ITU unable to prevent illegal activity of Garabagh Telecom

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 26 2004

Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), visited Baku on Thursday to attend a conference on global
information communication technologies.

Utsumi told a news conference that he has come to Baku for the first
time and that the priority activities of the ITU, which has been
operating for over 140 years include standardization of technologies,
distribution of frequencies and regulation of related issues.

Asked about the existing problems related to the illegal activity of
the Garabagh Telecom Company in Upper Garabagh, Utsumi said that the
Union has no special mechanism to address the problem and that any
decisions are made after they are agreed upon by the ITU member states.

“ITU coordinates relationship among member countries but does not
adopt any political decisions,” Utsumi added.*

Du Toit gets 34 years’ jail for Guinea coup plot
By Raymond Whitaker in Cape Town

The Independent – United Kingdom
Nov 27, 2004

A COURT in Equatorial Guinea found Nick du Toit, a South African
former special forces soldier, guilty of a plot to overthrow the
President of the oil-rich country and sentenced him to 34 years
in prison yesterday. Sir Mark Thatcher and several other prominent
Britons have been implicated in the failed coup attempt.

Prosecutors in Equatorial Guinea had sought the death penalty for du
Toit, who confessed to leading an advance guard for the abortive coup
before retracting his statement, saying he had been tortured. Four
other South Africans and six Armenian aircrew were jailed for long
terms.

The collapse in March of the plan to oust Equatorial Guinea’s
President, Teodoro Obiang, and replace him with an opposition
politician in return for lucrative oil contracts has led to criminal
trials in three countries.

Simon Mann, an Old Etonian former SAS officer has been jailed for
seven years in Zimbabwe for illegal arms buying, along with more
than 60 South Africans who were intercepted at Harare airport while
allegedly on their way to Equatorial Guinea.

South Africa’s elite Scorpions detective unit arrested Sir Mark in
August and charged him with helping to finance the plot, but this week
the case was postponed until April to give investigators more time.

Lawyers acting for President Obiang were due to question Sir Mark
yesterday on his alleged part in the affair, but a Cape Town magistrate
agreed to defer the issue while he seeks leave to appeal.

PALESTINE WITHOUT ARAFAT. IMMINENT STORM IN DESERT?

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
26 Nov 04

Recently the burning issue in the world has been the state of health
of Arafat who deceased on November 11. And it is natural because
for decades this man was the unchanging and well-known leader of
the Palestinian people and his death will have a great influence not
only on Palestine but also the entire Near East. The reason of this
close connection between Palestine and its leader is that Arafat was
not merely the head of autonomy but the charismatic leader of its
people. The death of such a leader usually creates a kind of vacuum
which is refilled either very slowly or never. It is especially
difficult for the countries and people who are either at war or in a
crucial stage of development. Palestine was passing through such a
stage. And because of the fact that the Palestinian problem is related
to the Arab-Israel rather than the Palestine-Israel relationships, on
the whole it has a considerable effect on the political situation in
the Near East. Today, taking into account the increasing influence of
international terrorism, it is not favourable for anyone, especially
the main figures in the region and particularly the USA. To get a
complete idea of the role of Arafat for the Palestinians, it would be
proper to cast a look at his biography. First, it should be mentioned
that there are a number of contradicting facts in his biography which,
by the way, the leader never denied or confirmed, thus creating a
mysterious myth around his name. Yassir Arafat was born on August 24,
1929 in Jerusalem, in the family of salesman Abdel Rauf who worked in
the police of the Ottoman empire in his youth. His wife Zakhva belonged
to the famous family Abu Saud in Jerusalem. The complete name of Arafat
is Muhammad Abdel Rauf Arafat al-Kudva al-Huseini. Later at college
he took the name â~@~Yassirâ~@~] which means â~@~carefreeâ~@~]. In
1933 Arafatâ~@~Ys mother died and his father, unable to bring up his
children alone, sent 4-years-old Yassir and his younger brother to
their uncle in Jerusalem. Three years later Abdel Rauf married for
the second time and brought the children back to him, where Yassir
stayed until his adolescence. His first steps into politics bear
the traces of the valley of Nile. In the years of his studies he was
close with the â~@~Brother Muslimsâ~@~] although he did not belong to
them. He was engaged in military training organized by the Islamists
in the territory of the University of Cairo. As an orthodox Muslim
he prayed 5 times a day, did not use alcohol and fasted in the holy
month of Ramadan. The â~@~brothersâ~@~] were alone to appeal to
continue jihad against Israel. Among them he met his future brothers
in arms Abu Ayad, Abu Jihad, and many others. There was one who
interested him; it was Gamal Abdel Nassir who had dethroned King
Pharuk of Egypt among the group â~@~Free Officersâ~@~] . Arafat
was also persecuted. In 1954 he was arrested for a short period.
Three years later, with the diploma of an engineer in his pocket,
Arafat left for Kuwait. Here the national liberation movement was
being born in the face of several rebels who had no munitions and
were 1200 km away from the front line. Once in the evening (in
1958) five persons gathered secretly in the capital of the emirate
and decided to start a war for the liberation of Palestine. In the
beginning they issued a newspaper â~@~Phalastinunaâ~@~] (â~@~Our
Palestineâ~@~]). A year later they named themselves â~@~Phathaâ~@~]
which means â~@~Movement for Liberation of Palestineâ~@~] and finally
they chose military names for themselves. According to the Arabian
tradition, they use the name of their elder son, but Yassir Arafat,
still a bachelor, became â~@~Abu Ammarâ~@~]. As distinct from Arabian
nationalists they did not anticipate anything from the existing regimes
which were, in their opinion, exhausted. All of them had got education
in Cairo or Beirut, at one time they believed in Islamists, had been
in prison. However, in their small group Yassir Arafat held a special
position. At the time of the disaster in 1948, unlike his friends,
he had been away from the homeland and did not know what expatriate
meant or what refugee camps were. His revolutionary romanticism
was nourished by abstract ideas about Palestine, his wish to create
an independent state was not related to a particular plot of land,
and suffering was a collective one. Many years later this devotion
made him easier in reference to making compromises in territorial
questions. On April 1, 1965 an unknown organization â~@~Al Asifaâ~@~]
(â~@~Stormâ~@~]) assumed the responsibility for the blast in the
pumping station in Israel. Arafat had chosen this name for signing
the information on the military actions. The message in handwriting
sent to the newspapers of Beirut caused surprise. Whereas, the action
that Arafat ascribed to himself had not taken place for the group
which had to put explosives had been arrested by the security bodies
of Lebanon. The bloodshed had started already. The guerillas took
action by action against the Jewish state. After the war in 1967 Arafat
left for the west bank of the river Jordan. He hid from persecution
for several months and tried to organize the local population but
soon he had to leave for the other occupied bank of Jordan. In the
capital of Jordan Amman they challenged the court every day. Arafat
strengthened by victories became the leader of the Organization for
Liberation of Palestine. The organization founded by Naser in 1964
with the hope of trying to control Palestinian nationalism avoided
the Arab influence. The radical groups, including the Peopleâ~@~Ys
Front of Liberation of Palestine announces themselves by hijacking
planes. On September 6, 1970 the air pirates hijacked three airplanes
and made them land in the northern outskirt of Amman. This event
exhausted the patience of the northern king and he decided to
return his power through force. His well-armed troops easily won and
Yassir Arafat managed to escape. The Palestinian soldiers craved for
revenge. Several members of â~@~Phathaâ~@~] who called themselves
â~@~ Black Septemberâ~@~] (in the memory of the tragic events of
September) organized terrorist actions one after another. During the
Olympic games in Munchen 1972 one of the groups attacked the Israelite
delegation; several people died. Yassir Arafat insisted that he had
no connection with this terrorist action but he was aware of the
terrorist plans of his people and for the first time he preferred to
concede the main role to others. He was a very prudent person. In
1974 Arafat who was known internationally separated himself from
terrorism. At the UN General Assembly he announced that he held the
gun in one hand and the laurel branch in the other and begged not to
let him lose the branch. Soon Arafat was banished from Jordan and
found a refuge in Lebanon where his appearance aggravated tensions
among the Maronit, Sunni, Shiite and Drooz communities. On April 13,
1975 war burst out in the country. Everyone fought, the progressives
against the conservatives, Christians against Muslims, clans against
other clans. The country was torn to parts, and bandits took the power
in severed Beirut. The leader of the Organization for Liberation
of Palestine got easily adapted to this chaotic situation. Owing
to the generous assistance of the countries of the Persian Gulf he
became the leader of one of the large companies, directed hospitals,
newspapers, factories, schoolsâ~@¦ his military and economic power
and later his diplomatic success finally started to worry Israel. On
June 6, 1952 the Israeli army attacked Lebanon. The defence minister
then Ariel Sharon secretly from his government planned destroying the
Organization for Liberation of Palestine. The siege of Beirut lasted
for 12 weeks and during this period the Israeli planes scrutinized
for the leader of Palestine, while the American diplomats negotiated
for the withdrawal of guerillas. At the end of August Arafat left
Lebanon. The president of Tunisia Habib Burgiba confessed that he was
ready to accept Arafat but alone, without his groups. The latter were
â~@~ dissolvedâ~@~] in the Arab world. The new life began outside
the homeland. In order not to lose the control over the situation
in November of 1988 he achieved the division of the Holy Land into
two parts. The aid rendered to Saddam Hussein during the war in the
Persian Gulf crushed his peacemaking efforts depriving him of the
sums paid by the large oil companies. After the defeat of Iraq the
diplomatic process was resumed and this time the conditions were
dictated by the USA. The Organization for Liberation of Palestine
on the verge of bankruptcy and isolation was formally left out of
the list of participants in the peace talks in Madrid. However, soon
Arafat managed to save the Organization and achieved the longed-for
international recognition. Soon he became the chairman of the National
Administration and was even awarded the Nobel Peace prize. In June
2000 an agreement was signed in Camp David and the Palestinians made
compromises but soon the prime minister of Israel E. Barak announced
that it is impossible to achieve peace with Arafat. Later there was
an opportunity to sign a new agreement but it was late. With Ariel
Sharon terrorist actions started and the situation became inadequate
for signing a peace agreement. Yassir Arafat remained in Ramallah and
in 2002 George Bush called him politically dead. It was the reason why
during the elections in the USA Arafat openly supported the opponent
of Bush Senator Kerry. To accelerate the leave of Arafat from politics
the USA imposed on him the prime minister Mahmud Abas who was made by
Arafat to resign however. And up to the end he remained at the head of
the political games in Palestine. Yassir Arafat died without naming his
heir. In this situation it is natural that a struggle should begin for
power in Palestine. Most experts say he will be succeeded by either
Mahmud Abas or Ahmed Kurei. Both are mature people but their Tunisian
background will hardly be respected among the common people. Pharuk
Kadumi also has serious levers of influence, who replaced Arafat
as the head of â~@~Phathaâ~@~]. Serious struggle for power is
expected in Palestine. By the way, Kadumi was among the first to
announce about this. He stated that those who think he will resign
are mistaken. And the attempt to kill Mahmud Abas during the funeral
of Arafat testifies to the fact that the open struggle has already
started even before the leader was buried. Of course, it cannot be
denied that Palestine could have changed the power in comparatively
stable and quiet conditions. And if it is the case Palestine will
prove to the world that they are ready to have their own state.

