Nations that now needs my help. I am in a position to save it from
this abuse. I can more effectively fight those guys from outside the
United Nations.

“The gang of George W. Bush will persist in their misadventure in
Iraq, which I, Kofi Annan, denounced a few months ago as an ‘illegal
war.’ This they have not forgiven me for. But the charge stuck, and I
can continue my denunciations as I have all the files and facts.

“The gang will pursue its war against multilateral organizations,
agreements and their quest for unilateral power. The United Nations
is right, front and center in their effort.

“I can be a goalkeeper preventing, deflecting, these attacks. By
staying at the helm I’ll make myself a distraction, give them a
target and be quiet.

“By stepping down now, the world will see these sharks for what they
are. The U.N. membership, if anything, will become ever more hostile
to hegemonic policies. Other world coalitions can emerge, with which
I can help.

“My life’s work speaks for itself. I will be leaving as one of the
most respected, most admired and most appreciated secretary-generals
of the United Nations ever. I have much more to do, as my hero Nelson
Mandela of South Africa has proven after leaving office.”

Bon voyage, Kofi, and God speed.

—

Youssef M. Ibrahim, a former Middle East correspondent for the New
York Times and Energy Editor of the Wall Street Journal, is Managing
Director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group. He can
be contacted at [email protected]

—

This essay first appeared in Gulf News

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EARTHQUAKE OCCURRED IN TERRITORY OF TURKEY ON DECEMBER 7 MORNING

YEREVAN, December 7 (Noyan Tapan). According to the RA National Service
of Seismic Protection, an earthquake of 2.8 magnitude, whose strength
made 4 points in the epicenter, occurred in the territory of Turkey,
20 kilometers south-east of the city of Dogubayazet, on December 7,
local time 11:53.

“THE QUAKE IS STILL FRESH IN OUR MINDS”

Azg/arm
8 Dec 04

The second edifice of Erebuni hotel has become the home of the
people who moved to Yerevan after the quake 16 years ago. Many Gyumri
families are living in the rooms situated next to each other in the
long corridor. But after this edifice was sold the dwellers donâ~@~Yt
know whether they will stay here or not.

Marieta Manukian and her son have been living in Erebuni hotel for
15 years. She moved to Yerevan with her family in 1988. “I was at
my office when the earthquake began, my husband was in the street,
my son was at school and my girl was in Yerevan. The greater part
of my sonâ~@~Ys school was destroyed. His classes were in the part
of the school that didnâ~@~Yt ruin. None of our family members
died on December 7, but we lost our apartment and the hope for a
better future,” Mrs. Marieta says. The members of this family face
the consequences of the devastating earthquake till now. Marieta
Manukian is a second class disabled and receives pension amounting to
5000 AMD. Marieta is a widow, her husband perished in Artsakh war in
1992. Her son is a worker and can pay only for electricity. They live
in a small room and their clothes and the beds are the only property
of this family. “We are registered for receiving an apartment in
Gyumri, but only God knows when we will get it. It is not clear how
long we shall be living in this room, either. We live without hoping
for tomorrow. I only wish to have my own corner, I wish my son had
a job and marries,” Mrs. Marieta says.

Mariam and Aram met and fell in love with each other, got married
in Erebuni hotel. Aram Karapetian was saved out of the school ruins
after the quake. Mariam was playing in the yard at the moment of the
tragedy. “I was 9 in 1988, while my husband was 12. I became a third
class disabled, while my husband is a second class disabled after the
quake. Together we receive about 6000 AMD pension. My husband has no
permanent job,” Mariam says. They have two children, 7-year-old Sveta
and 5-year-old Vrezh. They live in the small room they received after
the marriage. “We are also registered for an apartment in Gyumri. We
have no idea when we will get it. We donâ~@~Yt know for how long we
will be able to live in this hotel, either,” Mariam says.

When we tried to find out from the leadership of the hotel about the
future fate of Gyumri residents living in Yerevan, they said that
the edifice is sold and they canâ~@~Yt provide any information.

“In 1988 I was 15, but till now I see that terrible day in my
nightmares. The entire city was buried in dust and ruins were
everywhere. One could hear people cry and moan in all the corners
of the city. The peopleâ~@~Ys faces bore the reflection of horror
on their faces. Sometimes I think that the quake didnâ~@~Yt stop
for us and it continues to break our lives in another image,” Artur,
the son of Mrs. Marieta says.

By Arevik Badalian

–Boundary_(ID_UUJU3vVdD/4Rag90FKMKdw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress