1.015 VACANCIES OFFERED BY JULY 1, 2004
YEREVAN, JULY 30. ARMINFO. A total of 1,015 vacancies had been offered
by employers by July 1, 2004, 789 of them in trades.
The RA Employment Service reports that a total of 2,500 Armenian
job-seekers had been involved in the UN “Allowance for Work” program
by July 1, 2004. Special sewing courses have been organized for eight
workers, who later were employed. Twenty four disabled persons are
currently attending the sewing courses. 266 job-seekers, including
ten disabled persons, have taken computer training courses.
Skilled programmers, dealers, translators, insurance agents, brokers,
doctors turners, welders, jewelers and service workers are in great
demand on the market. An Armenian-Swedish-Lithuanian employment
program is being implemented as part of international assistance as
well.

2,936 ARMENIAN REFUGEES WERE NATURALIZED IN REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA IN
FIRST HALF OF 2004
YEREVAN, JULY 30. ARMINFO. In the first half of 2004, 2,936 Armenian
refugees were naturalized in the Republic of Armenia, testify the data
of the Department for Migration and Refugees attached to the Armenian
Government.
According to these data, majority of the refugees, 1,099 who received
passports in the first half of 2004, reside in Yerevan, then goes
Ararat 609 people, Kotayk 323 people, Syunik 265 people, Gegharkunik
218 people, Armavir 133, Lori 119 people, Tavush 81, Aragatsotn 44,
Vayots Dzor 27 and Shirak 18 people. It should be noted that the
greatest number of applications for citizenship were made in February,
2004, (1,301 people were naturalized) and the smallest number was
registered in May (255).

Noyan Tapan Highlights #29 (531)
26 July, 2004
ARMENIA HAS CAUGHT THE DUTCH DISEASE
By Haroutiun Khachatrian
When summing up the results of the economy growth of Armenia in 2003,
the government said the per capita GDP has rose 10 percent to 871
dollar by the end of that year, a more than ten percent growth against
the previous year.
This, by the way, means that Armenia is no longer among the poorest
countries of the world. However, if one decides to calculate the same
ratio in early July, 2004, he will get 1027 dollars per capita, or 18
percent above the level of the preceding year, despite the fact, that
the GDP itself had grown only 9.1 percent. The miracle was due to
another fact, which was not expected or planned by the Armenian
authorities, namely, the growth in the dram rate against the US dollar
(and other currencies circulated in Armenia as well). This year, the
US dollar has dropped almost ten percent to its value of 1999.
The drop of the dollar rate was not expected for the participants of
the market either. This can be seen from the events of the last week,
when the dollar dropped more than 20 drams in three days (causing
almost a panic among the population), then recovered almost as quickly
(see fig 1). The immediate impression was that this is a confusion
among the market participants themselves, although interventions of
some players cannot be ruled out as well.
However, what is more surprising is that not only the participants of
the market, but also the authorities failed to realize the real trend
of the currency market. The fact was really not predicted by any of
the Armenian officials, enough to say that the budget was projected
for the average rate of 580 drams per dollar during the year. It is
evident from the chart placed monthly by the Central Bank (see the
respective chart for May 2004 in fig 2) that the rise of the dram
against the US dollar started as early as in March 2003. There are two
main reason for it, an increase in exports and the even more sizable
rise in private transfers to Armenian residents from abroad (see the
material on this page for more details).
Whatever the reason, the analysts say that the phenomenon is a typical
case of the so-called Dutch disease, the increase of the national
currency. It is usually caused by huge exports of oil (as it was the
case of the Netherlands in 1950s, from where the name arouse) and
which is usually harmful for all other branches of the economy of that
particular country. Armenia is not an exporter of oil, “but we are an
exporter of people instead” a businessman said with smile. In fact,
the reason why the transfers of Armenians abroad have grown so
significantly, and how long this growth will continue, is probably the
most intriguing question to be replied.
Meanwhile, the consequences of this rise in the dram rate (and of
course, the “storm” of the last week) are seen in the economy. In
fact, the exporters are not the only businessmen to suffer, as it
happens usually in the case of the Dutch disease. It has become a
tradition that business partners conclude their deals in dollars, with
payments to be performed in drams “according to the official rate of
the Central Bank of the payment date”. Due to this fact, the number of
those who suffered losses is much larger. An the authorities have no
leverages to protect them.

Chronicle of Higher Education
July 30, 2004
1.htm
American Self-Interest and the Response to Genocide
By ROGER W. SMITH
For 20 years, I taught a course on genocide: What is “genocide,” why
does it happen, who is responsible for it, and how could this ultimate
crime be prevented? I told students that genocide — intentional acts to
eliminate in whole, or in substantial part, a specific human population
— had claimed the lives of some 60 million people in the 20th century,
16 million of them since 1945, when the watchword was “Never again.”
Genocide has, in fact, been so frequent, the number of victims so
extensive, and serious attempts to prevent it so few, that many scholars
have described the 20th century as “the age of genocide.” Some have
wondered if genocide is not itself a product of modernity, the dark
energy of civilization.
But what my students wanted to know was: Why had the nations of the
world, and particularly the United States, which they thought of as both
powerful and just, not prevented the killing of millions of innocent
people? Where was American power and moral commitment when a million
Armenians were being slaughtered in Turkey in 1915, six million
Ukrainians starved to death by Stalin in 1932-33, two million Bengalis
murdered by Pakistan in 1971? What was America doing when still more
millions were killed in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda, not because of
what they had done, but because of who they were? And, of course, there
was the much-discussed question of whether more could have been done to
prevent the Holocaust.
My students also wanted to know why it had taken the United States 40
years to ratify the Genocide Convention, which the United Nations
endorsed unanimously in 1948, with strong U.S. support. The convention
defined genocide and declared it a crime against international law. Why,
as soon as the United States finally did ratify the convention, in 1988,
did it support Saddam Hussein’s regime despite evidence that the
dictator had committed genocide against the Kurds in Iraq in 1987-88?
Today we continue to hear about genocide. As before, however, few
Americans pay much attention. What is happening in Sudan? In Congo? With
indigenous peoples in many other regions? Can you tell me? My students’
questions — and my own — are increasingly important to all of us, both
morally and politically.
Unfortunately they are not easy to answer. Sometimes the response hinges
on factual information, but more often on judgment, an assessment of
competing responsibilities, and context. At the outset we can reject
claims that relieve all bystanders, whether states, organizations, or
individuals, of responsibility for attempting to prevent or mitigate
genocide. One argument, coming from perpetrators, is that victims of
genocide (although the term is avoided) bear responsibility for their
own destruction, having brought it upon themselves through provocation.
Genocide is strictly an internal matter, this argument goes. Outside
powers should mind their own business. Two immediate objections arise:
First, provocations, when they exist at all, stem from a minority of the
group of victims. Most of those who will be killed are innocent. Second,
genocide is seldom without international consequences, ranging from a
vast outpouring of refugees, with the need for large amounts of
humanitarian aid, to regional instability and war.
A recent article in the Journal of Genocide Research provides a chilling
variation on the argument about the responsibility of victims. In
“Provoking Genocide: A Revised History of the Rwandan Patriotic Front,”
Alan J. Kuperman states: “In most cases of mass killing since World War
II — unlike the Holocaust — the victim group has triggered its own
demise by violently challenging the authority of the state.” Kuperman
adds that he does not use provocation to excuse genocide. Nor does he
deny that there is an international responsibility to prevent genocide.
But the obligation takes a bizarre turn: Intervention by third parties
should not be directed against those we perceive as perpetrators; they,
after all, are only defending themselves. Rather, intervention should be
aimed at changing the behavior of the victims. In other words, in the
Rwandan genocide of 1994, the international community should have
ignored the Hutu preparations for genocide and focused, instead, on the
intended Tutsi victims. The upshot of that Alice in Wonderland argument
is that the victims become the perpetrators.
Claims are also made that genocides are inevitable, the result of
ancient hatreds, conflict over scarce resources, or the advance of
progress. A version of the inevitability thesis that found favor with
some international planners in the 1960s was that genocide is simply a
byproduct of development, and benefits to the surviving group outweigh
the costs to the group that is decimated, or perhaps eliminated. Over
the years that argument has been applied not only to the elimination of
indigenous peoples (the Yanomami in Brazil, the Chittagong Hills
tribesmen in Bangladesh), but also to the destruction of the Armenians
in Turkey, which, we are told by some historians, paved the way for a
more unified and stronger nation, one allied with the United States
during the cold war.
Genocide, however, is never inevitable: It is always the result of
choice. And surely lives are not interchangeable.
Another argument is that genocides should be allowed to run their
course: It is best to let the violence complete itself, reducing the
chance for further violence and, hence, any need for intervention. That
proposition, devoid of even animal pity, was advanced to me by a student
in international relations after I mentioned that Rwanda had had
recurrent genocides. Had the killers not been restrained, he asserted,
unity and peace would have been established. When I asked him if he
would maintain his position if he were a member of the group slated for
victimization, he replied that he lived in the United States, and that
therefore the question wasn’t relevant. That was shortly before
September 11.
The field of genocide studies itself is relatively new, dating to the
late 1970s. Several factors were involved: a growing emphasis on the
protection of human rights, the frequency of genocide in the 1960s
(Rwanda, Indonesia) and 1970s (Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia), a
rediscovery of the Armenian genocide and a new awareness of how it had
been denied. Not last: a disenchantment with the emphasis in the social
sciences on methodology at the expense of substance.
One of the best works is still Leo Kuper’s 1982 Genocide: Its Political
Use in the Twentieth Century, which discusses the nature and history of
genocide, its treatment under international law, the conditions that
promote it, and the inability of the United Nations to suppress it. But
since the book’s publication, new genocides have been committed,
extensive research on genocide has been conducted, and explanations of
why genocides occur have taken on new sophistication. Three recent books
provide essential, updated information about genocide in the 20th
century.
The first, The New Killing Fields: Massacre and the Politics of
Intervention, edited by Nicolaus Mills and Kira Brunner, is perhaps the
narrowest, yet the most contemporary, focusing on four cases of
genocide: Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and East Timor. Most of the essays
are by journalists, some of whom were present as genocide was taking
place around them. Their accounts, mostly descriptive and personal,
provide a wealth of information. The New Killing Fields also includes
two essays, by Michael Walzer and Samantha Power, that suggest how we
can begin to evaluate international responses to genocide. When, where,
how, and at what cost should outside states intervene? More on that
later.
Eric D. Weitz’s A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation also
concentrates on four cases of genocide in the 20th century: the Soviet
Union, Nazi Germany, Cambodia, and Bosnia/Kosovo. Systematic in his
comparisons, Weitz concludes that those genocides were the result of
“ideologies of race and nation, revolutionary regimes with vast utopian
ambitions, moments of crisis generated by war and domestic upheaval.”
What is distinctive about his thesis is that he maintains that genocide
has a dual character: It is organized by states but is possible on a
vast scale, as in the 20th century, only with widespread participation
by the population. The book is also strong in its emphasis on the
rituals of degradation and cruelty that occur in genocide. Its weakness
is that it omits the Rwandan genocide altogether, and its concentration
on the Soviet Union gets bogged down in party purges and political
repression, which Weitz admits are not examples of genocide. (Many of
those sent to the gulag were released, and Soviet officials often
thought they were pursuing “reform” rather than annihilation, he notes.)
On the other hand, the Stalin-induced famine in the Ukraine in 1932-33,
intended to destroy the kulaks as a class, end Ukrainian nationalism,
and force peasants into collective farms, receives virtually no
attention, though most scholars regard it as genocide.
If the other books are selective in the cases of genocide they focus
upon, The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective,
edited by Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, strives to be comprehensive.
It discusses the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and genocides against
indigenous peoples in Africa, North America, and Australia, and is
particularly strong on its coverage of genocides in the post-1945
period: Indonesia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Rwanda, East Timor, and
Guatemala. The cumulative impact of the book is to demonstrate just how
prevalent state-sponsored mass murder has been in the 20th century.
Rather than an aberration, genocide has been commonplace, occurring in
most parts of the world. Oddly, however, at least two major examples are
omitted: the mass killing in East Pakistan, and Saddam Hussein’s gassing
of the Kurds. Those are important in their own right, but also, as we
shall see, in terms of the U.S. response to them.
Almost from the beginning, the field of genocide studies has been
concerned with two questions: Not just, Why does genocide take place?,
but also, How can it be prevented? One early idea seemed to offer great
promise: a “genocide early-warning system.” Comparative analysis would
provide indicators to predict where imminent threats of genocide
existed; intervention could follow immediately. Naïvely, scholars
assumed that individual states or international organizations would act
on evidence of when and where genocide was likely to occur. It didn’t
take long to realize that the problem wasn’t about knowing, but about
doing. It was a matter of political will.
Inaction and political will became the major topics of discussion in
genocide studies as of the mid-’80s. But as often happens in academic
life, we were talking mainly to each other. There was little attempt to
engage either policy makers or the public in a dialogue. Nor was there
an effort to provide a comprehensive account of American policy toward
genocide over the course of the 20th century. Some of us thought about
doing such a study, but the idea seemed so huge that it was shelved.
Then in 2002, the book did appear and, significantly, addressed not so
much the academy as the public and the political establishment.
Samantha Power’s “A Problem From Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide
won a Pulitzer Prize for its thorough documentation of the dark history
of the American inaction to stop genocide in the 20th century and its
explanation of why the United States had failed to act. Only rarely did
the U.S. government even condemn the killing as it was taking place. For
Power, “What is most shocking is that U.S. policy makers did almost
nothing to deter the crime.” Of course, there were individuals, both in
government and in society, who sought to change policy, but, Power
notes, their efforts failed. The United States, on the other hand, has
been both generous and effective in providing humanitarian aid after a
people has been decimated.
It is not just a question of inaction. Power tells us that on several
occasions, the United States “directly or indirectly aided those
committing genocide.” We provided $500-million in agricultural and
manufacturing credits to Iraq as that country was destroying thousands
of Kurdish villages and gassing Kurds. After Vietnam had ousted
Cambodia’s Pol Pot regime, the United States, in an effort to deny
Vietnam influence in that country, took the lead in the United Nations
in recognizing the genocidal Khmer Rouge as the legitimate government of
Cambodia. The United States also led the arms embargo against the
Bosnian Muslims, even though it was clear that doing so would prevent
them from defending themselves. And it did everything in its power to
remove U.N. peacekeepers from Rwanda and prevent their return. Some
800,000 persons died as a result; the violence also spilled over into
neighboring countries, setting off local and regional wars. Other
examples pile up.
How can we explain the U.S. response to genocide? Those who made the
decisions not to act typically argued that they didn’t know what was
going on, that the facts were unclear, that any effort to stop the
killing would have been futile, that the United States lacked the means
to do so, that intervention would have made the situation even worse.