DAVIT BABAYAN. 25-11-2004

–Boundary_(ID_yd+lF6jQkagQahNF2iLHBg)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Secret memo deepens Thatcher link to coup plot
David Leigh and David Pallister

The Guardian
Saturday November 27, 2004

The Obiang regime in Equatorial Guinea yesterday jailed 11 foreign
mercenaries for up to 34 years, as documents surfaced further
implicating Mark Thatcher in a British-led coup attempt which has
caused international embarrassment.A long memo from the Old Etonian
mercenary Simon Mann, said to be at the heart of the plot, has been
seized by authorities in South Africa. A court there ruled this week
that Mark Thatcher will face trial in April.

The memo, written before the coup attempt, refers to “MT”, identified
to the South African prosecutors as Mr Thatcher by a key witness.

The document taken from the plotters’ computer says Mr Thatcher’s role
must be kept secret, or the coup would be at risk: “If involvement
becomes known, rest of us, and project, likely to be screwed as a
side-issue to people screwing him”.

Mann goes on to say that even if mercenaries succeeded in taking over
the oil-rich state, news of Mr Thatcher’s role “would particularly
add to a campaign post-event, to remove us”. He then emphasises:
“Ensure doesn’t happen.”

These disclosures follow the leak of phone records revealing Mr
Thatcher was also in contact with another of the alleged British
plotters, businessman Greg Wales, at a crucial moment before the
coup bid.

Mr Thatcher is facing a further five months on bail, reporting daily
to police from his suburban Capetown villa.

