NEW UNION CREATED IN ARMENIA
A1 Plus | 18:29:33 | 31-05-2004 | Politics |
Eleven Armenian organizations functioning in public services area
have united to protect utilities consumers’ interests with joint
efforts. The newly created union intends to establish close ties with
Utilities Regulations Commission and cooperate with it.
The union will be functioning as advice-giving structure. The most
common are gasification-related complaints, the union activists
say. Complainants say shadow dealing is accompanying gasification
works.

New University, University of California, Irvine
May 31 2004
Hundreds Rally Against Alleged Arson
Speakers denounce the burning of an anti-Zionist cardboard wall and
promise that free speech will prevail at UCI.
by: Ben Ritter
Rob Oandasan
Rob oandasan | New University Students from various groups walk
around Ring Road to support the Society of Arab Students a week after
their cardboard wall was destroyed.
About 200 students and other concerned community members gathered
on the steps outside of the Administration Building on May 27 to
demonstrate unity against hate crimes, centering on the destruction
on May 21 of a cardboard wall constructed by the Society of Arab
Students to dramatize heightened Israeli-Palestinian relations.
The crowd gathered under a yellow banner that read “Hate crimes
and racism will not silence us!” Many demonstrators wore armbands
made from caution tape while others held signs with slogans such as
“Obliterate the hate,” “Hate is not the answer” and “Say no to hate.”
Osama Abuljebain, president of SAS, was the first to speak against
hate crimes on campus.
“The Society of Arab Students is firm on working towards ending hate
crimes against Arabs and Muslims and all other fellow Americans
suffering from such crimes here on campus and in our community,”
Abuljebain said.
Manuel Gomez, vice chancellor of student affairs, spoke of his own
outrage against the destruction of the wall, which he called “an act
of intimidation against the principles of our entire community.”
Gomez also stressed the administration’s commitment to maintaining
an atmosphere conducive to the free exchange of ideas.
“When I receive pleas and letters to shut down student demonstrations
on the campus, I continuously defend our community,” Gomez said. “I
believe that there is no better environment than a university in
which we are having these kinds of conversations and discussions.”
Gomez advised that students should band together despite their
differences when faced with such an attack on free expression.
“It is during times like this that we all put aside our political
differences to respect the liberties of free expression without
intimidation,” Gomez said. Speakers from other community organizations
also expressed their support of campus free speech efforts.
Preston Wood, from Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition said
that the destruction of the wall was a manifestation of bigotry that
must be sought out and destroyed wherever it exists in the world.
“The violent destruction of the wall is just another demonstration
of bigotry gone wild, and it needs to be responded to,” Wood said.
Nader Abuljebain, representing the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, expressed gratitude to the administration for their
investigation of the crime.
“We appreciate the efforts that are being done by the UCI
administration to investigate this crime and to denounce the arson
attack as a hate crime because it sends a clear message to our
students and community that the university cares about the safety
and the welfare of its students,” Abuljebain said.
Representatives of other student organizations including the Armenian
Student Association, the Muslim Student Union, MEChA and ASUCI also
pledged support for the SASs advocation of free political expression
on campus.
Some students attended the rally because they had felt personally
threatened by the crime that had been committed.
“We’re out here to protest against hate,” said Layla Shaikley, a
first-year undecided/undeclared major. “As a member of the Muslim
Student Union, part of the foundation of my religion is peace. As
a member of the Society of Arab Students, there is no way that I am
going to stand for being threatened because of my ethnicity.”
One campus group, however, felt unwelcome at the rally. According
to Anteaters for Israel they were turned away by the SAS when they
wished to show their support.
“Last Monday, news cameras were on campus covering the burning of
the wall and interviewing members of the Society of Arab Students,”
said Larry Mahler, President of Alpha Epsilon Pi and a member of
Anteaters for Israel. “I approached some of the students and expressed
my sympathy, because similar things had happened to our group in the
past, like the defacing of our Holocaust memorial last year. I said
that Anteaters for Israel would be more than happy to support them
in the free speech rally that they had planned.”
Despite their will to support the organization, SAS declined their
request.
Mahler said that the rejection of his group’s support, which he
attributes to differences in political opinions between the two groups,
was like “a slap in the face.”
