Poland to reduce its force in Iraq
By Paul Richter
Los Angeles Times
Oct 16 2004
WASHINGTON – The prime minister of Poland told his parliament Friday
that he would begin drawing down the 2,500 Polish soldiers in Iraq
in January, another blow to a U.S.-led coalition that has lost nearly
one-third of its members this year.
Addressing his parliament before a vote of confidence, Prime Minister
Marek Belka promised, “We will not remain in Iraq an hour longer
than is sensible, than necessary to achieve our mission’s goal:
To return Iraq to the Iraqi people and give security to the world.”
Polish officials had been hinting at a troop reduction for nearly
two weeks. The Polish troops have a special importance to the
international coalition, because Warsaw’s forces have led an
8,000-member international division in south-central Iraq and have
been praised repeatedly by President Bush for their service.
Eight other countries have withdrawn all of their troops from the
coalition since February: the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain and Thailand.
Officials of two other countries, Ukraine and Moldova, have indicated
a desire to withdraw, and the subject has been under discussion in
several other countries, such as the Netherlands and Denmark.
Armenia’s prime minister also suggested Friday the Caucasus country
might not send troops to Iraq, saying conditions there have changed
since the 50 were promised.
Of the 30 allied forces, only six have 1,000 or more soldiers in Iraq.
The strength of the coalition has been a major issue in the U.S.
presidential debates. President Bush repeatedly cited the Poles as
a steadfast ally.
Polish officials have suggested they might first reduce the force by
40 percent and pull out the last troops by the end of next year.

Israeli police have questioned an Armenian archbishop
by Luke Coppen
The Times, UK
Oct 16 2004
ISRAELI police have questioned an Armenian archbishop and an Orthodox
Jewish student after a scuffle in Jerusalem Old City. Archbishop
Nourhan Manougian slapped the student after he apparently spat at
a Cross being carried by the prelate during a procession near the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The student has been banned from the
Old City for 75 days.

Restrictions lifted at check point on Russia-Georgia border
By Nikolai Styazhkin
ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 16, 2004 Saturday
STAVROPOL, October 16 — Restrictions for the border crossing for
Georgian citizens, living in the Kazbegi border region, and their
vehicles have been lifted at the Verkhny Lars border check point
on the North Ossetian section of the Russian-Georgian state border,
a spokesman for the North Caucasian regional border department told
Itar-Tass on Saturday.
Restrictions were introduced after the hostage tragedy at a Beslan
school. However, Sergei Livantsov said, neither Georgians from the
Kazbegi region nor residents of North Ossetia-Alania can exercise
their right. The reason is that the Georgian check point Kazbegi,
situated next to Verkhny Lars still remains closed.
That is why, a transit truck convoy of the Russian defence ministry,
carrying cargo for Russian military bases in Armenia, fails to drive
into Georgia, Livantsov said.
He also said that restrictions persist for the border crossing by
citizens and transport at four Russian checkpoints on the border with
Azerbaijan. Only Russian and Azerbaijani citizens returning home are
let cross the border.
Meanwhile, border is crossed in a routine mode at railway and sea
checkpoints, as well as at all international airports of the North
Caucasus.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Military cooperation with US is important for Armenia
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 16, 2004 Saturday
YEREVAN, October 16 — Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan
said on Saturday that the Armenian-U.S. military cooperation was
vitally important for Armenia, the Armenian Defence Ministry press
service reported.
Sarkisyan has met U.S. Under Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia
Lori Kennedy who said that a group of American experts would arrive
in Armenia soon to assess the state of the Armenian armed forces. On
behalf of the U.S. government she thanked the Armenian authorities
for readiness to send a contingent to Iraq.

Armenian archbishop urges Armenia not to send experts to Iraq
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 16, 2004 Saturday
YEREVAN, October 16 — The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in
Iraq has called on the Armenian authorities not to send experts to
Iraq. “Otherwise, the Armenian community and its organizations will
become a target,” Archbishop Avag Asaturyan wrote in a letter to the
Armenian president and parliament.
Nearly 20,000 Armenians whose ancestors fled the 1915 genocide in
the Ottoman Empire live in Iraq.