Mr Thatcher, who claims he thought he was financing a helicopter
for an air ambulance, gave an interview to Vanity Fair saying: “I
feel like a corpse that’s going down the Colorado river and there’s
nothing I can do about it.”

The Simon Mann memo now seen by the Guardian does not implicate the
British in the coup. Instead, in what seems to be a detailed plan
for a takeover, the ex-SAS officer seems preoccupied with getting US
backing, to prevent his mercenaries being chased out of Africa once
their role is discovered.

“We must follow plan to ensure that neither US government nor oil
companies feel that their interests are threatened.”

He says the US oil firms, who dominate Equatorial Guinea “must be
made to believe very fast that the thing is in their interest; their
staff safe; and that we are very powerful.”

In Equatorial Guinea yesterday, President Obiang’s regime drew back
from imposing death sentences. Nick du Toit, the South African arms
dealer who this month retracted a confession alleging torture, drew
a 34-year jail sentence.

Four other South Africans whom prosecutors said were mercenaries
received 17 years each in prison. Three others were acquitted.

Six Armenian air crew received jail terms of between 14 and 24
years each.

Would-be president Severo Moto was sentenced in absentia to 63
years. Eight other opposition exiles were similarly sentenced to 52
years each.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Craving change in the area

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Nov 27 2004

Alina Azizian takes over as executive director of local Armenian
National Committee chapter.

By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press and Leader

GLENDALE – Alina Azizian can trace her activism back to a craving
for karmeer pilar, an Armenian dish with rice pilaf and tomatoes.

Azizian remembers sitting with her best friend, a neighbor from
Nicaragua, at UC Berkeley in 2002. Azizian had just transferred from
Glendale Community College, and both were getting homesick. They
started talking about their native food, and Azizian wanted the
traditional Armenian rice dish.

“I suddenly wanted an Armenian person to say, ‘Oh my god, I miss it,’
” Azizian said.

After growing up in Glendale, Azizian was accustomed to being
surrounded by Armenian-Americans. Suddenly, she had to seek them out,
so she joined the Armenian Student Assn., a campus Armenian activist
group.

Two years later, with experience as a political activist in college
and the real world, Azizian is taking over the Armenian National
Committee’s Glendale Chapter. The organization named her executive
director this week, making her the chapter’s first paid employee.

“She’s definitely from the community, so she knows the community
very well,” said Pierre Chraghchian, chairman of the chapter’s board
of directors. “She’s going to be doing everything from helping
and organizing more events to participating in certain meetings,
attending City Council meetings, school board meetings and college
board meetings.”

Azizian will be running the day-to-day operation of the chapter.
She’s going to focus on improving communication between the Armenian
and non-Armenian community in Glendale, and increasing voter education
and turnout within the Armenian American community.

She’s gotten plenty of experience over the past two years. She served
as co-president of Berkeley’s Armenian Student Assn. and became
involved in the committee’s San Francisco chapter. She spent a summer
working for the committee’s Washington D.C. headquarters. Before
November’s election, she worked as the Democratic campaign manager
for San Mateo county, assisting campaigns at every level, from local
City Council races to the presidential race.

“When I was in my teens, being involved was always in the back of my
mind, but I was kind of apathetic, like most teens,” Azizian said.
“It took a while to get over that apathy. Now, I feel like I’m trying
to make up for lost time.”

Hartford Courant , CT
Nov 27 2004

A Child Shall Lead Them On The Organ
At Armenian Church In New Britain, Next Generation Plays A Key Role

November 27, 2004
By DON STACOM, Courant Staff Writer

NEW BRITAIN — It is a tale shared by so many old, ethnic churches
entrenched in Northeast cities: The pews are getting a bit emptier,
the parishioners a bit more elderly.

As the first-wave immigrants who once clustered together in
tight-knit neighborhoods die off, their children – or grandchildren –
move on. And the churches that had been vibrant centers of worship,
culture and social life begin to fade, their vitality sapped.

In the heart of downtown, the 100 or so dues-paying members of St.
Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church are committed to keeping the
oldest Armenian church in Connecticut alive and well. And they
believe they have in their midst someone who will strengthen their
link to the next generation. His name is Vahe Hovhannisyan, and in
March he will be 10.

“Vahe is a gift to us from God,” said Father Krikor Keshishian,
priest at St. Stephen’s. “He loves his music, and he loves his
church.”

Vahe captured the congregation’s attention last summer when longtime
church organist Shirley Kevorkian announced she was tiring of her
duties.