Power rejects such claims: “Simply put, American leaders did not act
because they did not want to. They believed that genocide was wrong, but
they were not prepared to invest the military, financial, diplomatic, or
domestic political capital needed to stop it.” On the other hand, when
it seemed to be in the national interest, those same policy makers could
collaborate in genocide either by giving permission (East Timor) or by
active support (Indonesia, Guatemala).
For the most part, genocide in the 20th century seemed to be something
that happened to other people, in other parts of the world, with little
effect on American interests, narrowly defined. It was seldom a subject
of public debate. There has been, Power says, a mutual failure in the
democratic process: An uninformed public makes no demands for the
suppression of genocide, and politicians, having done what they can to
silence the public, cite the lack of public demand as a basis for
inaction as genocide claims its victims.
There has always been, however, a problem about how public opinion is
related to public policy. I would argue that relatively small,
well-organized lobbying groups are more likely to be effective in moving
policy makers to act against genocide than broad, but somewhat
amorphous, public opinion. Public opinion may be reported, but it
doesn’t get direct access to policy makers the way human-rights
lobbyists sometimes can. Moreover, human-rights groups have the
expertise to be persuasive and the commitment to stay with the issue as
public opinion — easily manipulated by those with power and an
ideological agenda — waxes and wanes.
But the reverse is also true: Farm and manufacturing interests were able
to defeat the legislation that would have prohibited credits to Iraq
after the gassing of the Kurds. Nearly 25 percent of American rice
production annually went to Iraq, along with a million tons of wheat,
insecticides, fertilizers, tractors, and so on. Agricultural lobbyists
argued that Iraq was not an enemy, but an opportunity. Suspending
credits would not punish Iraq — other countries would supply Saddam
Hussein. American businesses would be the real victims. The Reagan
administration, also claiming that “engagement” with Iraq would allow a
gentler dictator to emerge, seconded those arguments.
We can see the impact of public opinion, and its limitations, in Peter
Balakian’s important book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and
America’s Response. There are several interrelated themes and narratives
in The Burning Tigris. First, there are the detailed, heart-wrenching
accounts of the Turkish massacres of some 200,000 Armenians in the
1890s, and of the genocide, beginning in 1915, that claimed the lives of
at least a million Armenians. At the same time, the author describes the
dedication and courage of American diplomats, who tried, with little
support from the State Department, to end the carnage. But there is also
the story of a broadly based American humanitarian movement that sought
to provide relief to the Armenians in their desperate condition, and
that demanded that the U.S. government protect them from further
violence. Balakian, however, shows that by the beginning of the 1920s
there was a growing conflict between public opinion, which strongly
supported an independent Armenia, and a Congress and White House that
had other interests. In his final chapter, he documents Turkey’s
continuing denial of the Armenian genocide and its efforts, largely
successful, to enlist the White House and State Department in defeating
Congressional resolutions that would publicly recognize the genocide.
But the point to emphasize here is that while public support was crucial
for the relief efforts and helped save many lives, it was not able to
carry the day politically. The United States did not declare war on
Turkey in World War I, even though Turkey and Germany were allies. An
influential group of missionaries and their supporters argued that their
colleges and schools would be seized by Turkey, and that relief supplies
would not be allowed in the country. After World War I, although the
public strongly supported an American mandate to protect the fragile
Armenian state, a growing isolationism in Congress put an end to the
project. From 1920 on, where Armenia was concerned, it was through the
voice not of the people, but of big oil. As one Senate critic summarized
the Harding administration’s attitude: “Show this administration an oil
well, and it will show you a foreign policy.” Shades of the past
continue. Did Iraqi oil help blunt criticism of what was happening to
the Kurds?
Whether the issue is about taxes or human rights, elites and their
interest groups tend to prevail. In part that is because most
human-rights organizations in the United States have small budgets. And
in part because the major humanitarian organizations have differing
agendas: Amnesty International focuses on individuals, Human Rights
Watch on policy and institutions. Other groups focus on humanitarian aid
once the slaughter has commenced. As a result resources and efforts are
scattered. What recent scholarship helps us see is that those who want
the United States to take a more active stance against genocide have no
choice but to create organizations that can lobby more effectively than
they have in the past.
In addition, it is crucial that policy makers redefine “national
interest” to include the prevention of genocide abroad. How such a
conceptual revolution can come about is problematic, but without it, we
can expect only more of the same: the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
people while Uncle Sam takes a hike. The case for an expanded
understanding of the national interest is not new. It has had a
prominent place in scholarly discussions for at least the past 20 years,
but it has either been ignored or viewed with skepticism by most in
power.
The argument rests on two elements. The first is moral: Genocide is a
crime committed upon a particular people, but by its very nature, it is
also a crime against humankind, permanently diminishing the biological
and cultural possibilities of human existence. It is an outrage to our
sense of justice. Since when can we support, allow, defend the mass
killing of the innocent? The second reason: Genocide leads to war,
regional and international instability, disruption of trade, an enormous
outflow of refugees, and if not stopped, sends a message to would-be
perpetrators that they can go ahead with impunity. Further still, as
Power reminds us, survivors of genocide may become a threat in the
future, harboring a thirst for vengeance and having learned that
violence is an acceptable way to “solve” social and political problems.
In that sense, the case for the prevention of genocide is rooted in
enlightened self-interest.
A major barrier to an expanded notion of national interest or, more
generally, a willingness to prevent or mitigate genocide, is that
“intervention” is widely thought to mean solely military intervention.
That is, in fact, how the political theorist Michael Walzer understands
the term in his essay in The New Killing Fields. He would limit military
intervention to cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing; other violations
of human rights, however egregious, would be left to the local
population. Whether he would approve of Britain’s recent military
intervention in Sierra Leone is uncertain.
Moreover, Walzer insists that the task of intervention is limited: “Once
the massacres and ethnic cleansing are really over and the people in
command are committed to avoiding their return, the intervention is
finished.” He notes that “when intervention is understood in this
minimalist fashion, it may be a little easier to see it through.” But in
his new book, Arguing About War, Walzer supports intervening countries’
staying for the long term: “Humanitarian intervention radically shifts
the argument about endings, because now the war is from the beginning an
effort to change the regime that is responsible for inhumanity.” That
position may be logical, but it also suggests the difficulties that make
countries and international organizations unwilling to commit
themselves.
There are other ways of thinking about intervention. Actual military
intervention may sometimes be necessary to stop a continuing genocide,
as it was in East Pakistan in 1971 and East Timor in 1999. In some cases
intervention may prevent genocide: Gen. Roméo Dallaire, the U.N.
commander in Rwanda, thought that 5,000 troops would have been adequate
to thwart the impending genocide. But nations can also respond to
genocide, or the likelihood of genocide, short of military intervention,
with all of its human and political risks. The options are not confined
to either doing nothing or waging full battle with the genocidal regime.
Part of the problem is to identify in advance the countries most likely
to commit genocide and take steps to mediate conflicts; to transform, as
much as possible, the conditions that give rise to genocide; and to use
a variety of incentives and threats to affect decisions in the
potentially genocidal regime. Once genocide begins, there are also steps
that intervening nations or groups can take. Samantha Power provides a
compelling list of such actions. She urges countries to “respond to
genocide with a sense of urgency, publicly identifying and threatening
the perpetrators with prosecution, demanding the expulsion of
representatives of genocidal regimes from international institutions
such as the United Nations, closing the perpetrators’ embassies in the
United States, and calling upon countries aligned with the perpetrators
to ask them to use their influence.” Other actions might include
economic sanctions, freezing financial assets, and, to prevent
incitement of genocide, jamming radio and televisions channels that spew
out messages of hate. Ultimately, military intervention may nevertheless
be necessary, although that would not have to be undertaken by just one
nation.
Multilateral intervention provides greater legitimacy, reducing the
perception that action has more to do with self-interest than with
humanitarianism, and thus helps to securely establish the right to
intervene to stop mass killing. It also distributes the burden of
intervention. But intervention by a single state may be justified, as
when India used force in adjacent East Pakistan in 1971.
Yet, if the U.S. government has a dismal record on responding to
genocide, there have been signs in the past 10 years of possible change.
After a very late start a U.S.-led NATO force intervened in Bosnia,
first with air power, then with the orchestration of the Dayton Accords;
that was followed by military intervention in Kosovo. Then in 1999, the
United States supported U.N. intervention in East Timor to protect the
right to self-determination and what was left of a people still under
assault by militias and the Indonesian army. For several years a joint
CIA-State Department genocide early-warning system has been in place.
At present the State Department is discussing whether the mass killing,
razing of villages, and burning of crops in the Darfur region of Sudan,
by government-supported Arab militias against non-Arabs who live in the
region, constitutes genocide. (However, possible sanctions mentioned
publicly, like freezing the killers’ assets in the United States, are
more symbolic than likely to have a real impact.)
But there have also been countersigns: the steadfast refusal to
recognize the International Criminal Court that could try, as a last
resort, persons accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
genocide. Moreover, the war against terrorism is taking center stage,
once more helping to push genocide to the back of our consciousness.
Even if the political will to prevent genocide suddenly appears, another
problem exists. Most genocide scholars and human-rights advocates
believe that, unless the United States takes the lead, other countries
will stay on the sidelines, as they have in the past. But American power
is not enough. To enlist others in the effort to prevent genocide, moral
authority is required. Therein lies the issue: What is left of America’s
moral credibility after Iraq?
Roger W. Smith is a professor emeritus of government at the College of
William & Mary and a former president of the Association of Genocide
Scholars.
KEY WORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS ESSAY
Arguing About War, by Michael Walzer (Yale University Press, 2004).
The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, by
Peter Balakian (HarperCollins, 2003).
A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Raceand Nation, by Eric D. Weitz
(Princeton University Press, 2003).
Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century, by Leo Kuper (Yale
University Press, 1982).
The New Killing Fields: Massacre and the Politics of Intervention,
edited by Nicolaus Mills and Kira Brunner (Basic Books, 2002).
“A Problem From Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide, by Samantha
Power (Basic Books, 2002).
“Provoking Genocide: A Revised History of the Rwandan Patriotic Front,”
by Alan J. Kuperman, in the Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 6, No. 1,
March 2004:61-84.
The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective, edited
by Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Section: The Chronicle Review
Volume 50, Issue 47, Page B6

MAJORITY OF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN POPULATION FOR PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE
30.07.2004 13:49
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The majority of the population of Armenia and
Azerbaijan is for peaceful coexistence. The results of a sociological
survey, held in Armenia and Azerbaijan by Millenium Educational Research
Association and Azerbaijani Sociological Association with the support of
Texas University, evidence it. 1000 people were questioned in each of
the two countries and 200 Armenians and the same number of Azeris from
Nagorno Karabakh, Azg Yerevan newspaper reported. 74.2% of respondents
from Armenia and 45.8% of those from Azerbaijan come for restoration of
relations between the two countries. 97% of Armenians and 93% of Azeris
interviewed said they wished to coexist peacefully. As a precondition
for restoration of previous ties 60% of Armenian respondents mentioned
the independence of Nagorno Karabakh. 38% of those questioned in
Azerbaijan said liberation of “occupied territories” was such a
precondition. The return of refugees to Nagorno Karabakh was also noted.
Both parties point to the governments of their own countries as the
authors of the conflict.

SPECIAL TROOPS SENT TO ARMENIAN-POPULATED VILLAGE IN GEORGIA
30.07.2004 13:28
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The other day special troops were sent to
Tapatskhuri village of Borjomi region of Georgia. The Ministry of
Internal Affairs of Georgia explains the step by the intention of the
residents of the mostly Armenian-populated village to impede the
construction works of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. As
reported by A-Info news agency, the villagers are displeased that they
have not been paid the compensation, assigned by the Borjomi regional
court due to the building of the pipeline. According to the source, no
incidents were registered between the military and the residents.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Caucasus Environmental NGO Network
(CENN)
70 Electronic Bulletin:
Caucasus Environmental News
Welcome to the July issue of the Caucasus Environmental News electronic
bulletin prepared by participants of the Caucasus Environmental NGO
Network (CENN).
VISIT CENN WEB SITE:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Announcements
1.1. Information regarding the IMF / World Bank annual meetings
1.2. EIA Report of “Accomplishment and research of the inert materials
of Krtsanisi, Gardabani Region”
1.3. EIA Report of “Project of the cement grinding mini enterprise in
Tbilisi.” by the `Georgian Tazm’ Ltd
1.4. EIA Report of “Manganese processing mini enterprise in Chiatura” by
the `Laguna’ Ltd
1.5. EIA Report of the “Project on the processing of the Saskhor
carbonate deposit, west section in Mtskheta region ” by the
`Kaspicement” Ltd
2. News from Georgia
2.1. Major BTC story: BP, its pipeline, and an environmental time bomb
2.2. BTC Co. represent naives visit Borjomi portion of
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
2.3. $2bn already invested in Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline
2.4. CIP Improved School Project contract awarded
2.5. Georgia to sell 5 hydro plants
2.6. BTC construction suspended
3. News from Azerbaijan
3.1. Caspian region’s ecology to be in focus
3.2. Turkey and Azerbaijan sign agreement on environment protection
cooperation
3.3. BP conducts seminar
3.4. Ecological situation under supervision
4. News from Armenia
4.1. The lake Sevan’s level increase
4.2. One killed, 7 injured in explosion at Armenian power station
4.3. Rapid poverty monitoring methodology developed by UNDP Armenia
4.4. Summer school was held at the Yeravan State University
5. NGO News
5.1. Campaigners urge halt to BP “environmental timebomb”
-Whistleblowers expose Turkey pipeline
6. Legal News
6.1. State Sanitary Supervision Inspection of Tbilisi
6.2. The government of Georgia adopted resolution #50
7. International News
7.1. Caucasian reserve: Whether explosions will thunder nearby?
7.2. Five new natural world heritage sites designed
7.3. Childhood pesticide poisoning: Information for advocacy and action
7.4. The Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health
7.5. Expert Group on Public Participation in International Forums
7.6. Pine trees send a warning to nuclear community
7.7. World Bank faces calls for poverty test on energy projects
8 Calendar (International)
8.1. Second International Ukrainian Conference on Biomass for Energy
8.2. Call for paper: Bioenergy in Wood Industry
SUBSCRIBING INFORMATION
1. ANNOUNCEMENTS
1.1. INFORMATION REGARDING THE IMF / WORLD BANK ANNUAL MEETINGS
Dear Civil Society Colleagues:
This is to update you on relevant information related to the
accreditation process and civil society dialogues during the upcoming
Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank that will take place in
Washington, DC on October 4-5, 2004. You can also find this information
at the World Bank’s website for CSOs at:
ACCREDITATION
You can now apply online for accreditation to attend the 2004 Annual
Meetings and related events. To do so, please go to:
Once you submit
your request for accreditation, you will receive an instant email reply
confirming the receipt of your request, and advising you how to check on
the status of your application while it is being processed. As you
might know, all requests for visitors, including civil society, are
subject to clearance. Your request will be cleared by the Executive
Director of the country from which your request originates.