The Armenian authorities have earlier voiced their intention to send
50 experts to Iraq to assist in the country’s post-war restoration.
Though the question is to be approved by parliament, Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan said during his recent visit to Poland
that the experts would go to Iraq as part of the Polish contingent.

The Dead Walk
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF.
The New York Times
October 16, 2004 Saturday
Late Edition – Final
In June I wrote several columns about Magboula Muhammad Khattar,
a young Sudanese woman whose parents and husband had been murdered
in Darfur and who had escaped by night to the Chad border.
She was living under a tree there. One of her sons was then so sick,
probably from contaminated water — 20,000 people were living out in
the open without a single toilet — that he seemed likely to die.
On returning this month, I searched again for Ms. Khattar.
Now, each time I write about the genocide in Darfur, I hear from
readers who say something like: ”It’s terrible to hear the stories,
but face reality — Africans are always slaughtering each other.”
Or: ”It’s none of our business, and anyway we don’t have extra troops
to send.” Or: ”There’s nothing we can do.”
If that were true, then Ms. Khattar would now be dead.
So would the woman I’d met huddled under the very next tree, Zahra
Abdel Karim, whose husband and two young sons had been slaughtered
by the Janjaweed militia. She had been gang-raped along with her two
sisters, who were then killed. Ms. Zahra was slashed with a sword
and left to hobble away, naked and bleeding — but determined to
survive so she could stagger across the desert to Chad and save her
remaining child.
Yet I just had a wonderful reunion here with Ms. Khattar and Ms.
Zahra, who are now fast friends. They and the other 200,000 Darfur
refugees in Chad are living in camps, with tents for shelter, purified
water, medical care and food distributions. Even within Darfur itself,
the United Nations World Food Program managed to get food to 1.3
million people last month out of the 2 million who need it.
”It’s much better here now,” Ms. Khattar told me, flashing a
beautiful smile as her son — now recovered — played with other
children a few feet away.
I also tracked down two lovely orphans, Nijah and Nibraz Ahmed,
1 and 4 years old, whom I had met in June after their parents were
both killed by the Janjaweed. Their grandmother sneaked back into
Darfur two weeks ago to try to find their older brother, so their
widowed aunt is caring for them. Her situation has improved enough
that she fed me a home-cooked breakfast on the ground outside her tent.
The improvement for the refugees in Chad underscores how easy it is to
save lives in a situation like this. Just a dollop of international
attention led Sudan to rein in the Janjaweed to some degree, and
to provide more humanitarian access. An international aid effort,
overseen by the U.N., is saving countless lives by spending as much
in a year as we spend in Iraq in a few days.
I wish President Bush had done more to help Darfur. But he has done
more than just about any other leader, and his legacy will be hundreds
of thousands of lives saved in Darfur — but also tens of thousands
of deaths that could have been averted if he had acted earlier.
Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization estimates that
within Darfur itself, 70,000 people have perished since March 1
of hunger and illness. Add the deaths from violence, the deaths of
refugees in Chad and the deaths before March 1, and my guess is that
the Darfur genocide has claimed more than 100,000 lives so far —
and the total is still rising by 5,000 to 10,000 deaths per month.
If a halfhearted effort can save hundreds of thousands of lives —
without dispatching troops, without a visit to the region by Mr.
Bush, without providing all the money that is needed — then imagine
what we could accomplish if we took serious action.
Sudan’s leaders are not Taliban-style fanatics. They are pragmatists
who engaged in genocide because they thought it was the simplest
way to end unrest among tribal peoples in Darfur. If we raise the
costs of ethnic cleansing with a no-fly zone, an arms embargo, travel
restrictions on senior officials and other targeted sanctions, then
I think they can be persuaded to negotiate seriously toward peace.
The history of genocide in the last century is one in which
well-meaning Americans were distressed as Turks slaughtered Armenians,
Nazis rounded up Jews and Gypsies, and Serbs wiped out Bosnians —
but because there were no good or easy options, they did nothing.