“I thought we would have to start playing recorded music on CDs; I
didn’t know what we could do,” Keshishian recalled. “Vahe came up to
me and said `I’ll play.'”

And now the shy 9-year-old – who has never formally studied music –
is St. Stephen’s organist. For 21/2 hours every Sunday morning, Vahe
accompanies the choir and deacon for the liturgical service.

Vahe plays a keyboard at home, and takes music classes twice a week
with his fourth-grade class at Griswold School in Berlin. But he has
never formally studied music or gotten professional lessons. He
practices at the church every weekday afternoon, and recently learned
the music for the funeral and wedding ceremonies.

“You’re just overwhelmed that this little boy would take over playing
the organ, and that he would want so badly to do it,” said Lila
Winters, 75, a lifelong member of St. Stephen’s.

>>From the pews, the diminutive boy can hardly be seen behind the
31/2-foot-high Conn organ. First-time visitors to the church
occasionally ask who played the music, and are astonished when
Keshishian points to the boy.

“He’s the future generation. He just enriches everybody in the
parish,” Winters said.

“When he plays, you look at the older parishioners and they’ve all
got smiles on their faces,” said George Rustigian, former chairman of
the church’s trustees. “He’s probably doing as much for the elderly
as for the youth.”

There is no doubt that St. Stephen’s seeks more youth. Some second-
and third-generation parishioners remain, of course, but others have
drifted off, drawn to more comfortable homes in distant suburbs, or
to jobs in the Sunbelt, or perhaps simply away from the church that
bound their parents and grandparents so closely.

St. Stephen’s parishioners have seen that cycle play out just a few
blocks away. All Saints Church on Wilcox Street served the city’s
once-thriving Slovak community for 84 years, but faltered in the
later decades and closed in 2002.

“We’re hanging on, sometimes by a string,” said Winters. “Some people
are so old, they don’t come because they can’t make the stairs. We
have a banquet every year with more than 150 people. If they’d come
to church every week, we’d be fine.”

Out of perhaps 100 dues-paying members at St. Stephen’s now, more
than a third live in the city and many attend services sporadically.

“Maybe we have 50 people one week, then the next Sunday we’ll get
10,” Rustigian said. “It’s very difficult if just the parents and
grandparents support the church. We need the younger Armenians.”

Life was once very different at the church on Tremont Street.

“Fifty years ago, there were probably 30 to 40 Armenian families in a
six-block vicinity of the church. Between North Street and Allen
Street, there were Armenian tailors and jewelers and shops,”
Rustigian said.

“I was born near there, and it was one big happy Armenian family,”
Winters recalled.

“My grandfather and grandmother lived on the first floor of the
building, we lived on the second floor, my aunt and uncle were on the
third, and another aunt and uncle were across the street,” said
Winters, who now lives in Plainville.

“That’s way back. Like they say, `the good old days.’ I know you
can’t backtrack,” she said. “But with Vahe, we think maybe he will
encourage more younger people to come to the church. Hopefully that
generation will see that he’s playing and they’ll want to come.”

Kevorkian is one of the last members of the original community. Her
parents were founders of the church in 1925, and she still lives just
across Tremont Street.

“I was practically raised in the church. It’s like a second home to
all of us,” she said. “Everything runs around it, all our functions.”

She played St. Stephen’s organ for 60 years, and this year was ready
to stop.

“You become very popular, everyone knows me and every little thing
about me. But you get tired,” she said.

Vahe, who has listened to classical music since he was a toddler,
volunteered to take her place. Keshishian was skeptical, but said the
boy won him over with a relentless determination to learn the music.

“When you love something, you do it. And I know the boy loves music,”
Kevorkian said. “He’s only at the beginning stages. He’ll be very
good when he’s really into it.”

Tigran and Sophia Hovhannisyan brought their son, Vahe, and daughter,
Annie, to the United States from Armenia eight years ago. They are
precisely the sort of young family that St. Stephen’s seeks: Devoted
to the church, and eager to keep up their cultural heritage.

“I tell my son, `Feel very proud. Armenians are the first nationality
that accepted Christianity, we were the first to see the light in
Christianity,” Tigran Hovhannisyan said. “We try to transfer the
traditions to the next generation, and keep them always with the
religion.”