If you are unable to submit this request on-line, please fax your
written request, on your institution’s letterhead paper, to the Special
Guests and Visitors Office at: (1-202) 522-7408. Your request should
include your full name, title, complete mailing address and
telephone/facsimile numbers, and an e-mail address if possible.
We strongly encourage you to apply for accreditation as soon as
possible. Many of you will need a visa to enter the United States and
that could take a long time to obtain. Please initiate the visa process
as soon as possible. If the US authorities in your country request a
confirmation letter or fax in order to get your visa, please contact:
Special Guests and Visitors Office, World Bank
Telephone: (1-202) 458-0264
Facsimile: (1-202) 522-7408
After you’ve completed the online registration and have received the
email receipt they will be able to issue such letter/fax for you.
The deadline for accreditation is September 3, 2004. NO REQUESTS WILL BE
ACCEPTED AFTER THIS DEADLINE.
NGO/PRESS
Please note that as of this year, the NGO/PRESS badge will be
discontinued. We will provide the accredited CSOs with a meeting space
close to the press room in the IMF building for meetings with
journalists, CSO press conferences etc. The room will be equipped with
work stations and a live feed from the press conference room. We will
also distribute in that room all communiquÈs and other press releases as
soon as they become public and available to journalists. Also, a number
of seats in the press conference room will be reserved for CSOs, who
will be accommodated on a first-come, first-serve basis. We will do our
best to facilitate your contacts with the press covering the Annual
Meetings.
POLICY DIALOGUE SESSIONS FOR CSOs
In an effort to address the major development challenges and in response
to requests coming from civil society, a number of Policy Dialogue
Sessions for interested CSO representatives will be organized before and
during the 2004 Annual Meetings, between Wednesday, September 29 and
Wednesday, October 6. We welcome any suggestions and ideas of topics of
these discussions. You can submit your comments to:
[email protected] for World Bank or: [email protected] for IMF
meetings. Details of these dialogues will be made available at:
closer to the date.
We’re looking forward to seeing many of you in Washington!
World Bank and IMF Civil Society Teams
_______________________________
Civil Society Team
The World Bank
Phone: (1-202) 473-1840
1.2. EIA REPORT OF ” ACCOMPLISHMENT AND RESEARCH OF THE INERT MATERIALS
OF KRTSANISI, GARDABANI REGION”
Source: `Sakartvelos Respublica’ (`Republic of Georgia’), July 7, 2004
In accordance with the Georgian legislation, entrepreneur Paata Chokheli
submitted EIA report to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia to obtain
an environmental permit for the activity of second category
-Accomplishment and Research of the inert materials of Krtsanisi,
Gardabani Region.
EIA report is available at the press-center of the Ministry of
Environment (68, Kostava Str., VI floor) and at the Department of
Environmental Permits and State Ecological Expertise (87, Paliashvili
Str., Tel: 25 02 19). Interested stakeholders can analyze the document
and present their comments and considerations until September 2, 2003.
Public hearing will be held on September 2, 2003 at 12:00, at the
conference hall of the Ministry of Environment.
1.3. EIA REPORT OF ” PROJECT OF THE CEMENT GRINDING MINI ENTERPRISE IN
TBILISI.” BY THE `GEORGIAN TAZM’ LTD
Source: `Sakartvelos Respublica’ (`Republic of Georgia’), July 16, 2004
In accordance with the Georgian legislation, `Georgian Tazm’ Ltd.
submitted EIA report to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia to obtain
an environmental permit for the activity of second category -Project of
the cement Grinding Mini Enterprise in Tbilisi.
EIA report is available at the press-center of the Ministry of
Environment (68, Kostava Str., VI floor) and at the Department of
Environmental Permits and State Ecological Expertise (87, Paliashvili
Str., Tel: 25 02 19). Interested stakeholders can analyze the document
and present their comments and considerations until August 31, 2004.
Public hearing will be held on August 31, 2004 at 12:00, at the
conference hall of the Ministry of Environment.
1.4. EIA REPORT OF “MANGANESE PROCESSING MINI ENTERPRISE IN CHIATURA” BY
THE `LAGUNA’ LTD
Source: `Sakartvelos Respublica’ (`Republic of Georgia’), July 16, 2004
In accordance with the Georgian legislation, `Laguna’ Ltd. submitted EIA
report to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia to obtain an
environmental permit for the activity of first category -Project of the
oil and Flour Producing Enterprise from the fish, in Poti.
EIA report is available at the press-center of the Ministry of
Environment (68, Kostava Str., VI floor) and at the Department of
Environmental Permits and State Ecological Expertise (87, Paliashvili
Str., Tel: 25 02 19). Interested stakeholders can analyze the document
and present their comments and considerations until August 31, 2004.
Public hearing will be held on August 31, 2004 at 12:00, at the
conference hall of the Ministry of Environment.
1.5. EIA REPORT OF THE “PROJECT ON THE PROCESSING OF THE SASKHOR
CARBONATE DEPOSIT, WEST SECTION IN MTSKHETA REGION ” BY THE
`KASPICEMENT” LTD
Source: `Sakartvelos Respublica’ (`Republic of Georgia’), July 16, 2004
In accordance with the Georgian legislation, `Kaspicement’ Ltd.
submitted EIA report to the Ministry of Environment of Georgia to obtain
an environmental permit for the activity of second category -Project on
the Processing of the Saskhor Carbonate Deposit, West Section in
Mtskheta Region..
EIA report is available at the press-center of the Ministry of
Environment (68, Kostava Str., VI floor) and at the Department of
Environmental Permits and State Ecological Expertise (87, Paliashvili
Str., Tel: 25 02 19). Interested stakeholders can analyze the document
and present their comments and considerations until August 31, 2004.
Public hearing will be held on August 31, 2004 at 12:00, at the
conference hall of the Ministry of Environment.
2. NEWS FROM GEORGIA
2.1. MAJOR BTC STORY: BP, ITS PIPELINE, AND AN ENVIRONMENTAL TIMEBOMB
Please find below two related articles about the BTC pipeline from
Saturday’s edition of the UK’s “Independent” newspaper.
EXPOSED: BP, ITS PIPELINE, AND AN ENVIRONMENTAL TIMEBOMB
Source: Independent, June 26, 2004
The safety of a controversial oil pipeline being built by one of
Britain’s largest companies has been jeopardize by cost cutting,
incompetence and shoddy workmanship by contractors, whistleblowers have
reported.
Former senior workers have revealed a catalogue of failures they say
could lead to a major oil leak that would devastate one of the world’s
most environmentally sensitive areas. A dossier including their
evidence, seen by The Independent, indicates BP’s contractors and
sub-contractors are cutting corners to get the job completed on time.
The whistleblowers, qualified professionals, say BP made a major mistake
in handing control of the section of the 1,000-mile pipeline through
Turkey to a government-owned company, BOTAS, on a fixed-price contract.
The full line runs from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean
port of Ceyhan.
The project ran into opposition from civil rights and environmental
groups when BTC, the 11-member consortium led by BP, sought funding from
public bodies such as the World Bank and the UK’s Export Credit
Guarantee Department (ECGD). Opponents said the pipeline, which would be
driven through some of the world’s most earthquake-prone and
conflict-ridden areas, would wreak environmental, social and economic
havoc. A spokesman for the ECGD said the department believed it had made
a full assessment of the project before it decided to support it.
The whistleblowers’ statements, which will be given to the MPs next
month, say that:
o builders cut off villages’ water supplies, flooded farmland and
allowed oil leaks;
o there were insufficient checks for the risk of the pipe buckling in
earthquake zones;
o crucial welding work often failed inspections;
o those who complained were sacked or made to leave;
o workers handled toxic coating materials without proper health and
safety equipment.
Dennis Adams, a senior engineer who quit after six weeks after not being
paid, said the contractors’ work was disorganized and mismanaged. Pipes
were left exposed for longer than specifications allowed and trenches
were filled with materials that might allow uncontrolled movement of the
pipes. “Safety violations were occurring at all times, including workers
in deep unprotected and unstable areas,” he said.
“I don’t have much hope for the future integrity or proper maintenance
and operation of a pipeline of this size and importance being primarily
sponsored by one of the largest petroleum companies in the world. It is
quite obvious that [BP] are not in control of the Turkish section of
this pipeline.”
Another manager, who asked not to be named, said he was removed from his
job after he raised concerns over the way the project was being managed.
“I have over 20 years’ pipeline experience and this project is unique.
It’s a complete mess-up. No one wants this on their CV. It’s an
embarrassment.”
Documents were not properly kept and problems with inspections and the
quality of the work being done were covered up. “Everything is done
badly,” he said. “I believe at this stage that quality issues – health,
safety, environment – will be substantially affected.”
Colynn Burrell, an American with 35 years’ experience, said he was
dismissed after 10 weeks working at the Ceyhan terminal for highlighting
major design problems. He complained about a problem with the drainage
system that meant toxins flowed straight into the ground. “I insisted on
getting the subcontractor to seal the perforations at the bottom of the
pipe to create a channel. The manager said it was expensive.” Mr.
Burrell said he was told at one point that all pipe welding was being
failed by inspectors; the normal failure rate was 6 per cent.
Mike Morley, a Briton who was sacked as a weld-coatings inspector, said
“numerous” welds had to be redone; many others had been laid before
inspection. Even when inspections did take place, the results were not
filed. The House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee has started an
inquiry into the decision by the department to use taxpayers’ money to
underwrite loans of $150m (£83m). Martin O’Neill, Committee chairman,
said he would look at all allegations “without prejudice”. The ECGD has
commissioned a new report into the pipeline, which is expected next
month.
A spokesman for BP said last night: “We, along with Botas, will continue
look at any serious allegations and if they are valid make sure they are
put right.” He said Botas had pledged to maintain the highest health,
safety, environment, labour and human rights standards and good
international practices. “Botas has an obligation and BTC [the
consortium] expects that Botas’s construction techniques and testing
regimes will ensure the pipeline will be laid safely and that it will
operate safely in accordance with those standards,” he said.
“Inevitably with construction projects of this size there are
challenges, but BTC will continue to work with our partner to resolve
them.”
HIDDEN COSTS OF PIPELINE MEANT TO SAFEGUARD WEST’S OIL SUPPLY
Source: Independent, June 26, 2004
Where there’s oil, there’s trouble – and never has that been truer than
today amid fears of a price surge that could pitch the world’s economy
back into recession.
More than a decade ago the West, and particularly the United States,
realized that it needed to guarantee oil supplies well into the next
century in an increasingly war-torn world.
And that was before Osama bin Laden threatened to take control of Saudi
Arabia, the world’s largest producer, and oil-rich Russia’s government
embarked on a plan to take control of its vast reserves.
The answer was to cut out those two tinderbox regions by building a
pipeline that would bring crude from the Caspian Sea to the
Mediterranean coast and the safe hands of fellow Nato member Turkey.
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, two former Soviet states that border the
Caspian, between them have oil reserves three times the size of
America’s. The challenge was to find a secure way of getting the oil
into the petrol tanks of gas-guzzling SUVs before oil shortages and
soaring prices pushed the price of gas on America’s forecourts to
sky-high levels.
By 2010 the Caspian region could produce 3.7 million barrels per day.
This could fill a large hole in world supplies as world oil demand is
expected to grow from 76 million a day in 2000 to 118.9 million by 2020.
By this time the Middle Eastern members of Opec would be looking to
supply half of that need.
The answer was to drive a 1,090-mile, 42-inch wide pipe – the world’s
longest export pipeline – along a 500-metre-wide corridor from the
Caspian Sea port of Baku in Azerbaijan to Ceyhan in Turkey via some of
the world’s most unstable and conflict-ridden nations. When it is
complete next year, the pipeline will pump 4.2 million barrels a year,
easing the US’s reliance on the unstable Gulf states for oil.
The project will cost up to $4bn (£2.4bn) and is being built by BTC, a
consortium of 11 companies led by BP. Almost three quarters of the
funding will come in the form of bank loans, including $600m from public
bodies such as the World Bank.
In the face of opposition from British pressure groups such as Friends
of the Earth and civil rights groups such as the Kurdish Human Rights
Project, BP set up an independent group, the Caspian Development
Advisory Panel (CDAP). The panel, which included people such as Jan
Leschly, a former head of SmithKline Beecham, and the former US Treasury
under-secretary Stuart Eisenstat, raised concerns about the project at
the end of last year. In their report they said they were worried
whether BOTAS, the company awarded the contract to build the Turkish
section, would meet its social, environmental and health and safety
commitments given its “weak but evolving environmental and social
compliance culture.
“The panel heard concerns that BOTAS and its contractors might feel
pressure to cut corners on environmental, social and technical standards
to remain on schedule.”
It added: “The panel encourages BP… to use all its leverage, including
stoppage of work, if necessary, to ensure BOTAS fulfils its
commitments.” But CDAP’s concerns went wider, offering detailed advice
on how to better protect human rights given that Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Turkey have all recently seen “internal or external conflict”.
“The poor human rights record of host governments’ security and military
forces create a significant reputational risk for BP and BTC,” it said.
Objectors say the impact goes even wider. They say the threat is twofold
– what happens if the pipeline goes wrong, and the destruction it would
wreak even if it goes right. They say that the project will worsen the
already polluted Caspian Sea, where sturgeon numbers are reckoned to be
collapsing. In Georgia, the project will clear areas in two dense
primary forests, cross the buffer zone of a protected natural park, and
could badly affect several rare and endangered species.
In Turkey there are more than 500 endemic plant species within the
corridor, while a third of the country’s globally threatened vertebrates
are found within 250 meters of the corridor.
The route crosses two sites protected under national legislation,
including a wildlife protection area for the Caucasian grouse, a
threatened species. There are two critically endangered plant species
and 15 bird species with nesting pairs numbering 500 or less within the
corridor.
Campaigners say legal agreements make BP the effective governing power
over the corridor, over-riding all environmental, social, human rights
or other laws, present and future, for the next 40 years. Amnesty
International says the consortium concluded an unprecedented agreement
with the Turkish government that, it claims, would in effect strip local
people and workers of their civil rights. And that’s if the project goes
to plan.
If the project were to go wrong, for instance if an earthquake broke the
pipe or the project fell into the hands of terrorists, the consequences
would be far more serious. Turkey lies in an earthquake zone, with 17
major shocks in the past 80 years. Since the Baku line will be in place
for some 40 years, there is a high chance of a major earthquake during
its operation.