Note to Mr. Bush: This time, we can still redeem ourselves — but
time is running out, at the rate of 200 lives a day.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Iraq’s shrinking Christian minority struggles to survive
Agence France Presse — English
October 16, 2004 Saturday 4:44 PM GMT
BAGHDAD Oct 16 — The coordinated attacks on five Baghdad churches
Saturday sent tremors through Iraq’s small Christian community, which
finds itself being set adrift amid a tide of rising Islamic extremism.
The dawn attacks across Baghdad caused no casualties but were the
latest assault on Iraq’s ethnic mosaic as insurgents seek to sow
dissension among Iraq’s Muslim majority and dwindling Christian
community.
Five explosions in the span of an hour was one more blow to an
embattled minority that was shrinking even before the recent spate
of attacks.
The community stood at 1.4 million people according to a 1987 census
but has since shrivelled to 700,000 during a turbulent period of war
and years of crippling sanctions.
“The attackers have one goal: sowing strife in the heart of Iraqi
society. But they will not destroy our unity,” said Yunadam Kanna,
a Christian representative in Iraq’s interim parliament.
“Churches are easy targets because they are places of worship open
to all.””
Iraq’s Christian community, numbering just three percent of Iraq’s
25 million population, has been heavily targeted in the unrest that
has swept Iraq following last year’s US-led invasion and some have
picked up and left.
At the start of August, four attacks against Christian targets in
Baghdad and two others in Mosul left 10 people dead and 50 injured in
what the government said was the work of suspected al-Qaeda operative
Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
Liquor stores, owned by Christians, have been blown up by Islamic
militants. And Christian families, many considered wealthy by Iraqi
standards, have been targeted by kidnappers for huge ransoms.
Following the August bombings, Iraq’s Displacement and Migration
Minister Pascale Icho Warda, herself a Christian, said 40,000
Christians had left Iraq.
Shocked by the latest outbreak of violence, the patriarch of the
Chaldean Church, Monsignor Emmanuel Delly, said: “If the government
is powerless, what can we do.
“We call on them (attackers) not to touch the holy sites.”
Iraq’s provisional constitution, signed in March, guarantees freedom
for all religions, but it has not assuaged the anxieties of the
small community amid the torrent of violence and identity politics
sweeping Iraq.
The 1970 constitution adopted under the old regime also guaranteed
freedom of religion and prohibited any religious discrimination.
It also acknowledged that the people of Iraq consisted of “two
principal nationalities,” Arab and Kurd, and “other nationalities”
whose rights were considered legitimate.
In December 1972, the head of the ruling Baath Party identified these
by decree as the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriacs.
The Chaldeans, whose 600,000 people represent the majority of
Christians in Iraq, are an oriental rite Catholic community.
Their church emerged from the Nestorian doctrine, which it renounced
in the 16th century while preserving its rites. Former deputy prime
minister Tareq Aziz, currently in US custody, is the best known of
the Chaldeans.
The Assyrians, believed to number about 50,000, are Christians who
remained faithful to the Nestorian doctrine.
The Nestorian church became a dissident movement in 431 AD after
the Council of Ephesus. They affirm that Christ has two separate
personalities — namely human and divine — and not a single
personality possessing both human and divine nature as Roman
Catholicism and Orthodoxy believe.
In Iraq, there are also Catholic and Orthodox Syriacs, Catholic and
Orthodox Armenians, and since the time of the British mandate after
World War I, Protestants, Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
Many Iraqi Christians still speak Aramaic-Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic,
the language of Christ. During the 1970s, bilingual cultural magazines
in Arabic and Syriac were published and radio and television programmes
were transmitted in Aramaic.
In the northern region of Kurdistan, Christians number about 150,000,
mostly Chaldeans.
Since the fall of former president Saddam Hussein’s secular regime,
many of Iraq’s Christians have kept a lower profile for fear of being
equated with the largely Christian US-led forces in the country.

Armenia’s defense minister meets top U.S. diplomat
Associated Press Worldstream
October 16, 2004 Saturday 11:45 AM Eastern Time
YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia’s defense minister met with a visiting
U.S. diplomat Saturday to discuss prospects for military cooperation.