Vahe is a Boy Scout, swims at the YMCA and plays soccer and
basketball; but every afternoon he goes to St. Stephen’s to practice.
At his home in Kensington, he listens to Strauss, Verdi and
Beethoven, and plays on a Yamaha keyboard in the living room.

Asked about his music, he is almost bashful, and says quietly, “I
think I wanted to play the piano when I was 3.”

What is his favorite piece in the liturgy? Vahe replied by walking to
the Yamaha to play Amen Hayr Soorp, or Amen Holy Father.

“I like the melody,” Yahe said simply. “I just like to play it.”

Keshishian patted him on the head, and said: “We are all proud of
Vahe. He’s very awake for a 9-year-old boy. What was I doing when I
was 9? I don’t remember. But he is playing the entire divine
liturgy.”

Vasquez Defends IBF Junior Featherweight Championship Against Simonyan

BoxingTalk
Nov 27 2004

Press release: International Boxing Federation Association junior
featherweight champion Israel Vasquez defends his title under the
Sycuan Ringside Promotions banner for the first time when he meets
undefeated and No. 1-ranked contender Art Simonyan Tuesday, Dec. 28,
at the Sycuan Resort & Casino in El Cajon, Calif.

The world championship card will be held in the Spotlight Showroom
at the Sycuan Resort & Casino.

Tickets for this championship card are on sale 24 hours daily in the
gift shop at the Sycuan Resort & Casino. Tickets also can be ordered
by calling 619-445-6002 or 619-659-3380 24 hours daily.

This is the fifth boxing card presented by Sycuan Ringside Promotions
since it burst onto the international boxing scene earlier this year.

The IBF 122-pound championship will be a belated birthday gift for
one these two boxers.

Vasquez turns 27 on Christmas Day while Simonyan becomes 29 on Dec.
27.

Vasquez, originally from Mexico City but now living in Los Angeles,
won the IBF junior featherweight championship in his most recent bout,
March 25 in Los Angeles, when he stopped Jose Luis Valbuena in the
12th round.

Vasquez has a record of 36-3 with 26 knockouts. He has a mark of
16-1 dating back to 1999, that lone loss coming in a bout for the
World Boxing Council super bantamweight championship during 2002.

Simonyan, who was born in Armenia but now lives in Glendale, Calif.,
has a record of 14-0-1 with seven knockouts. He earned the right to
challenge Vasquez with a 12-round decision over Fahsan Por Thawatchai
in a title elimination bout May 21 in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

Sycuan Ringside Promotions is considered by many to be the
fastest-growing and most dynamic promotional entity in the sport.
Sycuan Ringside Promotions made its promotional debut during February,
but already has presented world championship bouts on premium cable
networks.

Sycuan Ringside Promotions has many notable boxers in its stable,
including, in addition to Vasquez, IBF lightweight champion Julio
“The Kidd” Diaz, World Boxing Organization junior featherweight
champ Joan “Little Tyson” Guzman, former World Boxing Association
cruiserweight king Orlin “Night Train” Norris and highly regarded
welterweight Antonio Diaz.

Last exit from Mesopotamia

EducationGuardian.co.uk, UK
Nov 27 2004

Christopher Catherwood reveals the incompetence, arrogance and
ignorance that Churchill brought to bear on the Iraq question in
Winston’s Folly. If only Tony Blair read a bit more history, says
John Charmley

Winston’s Folly: Imperialism and the Creation of Modern Iraq
by Christopher Catherwood
267pp, Constable, £12.99

The Eastern Question that haunted the chancelleries of 19th-century
Europe has returned to haunt George Bush and Tony Blair; or rather,
the consequences of the failure to find a satisfactory answer to it
have blighted all attempts to create a new international order in the
aftermath of the cold war. This book is required reading for anyone
wanting to have an informed opinion on recent events in Iraq; the
fact that its author worked for Blair’s “Strategic Futures Unit”
makes one wonder why the prime minister did not spend more time
reading history and less commissioning dodgy dossiers.

There are few places where the ingrained assumption of western
superiority survives better than in commentaries on the Ottoman
empire. Despite being the greatest Islamic empire the world has
known, and in spite of enduring for the better part of a millennium,
it has come down to us through its reputation as the “sick man of
Europe” and its treatment of the Armenians during the first world
war; this is the equivalent of judging the British empire by its
treatment of Ireland and the Boer War – something, of course, some
commentators would be more than happy to do. The fact that the
modern, secular Turkish republic had every interest in traducing its
predecessor has meant that, outside the work of Ottoman scholarship,
the Ottoman empire remains little understood. Yet for half a
millennium, it governed those places that now stand out as some of
the main trouble spots of the past decade: Bosnia, Kosovo, Palestine
and Iraq. It has been easy to imply that somehow the Ottomans were
responsible for what has happened in the successor-states, but the
fact remains that they provided better governance than has succeeded
them.