The World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
Britain’s Export Credit Guarantee Department and the World Bank’s
International Finance Company all carried out extensive assessments of
the project before they decided to lend or underwrite money.
The four whistleblowers that contacted The Independent all said the way
the pipeline was being built failed all international standards. This
included incorrect materials being supplied, work being started before
the land had been surveyed, and the pipe installed before it had been
inspected.
Greg Muttitt, of the campaign group Platform, said: “Environment groups
have raised concerns about the design of this pipeline for the past two
years. What we are seeing now though is that the problems are far worse
than we had imagined. This is a deeply flawed project. Now the banks,
which ignored the warnings and financed the project regardless, have
some serious questions to answer.”
2.2. BTC CO. REPRESENTATIVES VISIT BORJOMI PORTION OF
BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN PIPELINE
Source: Sarke, June 25, 2004
On June 24, 2004 the representatives of Board of Directors of BTC Co.,
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company, visited the Borjomi canyon; Sarke
has been told in the BP representation. The construction of the oil
pipeline will shortly be launched on this ecologically complicated
region.
2.3. $2BN ALREADY INVESTED IN BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE
Source: RBC, June 28, 2004
Some $ 2bn have been spent on the project of constructing the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Trend news agency reported citing
Nagit Aliyev, the President of the Azerbaijani State Oil Company
(GNKAR). On the whole, according to him, shareholders in the project
will invest about $3bn.
The current pace of construction is about 1 kilometer of a pipeline a
day. Aliyev noted that the oil pipeline would be ready for operation by
the time oil production started in the central part of the Azeri field.
The GNKAR head also declared that many European companies were
interested in the project of laying the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas
pipeline. Moreover, he mentioned that the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development had decided to allocate a $170m credit to
GNKAR to finance its share in Phase-1 of the Shah-Deniz project and $1m
on reorganizing the state company.
The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is planned to
be finished by the end of 2004. The capacity of the 1,760-kilometer
pipelineó is 50m tons of oil per year. The cost of the construction is
estimated at $2.95bn. Among shareholders in the project are BP (30.1
percent), GNKAR (25 percent), Unocal (8.9 percent), Statoil (8.71
percent), TPAO (6.53 percent), Eni (5 percent), Total (5 percent),
Itochu (3.4 percent), In³ex (2.5 percent), ConocoPhilli³s (2.5 percent)
and Amerada
2.4. CIP IMPROVED SCHOOL PROJECT CONTRACT AWARDED
Press Release
Source: The Georgian Messenger, July 15, 2004
BP, as the operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline
and South Caucasus (SCP) gas pipeline projects, is pleased to announce
the launch of the USD 2.4 mln CIP — Improved School Project in Georgia
(ISP).
Improved School Project is an extension of the Community Investment
Program (CIP), implementation of which started a year ago, in March
2003. The aim of CIP is to deliver tangible benefits to the communities
along the pipeline route by promoting sustainable social and economic
development, focusing on the projects relating to infrastructure
repair/rehabilitation, agricultural improvements, sustainable income
generation through micro credit and community capacity building. CIP has
focused on the villages within the 2 km corridor on either side of the
pipeline.
Based on the consultations with various NGOs, government, local
communities, and with the aim to spread the CIP benefits to the towns
along the pipeline route, BP and its partners in the BTC and SCP
projects have decided to implement the CIP — Improved School Project in
the towns along the pipeline in addition to the current CIP activities.
The aim of the CIP -ISP is to promote sustainable socio-economic
development of urban areas along the pipeline route by preparing
adolescent to participate more effectively in Georgia’s future social
and economic growth.
CIP — Improved School Project provides an opportunity to invest in both
physical infrastructure rehabilitation and capacity building for
teachers, administrators, partners and students of secondary schools,
thus also supporting the Government of Georgia’s Education System
Realignment and Strengthening Program.
Key outputs of the CIP -ISP project will include:
ž Infrastructure rehabilitation in over 50 secondary schools in the
towns of Gardabani, Marneuli, Rustavi, Tetristkaro, Bakuriani and
Akhaltsikhe, benefiting over 28,000 students and 2,000 teachers;
ž Over 275 teachers and administrators will be trained in specialized
teaching or management techniques;
ž Parents, teachers, administrators and students will be prepared for
the national wide move to the Schools Board model of school management.
As a pilot project, which if successfully, may be replicated in other
towns in the future, one school in Tsalka, Bakuriani and Akhaltsikhe
will be selected for installation of a computer lab powered by solar
panels. This will enable students in those schools to improve the skills
that will better prepare them to find employment in the future.
The CIP-ISP is being carried out by the two lead CIP implementing NGOs –
Care International and Mercy Corps, in cooperation with Technical
Assistance in Georgia as a local partner.
CIP-ISP is yet another example of how expansion related to the
implementation of the two major oil and gas pipeline projects in the
region – BTC and SCP – has resulted in significant investment by the BTC
and SCP partner groups to benefit the countries through which these
projects pass.
The CIP-ISP demonstrates strong commitment of the BTC and SCP projects
to being good neighbors, and will deliver real and tangible benefits to
the towns along the SCP and BTC Pipeline route.
2.5. GEORGIA TO SELL 5 HYDRO PLANTS
Source: Interfax, July 20, 2004
The Georgian Economic Development Ministry has included five
hydroelectric plants in the west of the country, with a total capacity
of about 250 megawatts, in the list of companies slated for
privatization over the next year and a half, a source in the Georgian
Energy Ministry told Interfax.
The five plants to be privatized are Rioni, Shaori, Lajanuri, Gumati and
Dzevruli hydroelectric plants.
The privatization of these plants was considered back in 2002, but
following a recommendation from the World Bank the Georgian government
dropped its plans to privatize them. This was due to the poor technical
and financial condition of the plants, which meant that they would not
have generated much revenue.
A representative with the Energy Ministry said that in 2003 USAID was
ready to provide Georgia with a grant of $15 million to carry out urgent
repairs at the five hydro plants in the run up to their privatization.
This work was expected to increase the effectiveness of the plants and
make them more attractive to future investors.
It was hoped that after the repair work, the privatization revenue from
the sale of the plants would amount to at least $50 million.
However, this repair work was not carried out, Energy Ministry sources
said. Consequently, the Rioni plant requires urgent repairs to its water
pipe, the Gumati plant needs significant mechanical repairs and the
Shaori plant needs repairs to its dam.
According to Energy Ministry experts, the total value of the five
hydroelectric plants does not currently exceed $20 million – $25
million.
The source was unable whether the plants would be sold separately or as
one lot. According to preliminary information from the Energy Ministry,
there are already investors interested in acquiring these plants as one
lot.
2.6. BTC CONSTRUCTION SUSPENDED
Source: The Georgian Messenger, July 26, 2004
Minister of Environmental Protection and Nature Resources Tamar
Lebanidze decreed that construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyahn oil
pipeline be suspended for two weeks on July 20, 2004.
The suspension affected a 17-km section of construction through the
Borjomi gorge. The reason of suspension is permission and terms issued
by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on November 30, 2004.
The ministry argues that the ninth item of the agreement, which dealt
with safety measures, was not fulfilled.
The economic and political significance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline is high and the temporary time out does not appear to threaten
its completion. The issue is that one section of the pipeline, which
passes through the Borjomi gorge, recently caused a large scandal as
many people express concern that the pipeline will cross a canyon where
there is a unique mineral spring.
In an interview with the newspaper 24-Hours, minister Lebanidze agreed
with the opinion that the pipeline route has been chosen in an incorrect
manner. `If now the issue of choosing the route was on the agenda, we
would by all means choose a different route,’ she said.
At that time there were two alternatives: either the pipeline should
have crossed Karakai route or Akhalkalaki route. investors were
categorically against Akhalkalaki route, because of the neighboring
Russian military base and instability in the region.
As for Karakai route, investors thought that it was too expensive.
Instead planners turned to the Borjomi gorge and Shevardnadze’s
government agreed on it provided there would be security guarantees.
The Borjomi gorge is characterized by very rugged terrain and requires
special environmental protection in order to minimize risks, like that
from landslides. Mtavari Gazeti quoted Tamar Lebanidze as saying that BP
agreed to fulfill these conditions in 2002.
But in Lebanidze’s opinion, Shevardnadze’s government should actually
have made every effort for changing the direction of the route in the
past.
According to Georgia’s representative on the intergovernmental
commission for Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project implementation, Giorgi
Vashakmadze, it will be impossible to resume pipeline construction as
long as all the conditions are not met.
Lebanidze told Rezonansi that BP obeyed the requirements of the ministry
and it will resume construction in two weeks. Meanwhile, officials say
two weeks is plenty of time to find a solution and that this will not
delay the pipeline’s progress.
3. NEWS FROM AZERBAIJAN
3.1. CASPIAN REGION’S ECOLOGY TO BE IN FOCUS
Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
June 29, 2004
Participants of the international scientific-practical conference
organized by Kazakh national University after Al-Farabi jointly with the
close joint stock company `Kaztransoil’ discuss prospects of stable
development of ecosystems of littoral Caspian region.
Scientists-ecologists of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and
several Central Asiatic states attend the conference, AzerTAj
correspondent referring to Kazakh news agencies reports.
Aim of two-day conference is to join efforts of different specialists
and departments for elaboration of the join plan on improvement of
ecological situation in the region.
3.2. TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN SIGN AGREEMENT ON ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION
COOPERATION
Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
July 9, 2004
A signing ceremony of the Azerbaijan-Turkey agreement on cooperation on
environment protection was held July 9, 2004 at the Ministry of
Environment of Azerbaijan. Minister of Environment of Azerbaijan
Huseyngulu Bagirov and Minister of Environment and Forestry Protection
Osman Pepe signed the agreement. The agreement defines directions of
cooperation on management of forestry and reforestation, protection of
biodiversity and environment of the Caspian and Black seas, realization
of environmental conventions and some other aspects that are of
significance to ecologists.
During the meeting with the Turkish delegation led by Osman Pepe
preceding the signing ceremony, Minister Huseyngulu Bagirov noted that
it is scheduled to form a joint working group composed of experts of
environmental bodies of Azerbaijan and Turkey. Turkey is destined to
assist Azerbaijan in modernizing of waste disposal plants, forest
regeneration and to participate in drinking water improvement projects.
Azerbaijan, which has a substantial experience in geological solutions
promotion, will therefore share its experience with its Turkish
counterparts. He also reported on representatives of business circles of
Turkey who held preliminary talks on construction of modern waste
disposal plants, regeneration of forest to be later used in furniture
production.
3.3. BP CONDUCTS SEMINAR
Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
July 10, 2004
Big projects boosting various groups of the population are being
implemented in the settlement located along the Azerbaijani stretch of
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. Mass media was explicitly informed
on the projects at the press conference conducted July 9, 2004 AzerTAj
correspondent learnt from BP-Azerbaijan.
Manager for Social Investment Michael Hackenbrook, head of the
humanitarian and social support center `Umid’ immediately involved in
projects implementation, Israil Iskandarov updated the journalists on
the work done to date. Reportedly, BP and its partners for Azeri,
Chirag, Guneshli, Shahdeniz, and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan projects financed 8
big projects worth $5,5 million. These projects are being successfully
implemented in the Azerbaijani stretch of the BTC export pipeline and
Bibiheybat, Sangachal, Zikh and will be completed in 2006.
Winners of BP-led tender – non-governmental organizations «Umid» and
«Hayat» implement the projects related to population development.
The seminar participants touched upon the issues of tackling social
problems of the people living along the pipeline route.
3.4 ECOLOGICAL SITUATION UNDER SUPERVISION
Source: State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, AzerTag,
July 20, 2004
A meeting devoted to discussions of the program prepared by the Ganja
regional center took place within the frameworks of the `Local activity
program’ project related to the ecological situation in the Ganjabasar
region. Representative of the Caucasus Ecological center for Azerbaijan
Matlab Hasanov, program coordinator Irshad Abbasov reported on the
territory, natural resources, and economic and ecologic situation. It
was decided to send a program to revision.
4. NEWS FROM ARMENIA
4.1. THE LAKE SEVAN’S LEVEL INCREASE
Source: The National Hydrometeorological station of the RA, June 30,
2004
According to the latest news received from the Hydrometerological
Station of the RA, the level of the Sevan during last year has increased
and makes 1897.94m at the moment. It is higher on 46 cm than the level
of the lake this time last year. As it’s reported by the Hydromet this
quite significant increase is due to the great amount of precipitation
fallen in the lake Sevan region during last year.
4.2. ONE KILLED, 7 INJURED IN EXPLOSION AT ARMENIAN POWER STATION
Source: ITAR-TASS News Agency, July 1, 2004
A worker was killed and seven others received injuries when a tank
holding sulfuric acid exploded on Wednesday at an Armenian power
station.
One of the injured workers is in critical condition, a spokesman for the
Armenian department for emergency situations told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
Despite the accident, the Razdan power plant, the biggest in Armenia,
keeps operating in a routine regime, Nikolai Grigoryan said.
The power station accounts for over 20 percent of electricity produced
in Armenia. The station was under construction for ten years and was
commissioned in 1976. In 2002, an agreement was signed under which a
block of shares of the Razdan power plant goes to Russia to settle part
of Armenia’s debt to Russia.
The power plant worth 31 million dollars is now governed by the
International Energy Corporation, which makes part of the Unified Energy
Systems of Russia power utility.
4.3 RAPID POVERTY MONITORING METHODOLOGY DEVELOPED BY UNDP ARMENIA
Source: Armen Press, July 2, 2004
On July 1, 2004 in the UN House, the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) convened a discussion on the National Human Development Survey
(NHDS) and the Poverty Monitoring Methodology (RPMM) used during the
NHDS. Government officials, donors and civil society experts focused on
survey indicators, regional human poverty indices and the National
Social Monitoring System.
The NHDS was conducted in spring 2003 within the framework of a joint
UNDP and Government of Armenia project on the “Creation of a Social
Monitoring and Analysis System.” The survey covered 6,000 households in
170 rural and 41 urban communities, representatively selected from all
eleven regions of the country, including Yerevan. For the first time,
the survey was based on a Rapid Poverty Monitoring Methodology developed
by UNDP. The information collected during the survey was disaggregated
by region and population group and incorporated into databases used to
track human development, human poverty and progress in achieving the
Millennium Development Goals. The main findings of the NHDS are
summarized in the fifth issue of Armenia Social Trends, a bi-annual
bilingual informational-analytical bulletin.
The results of the National Human Development Survey indicate that human
poverty is more widespread in rural areas, where people have limited
access to education, particularly pre-school and professional education.