“Although we have disagreed politically with the Society of Arab
Students, here is a time when we should support each other,” Mahler
said. “Free speech and opposition to the destruction of property is
one thing that we should agree upon … A lot of other organizations
were represented at the rally. It would have been nice to be a part
of the rest of the community and not to be excluded.”
Vanessa Zuabi, vice president of the SAS responded by saying that
they didn’t want AFI at the rally because they did not want to turn
the rally into a political issue.
“We didn’t want to make the rally political in any way shape or form.
We didn’t want the issue of Palestine and Israel to overshadow what
we were really there for which was to stand against hate. We didn’t
want any other issue to overshadow it,” Zuabi said.
According to Zuabi, the Model United Nations will be organizing
dialogue between certain Arab and Israelis students in the next week.
“You automatically create these boundaries when you come in as
representatives of an organization. It’s better to come into the
discussion as an individual,” Zuabi said.

Russian Vneshtorgbank Continues Transcaucasian Expansion
MOSNEWS, Russia
May 31 2004
One of Russia’s leading universal banks Vneshtrogbank has reached a
principal agreement with the United Georgian Bank over the purchase
of latter’s controlling shares. The information was published on the
bank’s official web site on May 28. The agreement was reached during
a visit of Vneshtorgbank’s delegation to Georgia. The details of the
deal are not reported.
“The purchase of shares of the Georgian bank will promote the
implementation of the Vneshtorgbank strategy, which envisages the
development of its network in the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent
States] countries,” the news release, issued by the VneshTorgBank
reads. First Deputy Chairman of Russian bank Vladimir Levin said that
Vneshtorgbank sees “the banking services’ markets in CIS countries
as having a lot of potential”.
As MosNews reported in March, Vneshtorgbank already purchased a 70
percent stake in Armenian Savings Bank and announced then that it
plans to enter the retail business of providing banking services to
regular citizens. Acquisition of United Georgian Bank signals the
seriousness of Vneshtorgbank’s intentions “to occupy the market niche
of main clearing bank in the CIS countries”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian experts oppose Russian military presence
Pravda, Russia / Rosbalt
May 31 2004
The European Union and the Council of Europe promote Armenian
independence. According to data gathered in a survey of experts by the
Armenian Center for Strategic and National Research, 72% of experts
support this view. At the same time, 56% of those surveyed believe
that Russia limits Armenian independence.
6% see the US and the World Bank as limiting Armenian independence,
and 4% believe the same about Turkey. 66% of experts were confident
that in the next 10-12 years Armenia will become a member of NATO,
with 28% confident that they will not. 6% had difficulty answering
this question. The presence of Russian military bases on Armenian
territory was welcomed by only 18% of the experts who thought that
the bases provide a guarantee of safety for the country. At the same
time, 76% of those surveyed were opposed to Russian forces in Armenia,
and 6% had difficulty answering this question.
Of the 50 experts who participated in the survey, 30% were affiliated
with government organizations and 70% with non-governmental
organizations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian nuclear plant to stop for repairs on June 15
Interfax
May 31 2004
Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, which is managed
by ZAO Inter RAO UES is to halt operations on June 15, 2004 for
maintenance and for fuel to be loaded, plant General Director Garik
Markosyan told Interfax.
He said that the work will take 65 days, during which major repairs
will be carried out to the reactor after the fuel is loaded, and to
two turbines in the second power-producing unit.
The general director said that this year the U.S. has already paid out
$4 million to increase safety at the plant. As regards the European
Union, the amount of financial aid will be agreed in Brussels this
summer, he said.
Markosyan said the plant produced 1.1 billion kWh of electricity from
the start of the year until May 30. The plant produced 1.9 billion
kWh of electricity in 2003, which is 36% of total energy production
in the republic.
Armenian Nuclear Power Plant was transferred to ZAO Inter RAO UES
in September last year. Inter RAO UES is an electricity export and
import operator on energy markets in Russia and abroad. The company is
a subsidiary of UES of Russia (60% of shares) and Rosenergoatom (40%).

OSCE Official Questions Opposition Arrests In Armenia
By Ruzanna Stepanian 31/05/2004 15:53
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
May 31 2004
A senior official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe on Friday criticized the continuing imprisonment on criminal
charges of more than a dozen individuals arrested in connection with
the opposition campaign for regime change in Armenia.
Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, who heads the OSCE office in Yerevan,
said the law-enforcement authorities’ decision to keep the opposition
activists in jail pending the inquiry into their alleged coup attempts
and “hooligan” acts is too strict and unjustified. “We insist on
a detailed investigation into all those cases in order to rule out
a biased and politically motivated treatment of [the detainees],”
Pryakhin told RFE/RL. “There is no criminal substance as such
[in their actions] or it is too insignificant to warrant such a
preventive measure.”
“Undoubtedly their detention was politically motivated and linked to
their political activities. But during those activities they may have
carried out actions that are punishable by criminal law,” he said.
The Russian diplomat acknowledged that the OSCE played a role in the
release earlier this week of two senior members of the opposition
Hanrapetutyun party accused of publicly insulting the authorities. He
said he will hold more meetings with Armenian prosecutors to discuss
the fate of the other detainees.
At least 11 opposition activists are kept in jail on criminal
charges. Three of them have already been sentenced to between 9 and
18 months in prison by courts. The opposition and some local human
rights groups regard all of them as political prisoners.
The authorities have also detained and briefly jailed in the last two
months more than one hundred participants of unsanctioned opposition
rallies under Armenia’s Soviet-era code of Administrative Offences.
Opposition sources say 15 people are currently serving prison terms
ranging from 8 to 10 days.
The authorities continue to resort to the controversial “administrative
detentions” despite repeated protests from the Council of Europe
and other international watchdogs. According to Pryakhin, the OSCE
also stands for the abolition of what he described as a “vicious
practice.” “The administrative detentions is a legacy of Soviet
jurisprudence which allowed law-enforcement bodies to detain certain
dissident individuals for the so-called prophylactic purposes,”
he said.
“We have set a goal of having this vicious practice scrapped this
year,” Pryakhin added.
Between 200 and 400 opposition supporters were jailed in similar
circumstances during and in the aftermath of last year’s disputed
presidential election. The arrests were criticized by Amnesty
International on Wednesday. “Reportedly denied access to lawyers,
they were sentenced in closed trials without legal representation,”
the London-based group said in an annual report on human rights abuses
around the world.

CIS Kurds support People’s Congress decision to end truce
Interfax
May 31 2004
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) – The International Union of Kurdish Public
Organizations, which unites Kurds in Russia and other CIS nations,
thinks the decision of the People’s Congress of Kurdistan (the former
Kurdistan Workers’ Party) to end its truce with the Turkish authorities
is well-founded.
“We think this decision is grounded, because the Turkish authorities
have done nothing to resolve the Kurdish problem, but have intensified
punitive operations during the cease-fire period,” Union Deputy
Chairman Kamis Jabrailov told Interfax on Monday.
“Yet the Kurds who live in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Armenia object to any use of force on the part of governments or
organizations, and want a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem,”
he said.
“Kurds will not be the first to spill blood, but they will launch
an offensive if the Turkish army continues military operations,”
Jabrailov said.
A statement by the administration of the People’s Congress of Kurdistan
was released last Sunday. It said the truce with Turkey, announced
five years ago after the arrest of party leader Abdullah Ocalan, is
“senseless,” and they will resume hostilities. <>

Transitions on Line, Czech Rep.
May 31 2004
Deputy Regional Program Manager
TITLE: Deputy Regional Program Manager
REPORTS TO: Regional Program Manager in Baku and PTD Deputy Director
in Washington, DC
POSITION LOCATION: Yerevan, Armenia
US Citizenship Required
IREX, a nonprofit in international education and training, seeks
qualified professional to fill the position of Deputy Regional
Coordinator for the Internet Access and Training Program (IATP)
sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US
State Department.
About IREX:
IREX (the International Research & Exchanges Board) is the premier US
nonprofit organization specializing in higher education, independent
media, Internet development, and civil society programs in the United
States, Europe, Eurasia, the Near East, and Asia. IREX’s mission is
to foster democracy in transitioning societies; strengthen and help
internationalize educational, nongovernmental, and media
organizations; support the highest quality research in the social
sciences and humanities; and identify and train the next generation
of leaders by working together with universities, nongovernmental
organizations, foundations, governments, and corporations.