Even as well informed a writer as Christopher Catherwood casually
assumes the inevitability of the demise of the Ottoman empire,
although his own narrative makes it plain that it was the mistaken
choices made by the regime during the first world war that brought
about its downfall. The mistakes made by those charged with replacing
it are the central theme of Winston’s Folly.

The title is far from a catchpenny attempt to sell books by dragging
Churchill’s name into things. As colonial secretary in 1921,
Churchill was directly responsible for the decisions that led to the
creation of modern Iraq, and the process as described here raises yet
more doubts about his ultimate legacy; much can be forgiven the man
of 1940 – but perhaps much can also be laid on the other account.

Catherwood is an excellent guide at cutting through the mythology
that surrounds this subject, although he does not always appreciate
the implications of some of his arguments. For example, he correctly
points out that most Arabs were loyal to the Ottoman empire during
the first world war, and yet still writes as though it was in some
way doomed; no empire that commands the loyalty of most of its
subjects can be said to be in terminal trouble. Catherwood has little
patience with the Lawrence of Arabia-inspired line that there was a
“great betrayal” of the Arab cause. Far from Feisal and Hussein (the
sons of the Sherif of Mecca) being betrayed, it was they who betrayed
the Ottomans, and it was because they had so little support that they
needed the backing of the British. Without the efforts of Lawrence
and company, who convinced Churchill that the Hashemite dynasty
enjoyed great support in Mesopotamia, it would never have come to
power in Jordan and Iraq; indeed, without the Hashemites and
Churchill’s decision to back them, there would have been no modern
Iraq at all. The three Ottoman vilayets (provinces) that form modern
Iraq were brought together because Churchill decided they should be,
and this book explores why that decision was taken.

Much of the story is depressingly familiar to those following more
recent events in this part of the world. The early 20th-century
liberal equivalent of the Bush-Blair belief in the universal
applicability of the western model of democracy was the Wilsonian
attachment to the sanctity of the nation state as the best way of
organising polities; whether in the Balkan lands of the former
Ottoman empire or its Middle Eastern territories, one size could fit
all. When it did not quite seem to work, it was necessary to have
recourse to force. However, there were two problems with this: in the
first place, as Napoleon once remarked, you can do anything with a
bayonet – except sit on it; what do you do when the people upon whom
you are trying to confer the great boon of a nation state or
democracy do not appear to want it? Second, occupation of another
country is expensive, financially and morally. Democratic electorates
hold their rulers to a higher standard than that expected of
autocracies, but it is difficult to run an occupation without
deviating from these standards; this exacts a moral price which
governments with elections to win are rarely willing to pay. Then
there is the financial cost. It is difficult to justify spending a
fortune on what looks like an exercise in suppression.

Thus did Churchill, as colonial secretary, inherit the problem of
what to do with Mesopotamia. The British had insisted on acquiring
the strategically important area under a League of Nations mandate,
only to find the natives were extremely restless. Churchill-inspired
attempts to bomb the “rebels” into submission having failed, and the
moral and financial costs escalating, it was necessary to find a way
out of Mesopotamia – at which point the Hashemites became extremely
useful. Entirely dependent upon the British, the Hashemite dynasty
provided a useful client regime. The fact that this meant placing a
predominantly Shia population under minority Sunni rule, and placing
the ethnically separate Kurds under Arab rule, mattered little
compared to the needs of the British. Catherwood is unsparing in his
portrayal of the mixture of incompetence, arrogance and ignorance
that Churchill brought to bear on the Iraq question, and is unafraid
to imply that things might not have changed all that much.

Judging by recent events in Iraq, it would seem as though there are
good grounds for thinking that Blair has indeed refused to learn from
history. Those who do this are, it is often said, doomed to repeat
the mistakes of their predecessors. With the Americans busy appeasing
the Saudis as Churchill did, and Bush and Blair as committed to the
continuation of the artificial creation of Iraq, it is difficult to
see what Catherwood’s time in the “Strategic Futures Team” achieved.
It looks as though Marx was wrong when he wrote that history repeats
itself as farce; tragedy would be nearer the mark, as “Winston’s
folly” is compounded by that of George W and Tony.