People living in rural areas are also negatively affected by reduced
access to healthcare, particularly primary care, and to modern
information technologies.
According to Ms. Grande: “UNDP is confident that a better understanding
of human poverty in the regions will help the Government and civil
society to sharpen the country’s pro-poor policies, ensuring that they
are aimed at reaching the eight Millennium Development Goals and
supporting the Poverty Reduction Strategy.”
In the framework of the “Creation of a Social Monitoring and Analysis
System” project, a special training program in the Economics Department
of Yerevan State University on the theoretical and practical aspects of
databases was organized for the regional M&A units established by the
Government. In addition, seminars and workshops on methodological and
computerized analysis of data have been organized for the 18
non-governmental organizations participating in the survey.
4.4. SUMMER SCHOOL WAS HELD AT THE YERAVAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Source: `Aravot’ TV news, July 10, 2004
Summer school on ecology and environmental management organized by
`AZGK’ NGO, Armenia, was held at the Yerevan State Universuty from June
28 to July 10. Financial support was granted by OSI-AF-Armenian office.
25 participants from Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Byelorus, Tadjikistan,
Poland took a course on the following subjects – EIA (environmental
impact assessment), especially EIA in transitional countries, water
resources management, and environmental legislation, international
cooperation in the field of environment, international conventions on
environment etc. Courses consisted of lectures and field trips. Lectures
were from the YSU, other Armenian state universities, Central European
University (Budapest, Hungary).
All the participants successfully left summer school and received
certificates.
5. NGO NEWS
5.1. CAMPAIGNERS URGE HALT TO BP “ENVIRONMENTAL TIMEBOMB”
-WHISTLEBLOWERS EXPOSE TURKEY PIPELINE
PRESS RELEASE from:
Friends of the Earth
Kurdish Human Rights Project
PLATFORM
The Corner House
The Baku Ceyhan Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday 26th June 2004
Environment and human rights groups have called for suspension of
construction on a major BP oil pipeline, following new evidence
published in today’s Independent of major technical failures on the
project.
Four senior pipeline experts who worked on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)
pipeline in Turkey have revealed a catalogue of incompetence,
cost-cutting and shoddy workmanship, which raises major questions about
the safety of the pipeline.
All four have successful careers of over 20 years in pipeline
construction, and have said this is the worst project they have ever
worked on. Their revelations include:
o not hiring proper specialists to advise on engineering, including on
crossing seismic faults in the earthquake-prone region;
o using inappropriate materials and construction methods, which will not
perform the function they are needed for;
o not following construction design specifications and procedures;
o failing to carry out checks or keep records on construction quality;
o using staff without proper training or qualifications;
o ignoring environmental or health and safety requirements;
o causing bankruptcy of local business suppliers along the route.
Two of the experts were sacked for raising concerns about the problems.
The Baku Ceyhan Campaign has talked to all four whistleblowers, and is
now calling for an urgent halt to construction activities until the
problems are resolved. The findings run counter to repeated BP promises
that this would be an environmentally and socially beneficial project.
Hannah Griffiths, of Friends of the Earth, commented, `BP and financial
institutions have ignored the warnings on this pipeline. Now the extent
of company failings and consequent environmental risk have come to
light, work on the project must be stopped until these issues are sorted
out.’
Kerim Yildiz, Executive Director of the Kurdish Human Rights Project,
added, `Villagers we have interviewed have consistently told us they
were not properly consulted, nor informed of the risks of this pipeline.
These new findings show the risks are even greater than we had feared’.
Greg Muttitt, of PLATFORM, said, `BP has tried to create a reputation as
being better than other oil companies. But, thanks to the professional
integrity of these four and other experts, we now hear about the
shocking reality. It is to their credit that they have taken personal
risk to inform the public of these serious issues.’
Anders Lustgarten, of the Baku Ceyhan Campaign, added, `We have already
heard of faulty weld coatings being used in the Azerbaijan and Georgia
sections of this pipeline, which BP has tried to claim were one-offs
which are now rectified. This new dossier shows that in fact the whole
pipeline is rotten.’
Nicholas Hildyard, of the Corner House, commented, `We know the banks
are already concerned about the risk their reputations from this
project. BP has told them all is in order. It isn’t, and the banks
should now undertake their own investigation.’
For more information
Hannah Griffiths, Friends of the Earth: 07855 841 994
Greg Muttitt, PLATFORM: 07970 589 611
6. LEGAL NEWS
6.1. STATE SANITARY SUPERVISION INSPECTION OF TBILISI
On June 4, 2004 the Mayor of Tbilisi adopted Order #7 `on the
Establishment of State Sanitary Supervision Inspection of Tbilisi’.
According to the Order, State Sanitary Supervision Office of Tbilisi
shall be reorganized by staff cuts. Tbilisi State Sanitary Supervision
Inspection shall be created on the basis of the reorganized city office,
the property and material-technical base of which shall be transferred
to the newly established Inspection.
6.2. THE GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA ADOPTED RESOLUTION #50
On June 12, 2004 the Government of Georgia adopted Resolution #50 `on
the approval of the Regulation of the Ministry for the Protection of
Environment and Natural Resources’. According to the Regulation the
Ministry for the Protection of Environment and Natural Resources is a
governmental agency of the executive power, which provides for the state
governance in the field of environmental protection and rational use of
natural resources, also in the ecological safety of population.
The Regulation defines in detail the fields of activity of the Ministry
and its objectives, also the system of the Ministry and competences of
its structural entities. The system of the Ministry consists of
structural entities (divisions and offices), territorial organs,
relevant governmental agencies of autonomous republics of Abkhazia and
Adjara, state agencies subordinated to the Ministry and legal persons of
public law within the system of the Ministry.
There is an acting organ – Conventional Inspection for the Protection of
the Black Sea, which operates and its competences are determined in
compliance with the Constitution of Georgia, principles and norms of
international law, Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea from
pollution, other international treaties and agreements, laws and by-laws
of Georgia.
7. INTERNATIONAL NEWS
7.1. CAUCASIAN RESERVE: WHETHER EXPLOSIONS WILL THUNDER NEARBY?
Source: “Environmental Watch on North Caucasus”, July 15, 2004
Environmental Watch on North Caucasus supported by German Union of
Conservancy (NABU) monitors the environmental problems of Caucasian
Biosphere Reserve and adjacent areas.
In process of monitoring information on the new dangerous project in the
forest part of Lagonaki Uplands was collected. “Resource-Trade’ Company
from Krasnodar is going to begin exploitation of dolomite quarry 6
kilometers southeast of Mezmay village (Apsheronsk District of Krasnodar
Territory). It is planned to place the quarry in Mokry Zhelob Tract near
the unique natural object of Upper Kurdjips Gorge. Border of the quarry
closely approaches 100-meter rocky precipice of this gorge.
Nesting sites of rare birds, including Vulture White-headed (Gyps
fulvus), situated near planned mining area. Teply Stream flowing through
Mokry Zhelob Tract is a powerful source of cleanest underground waters.
Karst caves located nearby, are of great scientific and recreational
interest. Lagonaki Plateau, a part of Caucasian Biosphere Reserve, is
merely in 5 kilometers from this place. It holds the status of the World
Natural Heritage. Mokry Zhelob Tract is located on a way of hiking and
backpacking trails; it is of great recreational importance. Well-known
mountain-skiing resort “Lagonaki’ is in several kilometers vicinity.
Wildlife complexes of this area have substantially suffered from the
mass felling, which took place there several decades ago. Thus, less
valuable secondary wood stock grows by separate parcels. However the
whole area is of tremendous natural value. Pass in rocky wall of Upper
Kurdjips Gorge that plays important role in wild animals’ migration is
located in mining area.
Purpose of the quarry is to provide glass industry with raw material.
According to unofficial information, quarry development is connected to
future construction of large glass factory in Adygeya Republic. The
expected initial area of the quarry is 5 hectares. It is the area of
Mezmay dolomite deposit, one kilometer wide and four kilometers long
band, stretched from Upper Kurdjips Gorge to Kamyshanova Glade. It is
obvious that 5 hectares are only the beginning, and further dolomite
development will take place on the much broader area. It is planned to
build the road as well as the water collector pond on Teply Stream for
quarry needs. Sewage disposal will also be made into this stream.
Opencast dolomite mining with extensive use of explosives will become
distress factor for animals.
Thus the unique wilderness area became a target of industrial activity
that will negatively affect its nature. This activity is planned
parallel to decision of authorities of Apsheronsk District and Krasnodar
Territory to develop tourism and recreation in Mezmay Rural District.
It is a paradox that such an ecologically destructive project has
received absolute support of MNR RF’s Department of natural resource and
environment on Krasnodar Territory. At the earliest possible date
“Resource-Trade’ Company received license “on exploration with
simultaneous mining of dolomite in Mezmay deposit for the glass
industry”, mining lease act and the positive conclusion of the state
environmental review. Apsheronsk leskhoz has already marked trees for
chopping in the site of future quarry. Apsheronsk District
Administration and “Resource-Trade’ Company signed the agreement on lot
allocation for the quarry. Biologists of the Kuban State University
protest against this project. Biological station of the Kuban State
University “Kamyshanova Glade” is located in several kilometers from the
planned quarry. This area is a place of studentsÒ field practice.
Scientists have sent an official letter to the Chief of Apsheronsk
Administration in which they noted the great environmental and
scientific value of the area “due to the wide expansion of karst
forms, endemic and relic vegetation”.
In their letter scientists emphasize, that “by the quarry development
karst landscape and karst systems will be destroyed, hydro-geological
conditions will be broken”, “new mining area creates a serious pollution
threat to underground and surface water”, “explosions will lead to
destruction of karst cavities which are valuable in paleontological,
archeological and excursion sense”. By scientistsÒ opinion, the stream
flowing through the area of projected quarry “is the backup source of
pure water which should be preserved”.
Scientists asked the Head of Apsheronsk Administration “to make the
decision to deny opening the dolomite quarry”.
At this time promotion of quarry project is suspended due to wide public
resonance acquired by the environmental problems of Mezmay area. However
the question on quarry construction is not taken out of agenda. The most
part of agreements concerning this project has already been made. If the
core decision will not be made in the near future, putting a halt to it,
shortly explosions will thunder next to the Caucasian Reserve.
7.2. FIVE NEW NATURAL WORLD HERITAGE SITES DESIGNED
Source: IUCN, July 1, 2004
The World Heritage Committee inscribed five new natural World Heritage
sites yesterday, 30 June 2004, during its 28th session in Suzhou, China.
These include, Ilulissat Icefjord (Denmark), the Tropical Rainforest
Heritage of Sumatra (Indonesia), the Natural System of Wrangel Island
Reserve (Russian Federation), the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas of
South Africa, and the Pitons Management Area (Saint Lucia). For the
first time ever, two natural sites in the Arctic have been inscribed on
the prestigious World Heritage List. Following the positive
recommendations of IUCN – The World Conservation Union, the UNESCO World
Heritage Committee of 21 countries unanimously approved the listing of
Ilulissat Icefjord of Denmark and Wrangel Island in the Russian
Federation. `The inclusion of these two sites in the high Arctic is a
very exciting development. The World Heritage Convention is now becoming
a truly global instrument for conservation,’ said Adrian Phillips, Vice
Chair for World Heritage with the IUCN World Commission on Protected
Areas.
7.3. CHILDHOOD PESTICIDE POISONING: INFORMATION FOR ADVOCACY AND ACTION
Pesticide poisoning is a serious health problem that disproportionately
affects infants and children. Pesticides are designed to kill, reduce or
repel insects, weeds, rodents, fungi, and other organisms that can
threaten public health and national economies. However, when improperly
used or stored, these chemical agents can also harm humans. Key risks
are cancer, birth defects, and damage to the nervous system and the
functioning of the endocrine system.
For the more detailed information please see:
7.4. THE FOURTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH
Source: European Eco-Forum News Digest, N 83, July 2004
The Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health “The Future
For Our Children” took place in the Budapest Convention Centre on 23 –
25 June 2004. It brought together 1000 delegates from 50 pan-European
countries and 4 observer countries (USA, Canada, Argentina and Brazil)
as well as a delegation of 20 civil society representatives. European
ECO-Forum was represented by Sascha Gabizon, coordinator of the
Environment and Health Issue Group. All together, this Issue Group was
present with about 40 people at the parallel Healthy Planet Forum. Other
ECO-Forum Issue Groups were also represented by individual members.
The Ministers had come to Budapest to agree on three main documents: the
Ministerial Declaration, the Children’s Environment and Health Action
Plan for Europe (CEHAPE), the Table of Child-Specific Actions on
Environment and Health. All texts of these documents had been negotiated
beforehand at the intergovernmental meetings. Unlike Kiev-2003
Ministerial Conference, no legally binding agreements or protocols were
signed in Budapest. The most interesting parts of the conference,
according to many delegates, were the negotiations on phthalates and the
Roundtable session organised by ECO-Forum and European Public Health
Alliance (EPHA).
Phthalates were the only one issue remaining in brackets in the
Ministerial Declaration. Denmark proposed the text on agreeing on a
general ban for phthalate (dangerous chemicals) made of soft PVC toys.
Before the arrival of the Danish Minister of Environment on Wednesday
evening, Denmark had not accepted any proposals for a compromise as
negotiated by a group of EU countries. Some delegates were warning that
the entire conference would fail and that the Ministerial Declaration
would not be signed. In a final compromise, the text no longer refers to
‘a general ban’ but in exchange for that it now mentions dangers of
using artificial fragrances in baby toys.
ECO-Forum was the official representative of environmental NGOs in
Budapest. In this position ECO-Forum was asked to give one key- note
address to the plenary on Wednesday, 23 June.
Sascha Gabizon spoke for ECO-Forum in the session on housing and health.
In her 5 min. presentation, she called the attention to two urgent
topics: plastic waste-burning indoor; and toxic chemicals in our homes.
She urged the ministers to address poverty and growing inequalities and
develop social schemes to allow the poorest families to have heating in
winter without destroying their health. She stressed the need to inform
doctors, nurses, teachers, local administrators, and the general public
about the health dangers of burning plastic waste. She asked to ban PVC
packaging and all chlorinated plastic and promote less dangerous types
of plastic as well as re-usable packaging. She also urged to develop a
strong action plan for children’s health, which also focuses on toxic
material in houses. She stressed the urgency of developing a good
chemicals legislation which will give incentives to progressive
companies to substitute thousands of dangerous chemicals by non-toxic
alternatives.
Round-table
ECO-Forum was the co-organiser (with EPHA) of the Roundtable between
Ministers and Civil Society. As Jan Pronk, who had accepted to chair the
session, was called urgently to Sudan by UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan, the Minister of Health of Ireland kindly agreed to chair the
session. The session brought together 7 ministers and 8 civil society
representatives. Each spoke about an action already being implemented by
their country or organisation and which are an example of how to
implement the CEHAPE.