IREX has had an on-the-ground presence in the Caucasus since 1992,
when it opened its Yerevan, Armenia field office. Offices in Tbilisi,
Georgia followed in 1994, and in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1998. IREX
programs in the region span academic exchanges and advising, Internet
access and training, curriculum reform, and short-term professional
training.
Summary of Position:
IREX seeks a qualified professional to fill the position of Deputy
Regional Program Manager for the Internet Access and Training Program
(IATP). The Deputy Regional Program Manager will be based in Yerevan,
Armenia with substantial travel to Georgia and Azerbaijan. The
position requires substantive experience coordinating international
assistance programs with knowledge in utilizing Internet technology
as an educational and training tool. IREX seeks a minimum one-year
commitment.
The Deputy Regional Program Manager will work closely with the
Regional Program Manager to:
– Supervise a network of 35 Internet access sites and more than 60
local staff
– Coordinate program activities with the Public Affairs Sections of
local US Embassies
– Oversee and manage the budget, reporting, statistics collection,
and program direction.
Qualifications:
– Two-three years experience with international assistance and
development programs
– Knowledge of local language preferred
– Experience in using the Internet and integrating information
technology resources in professional and educational settings
– A minimum of one-year experience working and living in Eurasia
– An understanding of LAN architecture and hardware
Submit cover letter and resume to: PTD/DS, [email protected], fax
(202) 628-8189, No phone calls please.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 31 2004
AZERBAIJAN, FRANCE: RELATIONS DEVELOPING
PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN ILHAM ALIYEV RECEIVED AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO
AZERBAIJAN
[May 31, 2004, 16:06:35]
President of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev on 31 May at the
President Palace received the ambassador of France to Azerbaijan
Chantal Poiret.
Expressing regret for termination of her diplomatic mission in the
Republic of Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev thanked the French
Ambassador for her useful and fruitful activity.
President Ilham Aliyev said that in the period of her activity
in Azerbaijan, mutual relations between the two countries in the
political, economic and other fields have intensively developed. And
highly assessing the Ambassador’s efforts in organizing his visit to
France, stressed the importance of conclusions of this visit.
Reminding service of the ambassadors in development of the mutual
relations between the states, president Ilham Aliyev said that as OSCE
Minsk Group co-chair, France makes enormous efforts for settlement
of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict, and Ms. Chantal
Poiret has actively taken part in this process.
President Ilham Aliyev once again thanked the Ambassador and wished
success in her future activity.
Noting that she did not spare strength to require high level of the
relations between France and Azerbaijan, Ms. Chantal Poiret stated
that she deeply regards the people of Azerbaijan and its leader.
Expressing her pleasure with hospitability of the Azerbaijan people,
the Ambassador said she would continue her links with Azerbaijan
in France.
At the meeting, also were exchanged views on numerous items of the
prospects of Azerbaijan-France relations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EVERYBODY MUST COMPLETE NATIONAL SERVICE DUTY BEFORE TAKING HIGH POST
A1 Plus | 21:22:25 | 31-05-2004 | Politics |
Supreme Council MPs’ club issued a statement Monday attracting public
attention to those high-ranking state officials, who had dodged
military service in a clear breach of the law.
The club appealed to court demanding to announce Armenian president’s
five orders on appointing culture minister Hovik Hoveyan, justice
minister David Harutyunyan, foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan, defense
minister Serge Sargssyan and prime minister Andranik Margaryan to
their positions invalid.
The court accepted only two of the five motions submitted by the club.
Motions on Andranik Margaryan and Hovik Hoveyan were taken by the
court while the rest three ones on Serge Sargssyan, Vardan Oskanyan
and David Harutyunyan were declined, despite all five cases are
completely alike. “The explanation of the rejection was absolutely
absurd: only Constitutional Court can dispute any presidential decree’s
correspondence with the Constitution”, the statement says.
The club members think the court accepting two and rejecting three
above-mentioned motions displayed political approach instead of
juridical, as Hoveyan’s and Markaryan’s candidacies had been put up
by Orinats Erkir and Republican parties while the rest three officials
were president Kocharyan’s direct nominees.