· John Charmley is professor of modern history at the University of
East Anglia.

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S’African sentenced for Guinea coup try

United Press International
Nov 26 2004

ABIDJAN, Equatorial Guinea, Nov. 26 (UPI) — A court in Equatorial
Guinea has given sentences of up to 34 years to a group of South
Africans and Armenians convicted of trying to overthrow the government.

Voice of America reports that Nick du Toit, a former officer in the
South African special forces, received the longest sentence of those
in custody. Severo Moto, a leader of the Guinean opposition in exile
in Spain, was sentenced in absentia to 63 years, while several of
his exiled aides also got long prison terms.

The group allegedly wanted to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema,
who has been in power since 1979, to get a share of the country’s
oil revenues. Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s third-largest oil exporter.

During the sentencing hearing, the court urged prosecutors to continue
their investigation, including the best-known target, Mark Thatcher,
son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher, who
lives in South Africa, allegedly paid expenses for the attempted coup.

24 mercenaries convicted in Equatorial Guinea plot

Japan Today
Nov 27 2004

Saturday, November 27, 2004 at 07:43 JST — MALABO, Equatorial Guinea –
A court in Equatorial Guinea convicted 24 accused European and African
mercenaries and opposition leaders on Friday and sentenced them to
prison for an alleged coup plot in the oil-rich nation, but it waived
the death penalty for two top figures.

The court’s rejection of death penalties requested by prosecutors
potentially strengthens Equatorial Guinea’s bid to extradite an alleged
financier of the plot: Mark Thatcher, son of the former British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher.

President Teodoro Obiang’s 25-year regime accuses Mark Thatcher
and other, mostly British, financiers of commissioning scores of
mercenaries in a takeover plot in the isolated West African nation
which is the continent’s third-largest oil producer.

The financial backers intended to install an opposition figure as a
puppet leader, Equatorial Guinea claims. The alleged plot was exposed
by South African intelligence services in March, days before it was
to have been carried out, leading to the arrests of roughly 90 alleged
mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe.

On Friday, 21 shackled, handcuffed defendants listened in a
chandelier-hung courtroom converted from a conference center as
Judge Salvador Ondo Nkumu read out verdicts and prison sentences,
without elaboration.

South African arms dealer Nick du Toit, accused by prosecutors of
leading an advance team for the coup plot, was sentenced to 34 years
in prison despite Attorney General Jose Olo Obono’s repeated demands
for the death penalty.

Du Toit, a stooped, graying, sadly smiling man who like all the
defendants had lost scores of pounds since arrest in March, had
provided the bulk of prosecutors’ case — testifying to meetings with
Thatcher and others around Africa, and alleging detailed plans to
move men and materiel into place.

But Du Toit repudiated his testimony last week, saying he agreed
to a fake confession to try to save himself and his co-defendants,
after one defendant was tortured to death in Malabo’s notorious Black
Beach prison shortly after his arrest in March.

Equatorial Guinea says the man, a German, died of malaria. Rights
groups cite witness accounts of wounds from torture.

Du Toit’s sentence effectively means life in Black Beach — a tiny
penitentiary built on the black volcanic rocks between Obiang’s
Spanish-colonial palace and the gray Atlantic.

The court also sentenced Severo Moto, the opposition figure who
the coup plotters allegedly intended to install as president, to 63
years. Moto was the only other defendant facing the death penalty. He
is living in exile and was sentenced in absentia.

Eight other opposition figures, also living in exile, were each
sentenced to 53 years.

Six other alleged South African mercenaries were sentenced to 17
years each; six Armenian pilots were sentenced to between 14- to 24
years each, and two Equatorial Guinea citizens were ordered jailed
for one to four months.

Obiang’s regime, with one of the world’s worst human rights records,
is accused by the International Bar Association and others of routine
torture and extensive interference in the justice system. Obiang,
speaking to reporters in August, stated the defendants’ conviction
as a given.

The decision to spare du Toit the death penalty was seen at least
in part as a message to South Africa, where Thatcher, a 51-year-old
businessman, is now facing separate prosecution in connection with
the alleged plot.

South Africa opposes capital punishment and was unlikely to send
Thatcher to Equatorial Guinea if he risked the death penalty. (Wire
reports)

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