The ministers participating were from Denmark (Environment), Turkey
(Health), Slovakia (Environment), Slovenia (Health), Bulgaria
(Environment), Ireland (Health) and Moldova (Environment). Denmark spoke
about phthalates in children toys and made a remark about cost benefit
analysis. The Slovak minister talked about expensive PCB clean-up
programme. He stressed it would have been much cheaper had previous
governments taken precautionary action and not allowed the wide use of
PCBs in the first place.
The civil society representatives gave examples of how they are already
implementing the CEHAPE. Catherine Boulont of Regional Authorities
Brussels spoke of their ‘green ambulances’ which do toxic audits of
people’s houses. Silvia Hesse of Local Authorities Hannover spoke about
their Mac Carrot organic food programme for schools, and their school
mobility plans to stop the ‘parents taxis’. Ingrid Shulstrom of Hennes &
Mauritz clothing company spoke on how the company has voluntarily taken
dangerous chemicals out of children’s clothes. Professor Belpomme of the
French Academy of Medicine presented the Paris Appeal of scientists on
the link between chemicals and cancer.
Katerina Ruszukova of Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) spoke on HCWH
projects with leading hospitals in Europe (Prague, Vienna) on phasing
out phthalates and PVC out of medical devices. Estefania Blount of
Spanish Trade Unions spoke on how trade unions are trying to reduce
health effects from chemicals to workers.
Michaela Vasilescu of M&S Romania presented the experience of a
demonstration project to improve drinking water by reducing pollution
from farming and latrines. She called on governments to urgently address
the needs of 150 million people in the pan- European region without
access to safe water and sanitation by promoting preventive measures
such as eco-sanitation toilets and organic farming. Svetlana Slesarenok
of MAMA-86 Ukraine described how they used the Aarhus convention,
lobbied the authorities to close a chemicals plant in Odessa, and
cooperated with local business to clean up the plant site and install
instead a waste- water plant.
Healthy Planet Forum
The Healthy Planet Forum (HPF) was organised logistically by the
Regional Environment Center Hungary. The HPF was opened on Tuesday, 22
June, by the Hungarian Minister of Health and the Hungarian Minister of
the Environment. The programme was mainly prepared by ECO-Forum and EPHA
with support from Greenpeace. Every day had a plenary in the morning and
3-5 parallel workshops in the afternoon.
There was very little funding to bring NGOs to Budapest. WECF was the
largest funder of NGOs (brought 40 people, mainly from CEE and NIS
countries), followed by EPHA (15 people, mainly from EU, and 20 youth).
Some countries had sponsored a few NGO delegates (Germany, Netherlands).
There were very few Hungarian NGOs participating in the HPF. Finally,
most of the international NGOs found a way of getting into the
ministerial conference and this left only very few NGOs in the HPF.
In the closing session, after the discussion with EU Environment
Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, an evaluation discussion took place. It
was concluded that at the next E&H Conference, the HPF should take place
in the same building as the Ministerial Conference. Since NGOs have been
very professional in Budapest- 2004, for the next conference NGOs have
to insist to have NGO space in the same building and more entrance
passes. The next conference will take place in 2009, probably in Italy.
For more information contact:
Sascha Gabizon
Coordinator of Environment and Health Issue Group at European ECO-Forum
Director of Women in Europe for a Common Future
E-mail: [email protected]
7.5. EXPERT GROUP ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL FORUMS
Source: European Eco-Forum News Digest, N 83, July 2004
The First Meeting of the Expert Group on Public Participation in
International Forums took place on 3-4 June 2004 in Geneva to prepare
for Guidelines on the implementation of the Aarhus Convention principles
in international forums. The European ECO- Forum was represented by
Anastasia Roniotis (MIO-ESDE, Greece) and John Hontelez (Public
Participation Campaign Chair, European Environment Bureau, Belgium).
ECO-Forum representatives received input from CEE-Bankwatch and from the
Third World Network beforehand.
The Expert Group also included representatives of Governments (Armenia,
Belarus, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Moldova, Serbia- Montenegro, Sweden,
UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan), academics, REC, IUCN, the Stakeholder Forum,
several representatives of Conventions and others.
It was agreed to aim for adoption of Guidelines by the second Meeting of
Parties of the Aarhus Convention in May 2005. That means that the
Working Group of the Parties in its session on 1-4 February 2005
basically has to adopt a text.
ECO-Forum managed to get support for quite a lot of ideas.
* It was agreed that the Guidelines address Parties, and possibly
Signatories. They will be addressed as agents in international forums
for the application of what is in the Guidelines.
* After some discussion it was agreed that the Guidelines would not
address particular processes (like banks, MEAs, organizations such as
WTO), but describe in general what kinds of processes would fall under
the Guidelines. There is consensus that it should go beyond
organisations who have as their main purpose environmental policies.
* It was agreed to focus on rights/provisions for the public and civil
society organisations, although some were quite keen on explicitly
including the business community in it.
* Furthermore the guidelines will focus on facilitation of use of these
rights, which includes to adapt/introduce certain processes, staff,
finances and training.
* An important point is to underline that public participation in
international process should not be limited to the international events
themselves. Essential is the public participation in the national
preparations for such international events, and it will also tackle the
issue of (meaningful) inclusion of NGOs in national delegations.
* The most difficult issue was the access to justice. Even the Aarhus
Convention itself does not have a mechanism where people can complain
when not given information from the Convention secretariat or denied the
right to participate. It was debated whether the Compliance Procedure of
the Aarhus Convention should be presented as an example for other
international legally binding instruments.
The Bureau of the Convention will have to decide on 8 July 2004 whether
the Expert Group can go ahead with the May 2005 MOP in mind. In that
case a small drafting group will meet in September to write draft
guidelines for approval by the second meeting of Experts in November
2004 and final presentation to the Working Group of Parties in February
2005.
Documents of the meeting are available at
For more information contact:
John Hontelez
PPC Chair, European ECO-Forum
Secretary General, EEB
E-mail: [email protected]
7.6. PINE TREES SEND A WARNING TO NUCLEAR COMMUNITY
Source: Baltic Newsletter of the Green World, July 17, 2004,
Genetic malformations have been found on the pine trees of Sosnovy Bor,
the most ‘nuclear’ town of Russia located 80 km west of the center of
St. Petersburg. The mutations confirmed by the geneticists from Obninsk
and environmentalists from Sosnovy Bor testify to the increased level of
mutagenicity of the environment in the vicinity of nuclear-industrial
complex.
These results have not been taken into account in political decisions on
building new and extending the lifetime of old nuclear facilities on the
Baltic coast.
In the feasibility studies of new projects involving the operation of
nuclear facilities a special attention should be paid to the safety of
all living organisms and, naturally, to the health of current and future
generations of people. The norms of radiological safety fail to take
into account the long-term consequences for the environment and
wildlife, which are caused by the slightly increased, but continuously
present radiation doses.
The impact on living organisms becomes dramatic, when these small doses
are accompanied by other polluting factors.
The methods of biological indication enable to determine the influence
of small radiation doses on living bodies even if the concentrations of
radio nuclides in the environment are considered to be low (within
sanitary norms).
The pine tree (Pinus sylvestris L.) is one of the plants, which are
sensitive to the chemical and radioactive contamination. Any deviations
from the norm found on it warn about a hazard for other plants, animals
and people.
In 1997-2001 experts from the Institute of agricultural radiology
(Obninsk) carried out research studies on the environmental mutagenicity
in the influence zone of Sosnovy Bor nuclear complex, i.e. in the town
of Sosnovy Bor (5 km to the West of Leningrad NPP) and near the township
of Bolshaya Izhora (20 km from the nuclear plant in the direction of St.
Petersburg).
The actively dividing cells (young needles and sprouting seeds) of pine
trees growing near the nuclear complex and in Sosnovy Bor featured the
level of genetic mutations several times higher than 20 km from
Leningrad NPP in the direction of St. Petersburg. And this is a
statistically authentic difference! Amazing is that pine trees growing
in Sosnovy Bor have been found to suffer from certain severe mutative
changes rare even in the contamination zone of Chernobyl NPP.
Living organisms are subjected to the impact from the whole complex of
external factors (radiation, chemicals, etc.), so it is difficult to
specify the responsibility of each in their deterioration. In this case
the synergy effect can play its role, i.e. the combination of several
factors causes more serious consequences than the calculated arithmetic
total.
The authors of research work note that due to the combined impact of
chemical contamination and ionizing radiation, the severity of cell
injury increases, and this is exactly what has been observed in Sosnovy
Bor. Taking into account that Sosnovy Bor is not a center of chemical
industry, these data give additional reasons for getting alarmed and
consider the health of nuclear town residents and their children with
all seriousness it deserves.
The results of research studies have been published in Russia and abroad
(about 20 publications).
Most available for the general public is the article:
S.A. Geraskin (a), L.M. Zimina (b), V.G.Dikarev (a), N.S. Dikareva
(a), V.L. Zimin (b), D.V. Vasiliev (a), A.A.Oudalova (a), L.D. Blinova
(b), R.M. Alexakhin (a), Bioindication of anthropogenic effects on
micropopulations of Pinus Sylvestris, L. in the vicinity of a plant for
the storage and processing of radioactive waste and in the Chernobyl
NPP zone, – Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 66 (2003) 171 -180,
(a) Russian Institute of Agricultural Radiology and Agroecology,
Obninsk, Kaluga Region, Russia,
(b) Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg, Sosnovy Bor Regional
Environmental Laboratory, Russia
Will atomville Sosnovy Bor hear the alarming voice of pine trees?
7.7. WORLD BANK FACES CALLS FOR POVERTY TEST ON ENERGY PROJECTS
By Andrew Balls in Washington Published: July 20 2004
A coalition of more than 30 development and environmental groups has
called on the World Bank to invest in energy projects only if it can
demonstrate in advance that the investment will help reduce poverty and
can monitor the impact once an investment is made.
In a submission to the World Bank’s board of directors, the group, which
includes Oxfam and Friends of the Earth, called on the bank to invest in
energy projects only in countries that demonstrated a capacity for good
governance in a transparent assessment.
It called for a moratorium on bank involvement in extractive industry
projects until conditions are put in place to ensure that such
investments promote poverty reduction and sustainable development.
“The focus should be on getting positive results from these projects,
not just on mitigating problems,” said Andrea Durbin, a consultant
working with the coalition. “As the premier development institution it
is pretty extraordinary that it cannot come up with examples of energy
projects that have led to poverty reduction”.
The World Bank board will meet early next month to discuss the bank
management’s response to the independent extractive industries review,
commissioned by the bank and conducted by Emil Salim, Indonesia’s
ex-environment minister.
Mr. Emil’s report concluded that the bank had not done enough to ensure
that its activity in the energy sector contributed to its central goal
of poverty reduction. Motivated by environmental concerns, it called on
the bank to phase out all extractive industry investments in five years.
The management response, published in June, said that the bank should be
more selective in investing in energy projects and should put a greater
emphasis on the needs of poor people and on good governance. It rejected
the call for the bank to withdraw from extractive industry investments,
arguing that the bank must remain involved to promote social and
environmental considerations.
The coalition said the management response contained “only a few
explicit commitments, the majority of the response is aspirational”. It
also said the board should insist on more ambitious targets for
increasing renewable energy projects in its portfolio of investments.
The coalition said it had the support of more than 250 civil society
groups from 50 countries. “Civil society groups globally have said that
the management response is weak on conditions and commitments and needs
to be further refined,” said Steve Kretzmann, of the Washington-based
Institute for Policy Studies.
However, the group welcomed the management commitment to make revenue
transparency a condition for investing in energy projects, to ensure
that profits were not siphoned off.
The World Bank’s investment in the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline is seen as
a test case of its ability to invest in an energy project in a country
with poor governance standards and ensure the proceeds are put to good
use.
PRESS ADVISORY- July 20, 2004
Contact: Soren Ambrose – w: 202-636-6097 m: 202-285-5836
CRITICS MARK WORLD BANK, IMF 60TH ANNIVERSARY WITH RALLIES WORLDWIDE
Focus on Imminent Controversial Decision on Oil & Mining Subsidies
Picket at World Bank (18th & Pennsylvania, N.W.)
Thursday, July 22, 2004 – 9 am
WASHINGTON – July 20, 2004 -Global justice activists will gather outside
the World Bank on Thursday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the
signing of the documents that created that institution and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Coordinated actions are occurring in several other cities around the
world, including Jakarta (Indonesia), Lima (Peru), London (U.K.), Geneva
(Switzerland), and PotosÌ (Bolivia).
`This is not a happy occasion for the hundreds of millions of people
around the world who continue to suffer under the economic hegemony of
IMF/World Bank policies and projects,’ said Njoki Njoroge Njehu,
Director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network, a coalition of over 200 U.S.
organizations founded in 1994, on the institutions’ 50th anniversary.
`The World Bank and IMF have reinforced the structures of corporate
globalization and imposed them from Argentina to Mexico, Senegal to
Mauritius, and Jordan to South Korea and Fiji with disastrous results
for millions of people,’ she added.
`The results of IMF & World Bank policies and projects are all too
clear: ecosystems ripped apart to sell valuable minerals, communities
subjected to ever-increasing poverty, the mounting debt burdens that
keep countries enslaved, and record profits for multinational
corporations,’ said Morrigan Phillips of Mobilization for Global Justice
(MGJ), a Washington activist group focused on economic justice.
MGJ and the 50 Years Is Enough Network were among the organizers of
demonstrations at the World Bank/IMF spring meetings in Washington three
months ago. The demands made then have not yet been met; they include
the cancellation of impoverished country debt; an end to imposed
economic austerity programs; an end to financing for socially and
environmentally destructive projects; and the opening of the
institutions’ board meetings to the public.
Added to those demands now is one focused on the Extractive Industries
Review (EIR), a three-year process initiated by the World Bank and
completed last December. It found that oil and mining projects funded by
the Bank do not contribute to poverty reduction (the World Bank’s
ostensible mandate), and that the Bank should phase-out its involvement
in coal and oil projects. For those projects the Bank does participate
in, it recommended that it obtain free, prior, informed consent of the
communities affected. It also called for other practices that are not
yet standard for the Bank: respect for human rights; establishment of
land rights for indigenous groups; requirement of freedom of association
(to form unions, etc.); re-direction of funding to renewable energy; and
protecting biodiversity by establishing `no go’ areas for critical
habitats.
Soren Ambrose of the 50 Years Is Enough Network noted that `The
management of the World Bank has released a draft response to the EIR
which pays lip service to many of its ideas, but makes very few firm
commitments. It is apparent that the Bank’s top-level staff want to
continue providing subsidies to the mining and oil industries, including
some of the biggest and most powerful corporations in the world.’