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian told U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State Laura Kennedy that Armenia values military ties with the
United States and hopes to develop them. Kennedy, in turn, thanked
the Armenian government for its readiness to send peacekeepers to Iraq.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian pledged the troops during a visit
to Poland last month, but the nation’s prime minister said Friday
that it was up to the Constitutional Court and parliament to make
the final decision on sending some 50 troops.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Georgia, Azerbaijan connect sections of key oil pipeline
Associated Press Worldstream
October 16, 2004 Saturday 11:45 AM Eastern Time
BAKU, Azerbaijan — The presidents of Azerbaijan and Georgia on
Saturday presided over the welding of two sections of a strategic oil
pipeline seen as key to reducing Western dependence on Middle East oil.
Attending the ceremony on the border between the two ex-Soviet
republics, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev and Mikhail Saakashvili
of Georgia hailed the US$3.6-billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline as
essential both for their countries and the entire region.
“This pipeline will help create new opportunities for our peoples,
and attract major resources,” Aliev said. “It will also contribute
significantly to the region’s security.”
Stephen Mann, the U.S. State Department envoy for Caspian energy
development, attended the ceremony. Mann sought to dismiss fears
about the pipeline’s security, saying it was being built far from
the zones of conflicts in the region.
Azerbaijan has been unable to solve a conflict over its
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which has been under Armenian control since
1994, and Georgia has been haunted by conflicts in its breakaway
provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have run their own
affairs since the early 1990s.
The 1,760-kilometer (1,100-mile) pipeline runs from Baku, Azerbaijan,
to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, where oil from Azerbaijan’s Caspian
Sea fields will be loaded onto tankers for Western markets.
It is set to begin operation next year.

Ultra-orthodox Jews ‘must stop religious abuse’
Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
The Observer
Sunday October 17, 2004*
Jerusalem’s Christian community has demanded that Jewish leaders and
the Israeli government take action against what they claim is growing
harassment of their clergy by religious Jews.
Christians say ultra-Orthodox Jewish students spit at them or at the
ground when they pass. There have also been acts of vandalism against
statues of the Virgin Mary.
The harassment came to a head last week when a Jewish student spat
at Armenian Archbishop Nourhan Manougian and ripped off his crucifix,
whereupon the archbishop slapped him. The police questioned both men.
Mainstream Israeli opinion has been revolted by the revelations of
the abuse of Christian clergy. Avraham Poraz, the interior minister,
condemned the trend of spitting at the cross and those wearing it,
saying it was ‘intolerable’ and that he was ‘revolted’ by it. A former
chief rabbi also voiced his outrage.
All the Christian groups complain of harassment, but the Armenians
bear the brunt. Armenian clergymen said that, when they complained
to the interior minister seven months ago, he told them: ‘Most Jews
have a big problem with them as well.’
The 3,000-strong community live in the Armenian quarter and many Jews
walk through it on their way from west Jerusalem to the Wailing Wall
or Western Wall.
Father Pakrad Bourjekian, a spokesman for the Armenian church, said the
attack was an extreme example of the harassment they receive every day.
‘Every day the fanatical Jews turn their face to the wall or spit on
the ground or at us when they see the crucifix,’ he said.
The Christians admit that it is only a minority who carry out the
abuse, but they feel that the issue is being ignored by religious
leaders.
Bishop Aris Shirvanian of the Armenian church said: ‘The majority are
courteous or indifferent. The problem is the very religious. It’s a
question of education. What must these people be learning to behave
like this?’
The old city of Jerusalem is buzzing with rumours that young Armenians
will take revenge for the attack and the daily indignities suffered
by their priests.
Bishop Aris acknowledged that there was a danger of reprisals. ‘We
are trying to control our young people and we are succeeding. But
the question is that there is no one in the Jewish community trying
to control their fanatics,’ he said.
Father Pakrad added: ‘There is no hierarchy. Anyone can become a rabbi,
set up an institution, get funds from abroad and teach what they like.’
Jerusalem has always been a city of conflict. Even the old Christian
churches – the Armenian, Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian and
Catholic – are known for their disputes, which regularly result
in brawls.
In the current dispute, the Muslims, the old city’s biggest group,
are for once not involved. ‘I do not think these Jews would dare spit
at a Muslim sheikh; the whole city would explode. We are only a small
group, so it easy to bully us,’ said Bishop Aris.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004