Ambrose continued, `We are here to reinforce the worldwide call on the
Board of the World Bank, which has the last word on the institution’s
position and will be making a decision in the next two weeks, to
recognize the seriousness of the issues addressed by the Extractive
Industries Review, and to adopt its recommendations in full.’
`For over ten years we have been talking with the leadership of the
World Bank, urging that care for people, especially the most vulnerable,
and for all of creation be made the centerpiece of economic policy
decisions. We hope that the EIR does not become one more case where the
World Bank promises much but delivers very little,’ observed Marie
Dennis, Co-Chair of the Religious Working Group on the World Bank and
the IMF, a coalition of religious denominations, institutions, and
social justice organizations that educate, advocate, and bear public
witness on global economic justice issues.
Soren Ambrose
New Voices on Globalization /
50 Years Is Enough Network
3628 12th St., N.E.
Washington, DC 20017 USA
office: +1-202-636-6097
mobile: +1-202-285-5836
[email protected]
8 CALENDAR (INTERNATIONAL)
8.1. SECOND INTERNATIONAL UKRAINIAN CONFERENCE ON BIOMASS FOR ENERGY
20-22 September 2004, Kyiv, Ukraine
Dear colleagues,
Organizing Committee has defined financial conditions for the conference
participants and made up Preliminary Program. We are grateful to those
who already registered for the Conference and inform you that the main
conference related materials (Preliminary Program, registration Forms
etc) can be found on website
We will be very glad to have you among the participants of the
Conference on Biomass for Energy.
Dr Tetyana A. Zhelyezna
Scientific Secretary, Conference on Biomass for Energy
(20-22 September 2004, Kiev, Ukraine)
Phone. (+380 44) 453 2856, f. 456 6091,
Phone/Fax: 456 9462
[email protected]
8.2. CALL FOR PAPER: BIOENERGY IN WOOD INDUSTRY
The Wood Industry is a big actor in the bioenergy sector. The industry
is a big biofuel producer for the market and biofuel users. The
conference is held 12 -15.9.2005 in connection with the International
Bioenergy and Wood Exhibition in Jyväskylä, Finland. The Conference will
focus on the factors affecting the future of the bioenergy opportunities
in fuel production, heating and power production in wood industry. The
topics are timber felling wood residues as fuel, industrial by-products
as biofuel, by-product refining to pellets and their use for heating and
power production in the wood industry. Also emission trading will be one
topic. Technical excursions will be held after the conference. Bioenergy
2003 with over 600 participants was organised by FINBIO.
o Conference with oral presentations
o Poster viewing
o Technical tours and visits to practical bioenergy targets
o International Bioenergy and Wood 2005 Exhibition
o Social and cultural programme
o Language: English
Topics
Papers are invited on the following topics:
1. Strategies, Politics, Legislation Tools and Implementation Issues:
possibilities to support the EU-targets, Kyoto Protocol, national
targets and free energy markets, security of energy supply
2. Bioenergy Markets and Business: international bioenergy markets,
financial instruments, green certificates and emission trading, price
competitiveness, management systems
3. Fuel Production in Sawlog Production: production, pre-treatment,
procurement, transport and logistics
4. Wood Industry Fuel: potentials, quantities, measurements methods,
qualities and properties
5. By-product refining: Pellets, briquettes and pyrolysis oil etc.
production and use
6. Combustion and boiler systems: technologies and systems for wood
industries
7. Combined Heat and Power Production (CHP): powerplants, small scale
technologies and systems for CHP production
8. Environmental Technologies: flue gas cleaning, ash handling and
recycling, sustainable development
The different topics covers R&D results, demonstrations, cases,
equipments, services and good practises
More information also on the BIOENERGY 2005
***************************************************************************
Editorial policy: CENN both solicits and accepts submissions for
environmental information to the Caucasus Environmental News Bulletin.
Although, CENN retains the right to edit all materials both for content
and length. The information provided for the Bulletin does not
necessarily represent the opinion of CENN and SDC.
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

Calcutta Telegraph, India
July 30 2004
Final bloom and timely end
Park Street represented a way of life and culture that died out soon
after the Europeans bid adieu to the country, says Soumitra Das

The brown sahib in me winced. The hunks, who paraded in and out of
the gym in Queens Mansion to growl into their cell phones, wore their
Tommy Hilfigers all right, and uniformly resembled Dirk in the
popular comic strip Luann, but they spoke Hindi. Two, or maybe three
generations ago, when Blyton and Biggles were the only pabulum that
was thought fit for babas who went to English-medium schools, Hindi
was considered declasse in Park Street, that occupied a mental space
well beyond the actual thoroughfare.
It represented a leisurely, gracious and unhurried – and in
retrospect, an artificial and ephemeral – way of life nurtured by the
presence of the Europeans. That died a timely death soon after they
said goodbye.
The Park Street that my generation had seen in the Fifties up to the
early Seventies, was that culture in its final bloom before it wilted
as the city gradually plunged into chaos. Aided by the hallucinogen
of nostalgia, we still look back in wonder. Park Street resembled a
boulevard in the best of European traditions, when, as a one-time
flaneur sums up: `Beautiful Anglo-Indian women on one side. Beautiful
Armenian women on the other.’
Now some points in the street have become haunts of derelict
Anglo-Indians, who, frail of body and in tattered frocks or pants,
look more pitiable than the others who seem to be quite content to
live off the street. Armenians there are few, mostly an elderly lot,
rarely seen in public.
Designer and couturier Maggie Myers, who lives in Stephen Court, is
the last of her kind in Park Street. Close to 90, she belonged to an
upper class Jewish family, who owned landed property upcountry. One
of her four sisters had married Murshidabad, a few blocks away. She
had been trained in Paris, some say under the great Coco Chanel.
Severely coiffed and perfectly turned out even today, `she was the
NIFT of Calcutta at a time when there was no NIFT,’ says one of her
very successful former students.
Miss Myers was also a psychic. She would look into a small crystal
ball and tell people what the future held for them, helping them when
she foresaw trouble. Of late, she has lost the crystal ball. Or did
she forget where she kept it?
The wimpled Irish nuns of Loreto House in Middleton Row and the
Belgian and French Jesuits of St Xavier’s College opposite the thana
have become names to be conjured with in these two educational
institutions their orders set up over a century ago. These fathers in
their fluttering white cassocks were often seen sailing down the
street on their bicycles. Known for the personal interest they took
in every student, some of them, however, were martinets recalled with
terror.
A former professor of the B.Com department of St Xavier’s, who was
also a student of the same institution, remembers how they would go
to Loreto to court their respective girlfriends during the break.
Mother Superior had, perhaps, got wind. On one such occasion, a
friend said to him Father Joris, who would haul truant students out
of restaurants every morning, was standing next to him. Initially,
our teacher refused to take this seriously. `Then I suddenly saw a
white cassock flapping next to me. The speed at which I sprinted back
to my bench could have set a world record,’ he says.
The adjective `huge’ takes physical form in the flats of Queens
Mansion. A gray-haired, paunchy man in his fifties, who has lived
here nearly all his life, settles down into a chair as he mentally
travels back to times when heavy engineering factories and shipyards
boomed, and hordes of young men started their mercantile experience
in Calcutta. `Sixty-four to sixty-nine were the heydays of Park
Street. If you were part of the crowd and not at Trinca’s between
3.30 and 7.30 during the evening jam session, your only excuse was
that you were either in hospital with a broken leg or you were dead.
Come December, and youngsters from all over Bangalore to Bombay
congregated here. Even expats’ children would visit parents here.
When we were kids, ayahs would be seen with their babas. Now you
don’t see them here. A whole generation is missing. They have moved
out.’
Most of the old bungalows have become highrises or offices of various
degrees of ugliness. Yet Park Street can still boast five splendid
and sprawling apartment blocks. The grandest of them is Queens
Mansion, being given a facelift of late, whose wings embrace both
Park Street and Russell Street. Stephen Court looks like a
continuation of the Queens Mansion. No 20 is at the head of Middleton
Row, and Karnani Mansion progresses into Free School Street, its Park
Street wing housing two restaurants – Blue Fox and Mocambo – whose
once famous live bands and crooners turned the road into the place
for an evening out. Facing it is Park Mansion, a bastion of French
culture till the night when a fire broke out, gutting the Alliance
Francaise office and library, destroying the teak staircase of gate
no 4, still locked up.
During the monsoon, when an opalescent light appears fleetingly, one
does not need poetic licence to say that Park Street looks uncannily
like Gustave Caillebotte’s painting Paris, a Rainy Day.
Queens Mansion was originally called Galstaun Mansion, after the
Armenian landholder, merchant and sportsman J.C. Galstaun. Its
foundation was laid in 1920, and it was built in three years at a
cost of Rs 65 lakh. It was renamed in 1952 at the coronation of the
British sovereign. Today it is part of the estate of the LIC. After
years of procrastination, when it was practically falling to pieces,
LIC is getting it renovated, thereby giving the street itself a new
face.
Karnani Mansion is a classic example of how disputes between
landlords and tenants can condemn a mansion as large as this to
perdition. Constructed in 1929-30, it was one of the classiest
apartment blocks in the city, till it began to be associated with
sleaze. Tenants turned flats into brothels and factories. Squatters’
hovels occupy the terrace and the stairs are never cleaned. Of late,
the flesh trade has stopped but the factories are still very
functional. No 20 Park Street always looks spick and span. Cricketer
Sourav Ganguly is building a hotel where the servants’ quarters used
to be.
John Barry in his Calcutta Illustrated wrote that Armenian
philanthropist T.M. Thaddeus had built Park Mansion in 1910 on the
site of the former Doveton College. One of the first art galleries in
the city opened on the first floor of this building in 1955 with
exhibitions of Paritosh Sen, Gopal Ghosh and Prakash Karmakar. It is
said that when Jeet Paul seemed to be buying up the street to set up
The Park hotel on October 31, 1967, the industrialist asked a
paanwalla, who owned a kiosk on the same spot how much he wanted for
his shop. The paanwalla shot back: `What do you want for your hotel?’
The Pauls acquired Park Mansion, which housed the fabled restaurant
Skyroom, in the Eighties. Skyroom closed down in 1993 following
labour problems.
(To be concluded)

Zaman, Turkey
July 30 2004
If Accelerated Diplomacy Derails…
ALI H. ASLAN
What Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim said in defense of the
government after the train disaster was right in a way. A person who
does nothing, makes no mistakes either. However, just as one who
works has the right to make a mistake, it is also incumbent upon that
person to realize the mistake and try not to do it again.
When the issue is something that directly affects people’s lives,
like mass transportation, it is natural that expectations are high.
In issues concerning a whole nation’s destiny, like foreign policy,
it is much more essential to realize the mistakes on time and make
the necessary corrections.
Erdogan government is generally doing a good job on foreign policy as
well as in mass transportation. Our accelarated EU train is advancing
toward the station where membership negotiations will start. It is
doing so in great difficulty while struggling to repair the
broken-down political and economic infrastructure of the country. The
delay accumulated for so many years is being recovered. A dangerous
referendum curve on another delayed issue like Cyprus, was passed
without derailment. Turkey gradually has become a country that exerts
more influence in the region and has enhanced its contribution to
international peace. Relations between Turkey and the United States,
which has changed course during the parliamentary motion crisis, at
least seemingly working fine again. However, there is an issue that
has the potential to ruin this good course. And that is
Turkish-Israeli relations.
Don’t say, “Is it your job to write about Turkish-Israeli relations
from Washington?” If Turkey and Israel sneeze, many in Washington
catch cold. The virus spreads to the Turkish diplomatic mission,
lobbyists as well as official/private Americans dealing with Turkey.
As you know, the relation between
U.S.-Israel is even something more than a “strategic partnership.”
Actually, it’s a “strategic brotherhood.” Even though they live far
away from each other, they are like single-egg twins, who feel each
other’s pains. Almost everything that bothers the U.S. also bothers
Israel. The United States feels the same for anything that perturbs
Israel.
It is certain that what has been bothering Israel of late are Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s harsh statements. Using the term
‘state terrorism,’ to describe the things Israel does in Palestine,
the prime minister could be appeasing most of the Turkish people as
well as others in the region. However, this situation makes people,
who favor the wellbeing of Turkish-American-Israeli ties, and want
Turkey to reach to the EU station without any mishap, deeply
concerned.
When the prime minister made these remarks for the first time, early
evaluations in Washington were that it could have been a political
tactic in order to secure the Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC) term presidency for Turkey. That is, people had good thoughts.
This is because Erdogan is the one of the key AKP leaders, who has
been able to convince Americans and Israelis the most, that he has
changed although he comes from an anti-American and anti-Israeli
background. The prime minister worked a lot before and after he came
to power in order to eradicate any Jewish lobby doubts. This was the
right thing to do. International politics has to be played by the
rules. The U.S. influence on world policy and that of Israel and its
friends on U.S policy cannot be denied.
However, since Erdogan maintained this attitude against Israel after
Turkey took over the OIC term presidency, old chapters that were
about to be closed by Washington, are gradually being reopened.
First of all, those elements who never closed in those chapters, got
an upper hand in Washington. They had the opportunity to say to the
majority, who consider the AK Party government ‘workable with’,
“We’ve told you. They won’t ever change. See how they manifested the
anti-Semitism within themselves.”
Even though the prime minister says, “our criticisms are not directed
at the state of Israel or the Jewish people but at the Sharon
government”, most counterparts do not perceive it that way. The
expression used is “state terrorism,” not the “Sharon government
terrorism.” Firstly, they find the remark “state terrorism” too heavy
to bear. It even causes more trouble when a prime minister personally
utters these words. One of the leading people in the Jewish lobby
said to me, “The European Union also severely criticizes Israel but
never has it used such a term. Besides, while many countries consider
Turkey’s fight against the PKK as state terrorism, didn’t Israel
support Turkey?”
The Erdogan government’s Middle East policy is gradually being viewed
as pan-Islamist, especially by the Jewish lobby. Both the United
States and Israel do not see pan-Islamism in the region to be in
their interests. One should not expect the Judeo-Christian West
warmly favor a renewed Ottoman spirit in Turkey. Hence, it is no
surprise Turkey’s proposal to be a mediator in the Middle East was
not accepted by either Israel or the United States.
Nobody is saying let’s determine our Middle East policy solely in
line with Israel and U.S. policies. However, we must not forget that
we will still need to knock on the Jewish lobby’s door in Washington
for certain reasons, like the so-called Armenian genocide. Besides,
while we are already struggling with difficulty riding through our
broken-down state infrastructure with high-speed diplomacy, during
this critical EU period, when Turkey needs stability internally and
externally more than ever, shouldn’t we refrain from attitudes that
could give ammunition to internal and external elements who want to
derail our train?

Frontpagemag.com
July 30 2004
The 9/11 Commission and Jihad
By Andrew G. Bostom
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 30, 2004
While I see some limited evidence of progress in the 9/11
Commissioner’s understanding of the global jihad we are facing,
ultimately their report resorted to the same tired and ahistorical
canards that distort the mainstream tradition – indeed which are
central to Islam – of jihad war. The report mentions the ad
nauseatingly referenced Hanbali jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d.1328), who
despite his Muslim orthodoxy, now serves as a convenient prop for
those who contend, either deceitfully or in blissful ignorance, that
jihad war is not a main tenet of traditional Islam. Once again a
distorted historical nexus is made between Ibn Taymiyya, but not
countless other seminal jurists and theologians who expressed
identical opinions, throughout the history of Islamic civilization,
and 20th century ideologues like Sayyid Qutb, and the Muslim
Brotherhood movement. This flimsy construct, reiterated in the 9/11
Commission Report, is completely untenable.
Jihad wars have been waged continuously for well over a millennium,
through the present, because jihad, which means `to strive in the
path of Allah,’ embodies an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were
formally conceived by Muslim jurisconsults and theologians from the
8th to 9th centuries onward, based on their interpretation of
Qur’anic verses (for e.g., 9:5,6; 9:29; 4:76-79; 2: 214-15; 8:39-42),
and long chapters in the Traditions (i.e., `hadith,’ acts and sayings
of the Prophet Muhammad, especially those recorded by al-Bukhari [d.
869] and Muslim [d. 874]). The consensus on the nature of jihad from
all four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (i.e., Maliki,
Hanbali, Hanafi, and Shafi’i) is clear:
Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (d. 996), Maliki jurist 1
Jihad is a precept of Divine institution. Its performance by certain
individuals may dispense others from it. We Malikis [one of the four
schools of Muslim jurisprudence] maintain that it is preferable not
to begin hostilities with the enemy before having invited the latter
to embrace the religion of Allah except where the enemy attacks
first. They have the alternative of either converting to Islam or
paying the poll tax (jizya), short of which war will be declared
against them.
Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), Hanbali jurist 2
Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that
the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore
according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must
be fought. As for those who cannot offer resistance or cannot fight,
such as women, children, monks, old people, the blind, handicapped
and their likes, they shall not be killed unless they actually fight
with words (e.g. by propaganda) and acts (e.g. by spying or otherwise
assisting in the warfare).
>From (primarily) the Hanafi school (as given in the Hidayah) 3

It is not lawful to make war upon any people who have never before
been called to the faith, without previously requiring them to
embrace it, because the Prophet so instructed his commanders,
directing them to call the infidels to the faith, and also because
the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of
religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making
slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible
that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save
themselves from the troubles of war… If the infidels, upon receiving
the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax, it
is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and
to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who
serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is
necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet,
moreover, commands us so to do.
al-Mawardi (d. 1058 ), Shafi’i jurist 4
The mushrikun [infidels] of Dar al-Harb (the arena of battle) are of
two types: First, those whom the call of Islam has reached, but they
have refused it and have taken up arms. The amir of the army has the
option of fighting them…in accordance with what he judges to be in
the best interest of the Muslims and most harmful to the mushrikun…
Second, those whom the invitation to Islam has not reached, although
such persons are few nowadays since Allah has made manifest the call
of his Messenger…[I]t is forbidden to…begin an attack before
explaining the invitation to Islam to them, informing them of the
miracles of the Prophet and making plain the proofs so as to
encourage acceptance on their part; if they still refuse to accept
after this, war is waged against them and they are treated as those
whom the call has reached….
In Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist (Maliki), renowned philosopher,
historian, and sociologist, summarized these consensus opinions from
five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the
uniquely Islamic institution of jihad:
In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of
the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to]
convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force…The
other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy
war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of
defense…Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.5
By the time of the classical Muslim historian al-Tabari’s death in
923, jihad wars had expanded the Muslim empire from Portugal to the
Indian subcontinent. Subsequent Muslim conquests continued in Asia,
as well as on Christian eastern European lands. The Christian
kingdoms of Armenia, Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia,
Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania – in addition to parts of Poland
and Hungary – were also conquered and Islamized. When the Muslim
armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1683, over a millennium
of jihad had transpired. These tremendous military successes spawned
a triumphalist jihad literature. Muslim historians recorded in detail
the number of infidels slain or enslaved, the cities and villages
which were pillaged, and the lands, treasure, and movable goods
seized. Christian (Coptic, Armenian, Jacobite, Greek, Slav, etc.), as
well as Hebrew sources, and even the scant Hindu and Buddhist
writings that survived the ravages of the Muslim conquests,
independently validate this narrative and complement the Muslim
perspective by providing testimonies of the suffering of the
non-Muslim victims of jihad wars.
But surely the much-lionized Sufi tradition offers a healthy
corrective to the so-called `narrow strain’ of Islam epitomized by
Ibn Taymiyya, and the consensus opinions (cardinal examples cited
above) of many other classical scholars representing all four main
schools of Sunni Islamic Law. Indeed, the scholar and theologian
W.M. Watt wrote that al-Ghazali (d. 1111), the famous theologian,
philosopher, and paragon of mystical Sufism, had been:
acclaimed in both the East and West as the greatest Muslim after
Muhammad, and he is by no means unworthy of that dignity…He brought
orthodoxy and mysticism into closer contact…the theologians became
more ready to accept the mystics as respectable, while the mystics
were more careful to remain within the bounds of orthodoxy. 6
The 9/11 Commissioners, and those who accept the views stated in
their report, should read the lauded al-Ghazali’s writings on jihad
war to understand that they differ not one whit from the opinions
expressed by the demonized Ibn Taymiyya. Below is what al-Ghazali
actually wrote about jihad war, and the treatment of the vanquished
non-Muslim [dhimmi] peoples (from the Wagjiz, written in 1101 C.E.):
…one must go on jihad (i.e., warlike razzias or raids) at least once
a year…one may use a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they
are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One
may set fire to them and/or drown them…If a person of the Ahl
al-Kitab [People of The Book – Jews and Christians, typically] is
enslaved, his marriage is [automatically] revoked. A woman and her
child taken into slavery should not be separated…One may cut down
their trees…One must destroy their useless books. Jihadists may
take as booty whatever they decide…they may steal as much food as
they need…. 7
The Commissioners might also find particularly edifying the writings
of two contemporary Muslim scholars of jihad, the late Majid
Khadduri, and Bassam Tibi. Majid Khadurri wrote the following in
1955:
Thus the jihad may be regarded as Islam’s instrument for carrying out
its ultimate objective by turning all people into believers, if not
in the prophethood of Muhammad (as in the case of the dhimmis), at
least in the belief of God. The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have
declared `some of my people will continue to fight victoriously for
the sake of the truth until the last one of them will combat the
anti-Christ.’ Until that moment is reached the jihad, in one form or
another will remain as a permanent obligation upon the entire Muslim
community. It follows that the existence of a dar al-harb is
ultimately outlawed under the Islamic jural order; that the dar
al-Islam permanently under jihad obligation until the dar al-harb is
reduced to non-existence; and that any community accepting certain
disabilities- must submit to Islamic rule and reside in the dar
al-Islam or be bound as clients to the Muslim community. The
universality of Islam, in its all embracing creed, is imposed on the
believers as a continuous process of warfare, psychological and
political if not strictly military. 8
And in 1996, Bassam Tibi wrote this:
At its core, Islam is a religious mission to all humanity. Muslims
are religiously obliged to disseminate the Islamic faith throughout
the world. `We have sent you forth to all mankind’ (Q. 34:28). If
non-Muslims submit to conversion or subjugation, this call (da’wa)
can be pursued peacefully. If they do not, Muslims are obliged to
wage war against them. In Islam, peace requires that non-Muslims
submit to the call of Islam, either by converting or by accepting the
status of a religious minority (dhimmi) and paying the imposed poll
tax, jizya. World peace, the final stage of the da’wa, is reached
only with the conversion or submission of all mankind to
Islam…Muslims believe that expansion through war is not aggression
but a fulfillment of the Qur’anic command to spread Islam as a way to
peace. The resort to force to disseminate Islam is not war (harb), a
word that is used only to describe the use of force by non-Muslims.
Islamic wars are not hurub (the plural of harb) but rather futuhat,
acts of `opening’ the world to Islam and expressing Islamic jihad.
Relations between dar al-Islam, the home of peace, and dar al-harb,
the world of unbelievers, nevertheless take place in a state of war,
according to the Qur’an and to the authoritative commentaries of
Islamic jurists. Unbelievers who stand in the way, creating obstacles
for the da’wa, are blamed for this state of war, for the da’wa can be
pursued peacefully if others submit to it. In other words, those who
resist Islam cause wars and are responsible for them. Only when
Muslim power is weak is `temporary truce’ (hudna) allowed (Islamic
jurists differ on the definition of `temporary’). 9
In 1916, the great Dutch scholar of Islam, C. Snouck Hurgronje
underscored how the jihad doctrine of world conquest remained a
potent force among the Muslim masses 13 centuries later,
[I]t would be a gross mistake to imagine that the idea of universal
conquest may be considered as obliterated…the canonists and the
vulgar still live in the illusion of the days of Islam’s greatness.
The legists continue to ground their appreciation of every actual
political condition on the law of the holy war, which war ought never
be allowed to cease entirely until all mankind is reduced to the
authority of Islam- the heathen by conversion, the adherents of
acknowledged Scripture by submission. Even if they admit the
improbability of this at present, they are comforted an encouraged by
the recollection of the lengthy period of humiliation that the
Prophet himself had to suffer before Allah bestowed victory upon his
arms; and they fervently join with the Friday preacher, when he
announces the prayer taken from the Qur’an: `And lay not upon us, our
Lord, that for which we have not strength, but blot out our sins and
forgive us and have pity upon us. Thou art our Master; grant us then
to conquer the unbelievers.’ And the common people are willingly
taught by the canonists and feed their hope of better days upon the
innumerable legends of the olden time and the equally innumerable
apocalyptic prophecies about the future. The political blows that
fall upon Islam make less impression…than the senseless stories about
the power of the Sultan of Stambul, that would instantly be revealed
if he were not surrounded by treacherous servants, and the fantastic
tidings of the miracles that Allah works in the Holy Cities of Arabia
which are inaccessible to the unfaithful. The conception of the
Khalifate still exercises a fascinating influence, regarded in the
light of a central point of union against the unfaithful.’ 10
Writing a quarter century after Hurgronje in 1942, Professor Arthur
Jeffery stressed why detailed consideration of the institution of
jihad remained essential, `not merely academic,’ for understanding
the contemporary Islamic world
for the theory of the world which it enshrines is still fundamental
to the thinking of great masses of Muslim people to the present day.
The troubles in India which lead up to the great Patna conspiracy
trials of 1864 were due to the fact that Syed Ahmad of Oudh had
preached against the Sikh cities of the Panjab a Jihad which later
turned to one against all non-Muslim groups. The bloody episode of
the Padri rebellion in Malaysia was due to the preaching of Jihad
against the pagan Battak tribes. The Fula wars in the Hausa country
[Western Sudan] in the early nineteenth century, which lead to Osman
Dan Fodio’s setting up the ephemeral sultanate of Sokoto, began as a
jihad preached against the pagan king of Gobir. The Moplah rebellion
in South India in 1921, with its massacres, forcible conversions,
desecration of temples, and outrages on the hapless Hindu villagers,
could be heard openly proclaimed as a Jihad in the streets of Madras. 11
With the resurgence of jihad military campaigns and major acts of
jihad terrorism literally across the globe in the last decades of the
20th century through the present, Jeffery’s additional insights from
62 years ago, resonate prophetically:
It is of course, easy to raise the objection that a Jihad in the old
sense is impossible of realization in the modern world, for Islam is
far too badly divided for anything like a general Jihad to be
contemplated and far too weak in technical equipment for a Jihad to
be successful even if started. This does not dispose of the fact,
however, that the earlier conception of Jihad has left a deposit in
Muslim thinking that is still to be reckoned with in the political
relations of the Western world with Islam. 12
Although time grows dangerously short, it is not too late for the
9/11 Commissioners and, more importantly, those who share their
assessment to broaden their understanding of the depth of the
ideological threat posed by jihad and consider more concrete,
expansive actions to be taken, such as the creation of the Alliance
of Western and Democratic Societies recently proposed by Dr. Raphael
Israeli.

ENDNOTES:
1 Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, La Risala (Epitre sur les elements du
dogme et de la loi de l’Islam selon le rite malikite.) Translated
from Arabic by Leon Bercher. 5th ed. Algiers, 1960, p. 165. [English
translation, in Bat Ye’or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under
Islam, Cranston, NJ, 1996, p. 295]
2 Ibn Taymiyyah, in Rudolph Peters, Jihad in Classical and Modern
Islam, (Princeton, NJ. : Markus Wiener, 1996, p. 49)
3 From the Hidayah, vol. Ii. P. 140, in Thomas P. Hughes, `A
Dictionary of Islam,’ `Jihad’ Pp. 243-248. (London, United Kingdom.:
W.H. Allem, 1895).
4 Al- Mawardi, The Laws of Islamic Governance [al-Ahkam
as-Sultaniyyah, (London, United Kingdom.: Ta-Ha, 1996, p. 60).
5 Ibn Khaldun, `The Muqudimmah. An Introduction to History,’
Translated by Franz Rosenthal. (New York, NY.: Pantheon, 1958, vol.
1, p. 473).
6 Watt, W.M. [Translator]. The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali,
Oxford, England, 1953, p. 13.
7. Al-Ghazali (d. 1111). Kitab al-Wagiz fi fiqh madhab al-imam
al-Safi’i, Beirut, 1979, pp. 186, 190-91. [English translation by Dr.
Michael Schub]
8 Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in the Law of Islam, 1955, Richmond,
VA and London, England, pp. 63-64.
9 Tibi, Bassam. `War and Peace in Islam,’ in The Ethics of War and
Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives, edited by Terry Nardin,
1996, Princeton, N.J., pp. 129-131.
10 Hurgronje, Snouck. Mohammedanism. New York, 1916, p. 59.
11 Jeffery, Arthur. `The Political Importance of Islam,’ Journal of
Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 1, 1942, p. 388.
12 Jeffery, A. `The Political Importance of Islam,’ pp. 388-389.
Andrew G. Bostom, MD, MS is an Associate Professor of Medicine at
Brown University Medical School, and occasional contributor to
Frontpage Magazine. He is the editor of a forthcoming essay
collection entitled, “The Legacy of Jihad”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress