Olympics needn’t be Hellen earth
By Philip Howard
The Times (London)
May 28, 2004, Friday
They said that Athens would never be ready for the Olympics in time.
According to The New York Times: “Athens is a dump, the transport
system is on a par with provincial cities of Algeria, the democracy
is bogus, the Games will be crooked, and the Greeks know as little
about amateur sport as the Chinese.”
Luckily, The Times was there to put the record straight. But this was
all about the Olympics in Athens in 1896. Michael Llewellyn Smith,
our former Ambassador to Athens, describes the invention of the modern
event in his book Olympics in Athens 1896: The Invention of the Modern
Olympic Games, which is about to be published.
He records how much Pierre de Coubertin and the other founding fathers
of the Neo-Olympics owed to such British pioneers as Tom Brown’s
Schooldays, the Much Wenlock Olympics in Shropshire (where shin-kicking
was one of the games), and such British contests as the University
Boat Race. Coubertin took care not to acknowledge his sources.
Our archives show how instrumental The Times itself was in the rebirth
of the Olympics. The archaeologist, Charles Waldstein, former director
of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, put the record
straight about Athens. He contradicted rumours that the site and
buildings would not be ready in time, and that the Games would be
a failure.
Having inspected the stadium and rifle ranges, he was happy to
congratulate the organisers and the architect on the energy and
intelligence with which the work had been pushed forward, and the
stupendous effect produced by the stadium. He gave this testimony,
naturally, in a letter to the Editor of The Times.
Our man in Athens was a leading and eccentric player in the renaissance
of the Olympics. James David Bourchier, who began his career as a
beak at Eton, and ended it as a Bulgarian national hero, was one
of the few Times hacks (so far) to be portrayed on a stamp wearing
Bulgarian national costume.
He was also stone deaf. It was a common sight in the gardens of the
Royal Palace in Sofia to see King Ferdinand of Bulgaria shouting
state secrets into Bourchier’s ear-trumpet. A British diplomat said
that whenever a great noise was heard in the Balkans, it was either
Bourchier telling a state secret to a prime minister, or a prime
minister telling a state secret to Bourchier. An Irishman and classical
scholar, he sympathised with the struggles of the Macedonian Greeks
for complete freedom from Ottoman overlordship. His lush moustache
and melancholy eyes would add distinction to our newsroom today.
In 1896 Bourchier had got into hot water in Bulgaria for taking
the side of Muslim Bulgarians. The man from The Times was accused
of being an enemy agent, or even an Armenian agitator. His contacts
were threatened with death or ruin. So we decided to transfer him to
Athens. Bourchier wrote to the managing editor: “I have always been
glad to think that The Times attaches more importance to questions
of scholarship and art than any other newspaper, and perhaps I may
say that, in my own case, work in this field -which is done con amore
-is likely to be my best.”
To mark the opening of those first renaissance Games, The Times
published a two-column think piece from Our Special Correspondent
-Bourchier of course. He paid tribute to Courbertin. He regretted
that the festival could not have been celebrated at Olympia among
the monuments of ancient grandeur being brought to light by the
archaeologists. But he accepted that this was impossible. Modern
visitors could not be expected to camp out in the fields or under the
portico of a temple, like visitors to the ancient games. Athens was
the only place capable of supplying modern comforts and infrastructure.
Bourchier castigated the British for not turning out: “It is greatly
to be regretted that England, the home of latter-day athletics, will
be very inadequately represented at the festival, and that Oxford and
Cambridge, where the physical and mental training of Ancient Greece
has found its nearest counterpart in modern times, will hardly be
represented at all.” He said that the Olympic Games should never be
removed from their native soil.
As one Greek said, you cannot tread twice in the same river. We can
regret that they did not decide always to hold the Olympics at their
original home of Olympia.
We miss the brave amateurism of those first games, at which a
Princeton boy picked up the first discus he had seen, and won the
event; a British tourist went in for the tennis, and won; and nobody
knew whether the triple jump was hop, hop, jump, or hop, step and
jump. Either would do.
We deplore some of the sillier modern sports, as opposed to knitting,
which featured in some of the early Olympics. Bring back shin-kicking,
I say. We regret that the Games have been taken over by commercialism,
bribery, corruption and cheating. But we cheer for their ancient charm
and modern magic. And we can be sure that The Times will continue
to support and report them with the enthusiasm and wisdom of James
Bourchier, our Special Correspondent.

No justice when fascinating lives are crammed into a short slot : Review
by Ian Bell
The Herald (Glasgow)
May 28, 2004
One Day of War: This World
BBC2, 9.00pm
No Going Back
Channel 4, 8.00pm
If One Day of War was to be believed, it isn’t hard to become a
terrorist. An accident of birth, a brutal government, or even the
desire to run a brutal government of your very own: given any one of
these you have a good chance of winding up as one of the two people
who die every minute because of war. Alternatively, you could be
helping someone else to join the silent ranks of the dead.
This was a documentary brilliant in its conception but shaky in its
execution. The idea was to film 16 people at war in various uncongenial
parts of the planet on a single day and provide a snapshot of global
conflict. The trouble was that the attempt to cram so many stories
into 90 minutes led to potted biographies and potted history.
If ever a film demanded context, it was this one. We kicked off,
for example, with Comrade Grace, an 18-year-old in the ranks of the
New People’s Army in the Philippines. This movement’s claim to fame
is that it is “the world’s longest -running active group of communist
rebels”. For 30 years they’ve been slogging it out in the jungle. We
heard that they once attacked American bases, but these days harass
the government. Why?
With some tales, it is true, you could just about work out the
fighter’s motivation. Shushila Magar, a 24-year-old Nepalese woman,
was clearly sincere. You have to be dedicated when the only weapons
you have are flintlock rifles. Equally, if you live in a feudal state
that condemns half its people to exist on less than a dollar a day,
you tend to be militant.
Nevertheless, when Shushila said that modern weapons don’t matter if
you had ideology as a weapon, you suspected that her group might be
competing with the New People’s Army for revolutionary longevity. The
Nepalese fighters were also described as Maoists. Yet again, I would
have loved someone to explain what that means in the 21st century.
These were stories of our times, but they were, as often as not, the
same old story. Poverty and oppression fuel rebellion, the revolution
sours and “liberation” soon resembles the same old tyranny. You
couldn’t quibble with the heroism of Mousa Ibragim Osman, a fighter
with the Sudan Liberation Army, nine of whose brothers have died
while an Arab Muslim government has been ethnically cleansing black
Muslims. You wondered, though, how the SLA would behave if they were
on top.
What was most striking about these conflicts, nevertheless, was the
world’s eagerness to forget them. Hands up who knew that the trench
warfare in Nagorno Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan has lasted
three times as long as the First World War? Corporal Albert Hinasyan,
an Armenian conscript, didn’t even try to explain what that one was
all about.
There were good wars and bad wars. You could feel for the Karen
National Liberation Army, who have been fighting for independence from
a genocidal Burmese government for 55 years. It wasn’t so easy to cheer
for Colombia’s FARC, a revolutionary corporation raking in $ 300m a
year from drugs, extortion and kidnapping. This documentary made each
of these conflicts seem like the same conflict. That was truly unjust.
Injustice was uppermost in the minds of Chris and Katie Day, ages
11 and 14 respectively, going on three. What, you wondered, did
Austria do to deserve this pair? Their father was fed up working 87
hours a week as a milkman; their mother had fallen in love with the
Austrian Alps. Together, the parents had sunk every penny they had,
plus £ 130,000 borrowed from a bank, into a mountain hotel. Were the
cherubs having it? They were not.
“I’m not goin’ to school ‘ere,” Katie announced before entering an
institution that should have demanded her instant deportation. The
boy, meanwhile, had to be lifted from the car. The dream was turning
into a nightmare, but the Day family had brought a little bit of hell
with them. Fun to watch, though, in a grisly sort of way.
GRAPHIC: CAMPAIGN: Roger Rosal speaks for the Philippines’ rebel group.

Azeri minister blames international bodies for Armenian defectors’ hunger strike
Sarq, Baku
28 May 04
Text of unattributed report by Azerbaijani newspaper Sarq on 28 May
headlined “The national security minister calls on the two Armenians
to stop their hunger strike” and subheaded “Namiq Abbasov: ‘If any
tragedy happens to them, the International Committee of the Red Cross
and other structures will be responsible for this'”
Azerbaijani National Security Minister Namiq Abbasov has called on
the Armenian defectors, Artur Apresyan and Roman Teryan, to stop
their hunger strike, which they have started in protest against
the activities of the UNHCR and the International Committee of the
Red Cross.
He said that the aforesaid individuals place the responsibility
for this action on international organizations. Abbasov added that
according to the law, those held in solitary confinement cells at the
National Security Ministry are force-fed if they announce a hunger
strike. “But the law does not apply to them Apresyan and Teryan ,”
Abbasov said.
He added: “Today I issued an instruction to persuade them to stop their
move. Let them be patient, start to eat and see what extra measures
we take. Our human rights organizations, NGOs and media outlets are
protecting them. If any tragedy happens to them, the International
Committee of the Red Cross and other structures will be responsible
for this”.
From: Baghdasarian

Peterson attorney lives in limelight, fights for underdog
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
May 27, 2004, Thursday, BC cycle
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — He charms jurors, attorneys and judges with
his easygoing style. Lawyer to the stars, talk show pundit, the
mustachioed man in crisply pressed suits is now the man of the hour.
As lead defense attorney for Scott Peterson, Mark Geragos is the
former fertilizer salesman’s best hope of avoiding a death sentence
in the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their fetus.
Defendants are supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty
– but Geragos has said police and prosecutors did all they could to
convict Peterson in the court of public opinion before a gag order
was imposed on the case.
That’s one reason why Geragos is so chummy with reporters – “What
drives me just crazy is when I think that somebody is getting a raw
deal,” he explains in an interview.
During breaks in the proceedings, Geragos saunters from the courthouse,
says a few well-chosen words, takes a couple of questions and strolls
off, cell phone to his ear.
That’s the face much of the world sees, a man who appears confident,
deliberate and deftly in charge of his surroundings, the kind of
attorney many friends and colleagues say they would want on their side.
Geragos was catapulted to fame after he secured acquittals for
Whitewater figure Susan McDougal and took on the cases of Winona Ryder,
former Congressman Gary Condit and rapper Nathaniel (Nate Dogg) Hale.
Beyond the cameras’ glare, Geragos is a man like any other – committed
to his job, his family and his Armenian-American culture.
“The thing that drives me is fighting for the underdog and taking on
causes that are generally not well recognized,” Geragos said. “Being
Armenian and having all four of my grandparents who fled genocide,
I have a great and deep and abiding appreciation for what it’s like
to be the subject of tyranny.”
One of his proudest achievements is a settlement in January that went
mostly unnoticed. The descendants of some 1.5 million Armenians who
were killed nearly 90 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire will
share in a $20 million settlement for unpaid life insurance benefits.
Geragos served as plaintiffs’ attorney in the class action, which
took four years of work.
That’s why he took on the Peterson case, even as others assured him
it was a loser.
“The whole idea … is to defend people and to fight for their rights
and their liberties,” Geragos said.
Married with two children, Geragos, 46, is managing partner of a Los
Angeles law firm that includes his father and brother. The arrangement
allows them to take cases at no charge, if the cause is right. “I’m
the luckiest lawyer on the planet that I’ve got the kind of practice
that I do.”
Geragos was defending both Peterson and Michael Jackson, until the
pop star complained his child molestation defense wasn’t getting
enough attention. Geragos shrugged off his firing, saying only that
“I truly, truly wish him well and am hopeful for a favorable outcome
for Michael.”
His friend and fellow Los Angeles attorney Harland Braun says Geragos
“understands people more than most lawyers do.”
Another thing he understands, according to Geragos’ co-counsel Pat
Harris, is that high-profile clients cannot be defended solely inside
courtrooms – not when jurors are constantly in danger of being exposed
to every supermarket tabloid take on the trial.
Geragos has lost his share of cases, but even the best lose some,
according to Shepard Kopp, a lawyer at his firm. “That’s the ultimate
challenge. As a trial lawyer, you take cases that appear to be
unwinnable and you find a way to win.”

Azeris stage rally in Moscow to mark Republic Day
Turan news agency
28 May 04
Baku, 28 May: Over 500 Azerbaijanis staged a rally on Pushkin Square
in Moscow yesterday. This action was organized by the Movement for
Azerbaijan to mark 28 May – the Day of the Republic.
The demonstrators protested against the Armenian occupation of the
Azerbaijani territories. They called on the international community
to speed up its efforts for a peaceful settlement to the Karabakh
conflict.
The rally adopted an appeal to the UN and Russian President Vladimir
Putin, Turan learnt from the press service of the Movement for
Azerbaijan.

EXPULSION AS GLOBAL PROBLEM TO BE THEME OF SUDETENS ASSEMBLY
NUREMBERG, May 27 ; (PVR)
Czech News Agency (CTK)
CTK National News Wire
May 27, 2004
Expulsion as a global problem will be the main issue of this year’s
Sudeten German national assembly scheduled for the forthcoming weekend,
Bernd Posselt, the chairman of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft
(SL), told the German news agency DPA today.
The meeting will also be attended by representatives of other ethnic
groups which have fallen victim to expulsion and ethnic cleansing
such as Armenians, Kosovo Albanians and Croatians, Posselt said.
The SL leadership wants to set the deportation of Sudeten Germans
in the present-day context of ethnic cleansing in the world, as
evidenced by Posselt pointing to the current situation in Sudan as
a latest problem.
Posselt said he expected the meeting to deal with the Benes decrees,
called by Sudeten Germans as the cause of their deportation.
The meeting is likely to criticise the recent decision of the Czech
Parliament to pass a law saying that Czechoslovak president Edvard
Benes helped build the state.
Posselt said that the law was “unreasonable wilfulness on a part of
the Czech political scene.”
The meeting will culminate by the speech of Bavarian Minister President
Edmund Stoiber on Sunday.
On the basis of the Benes decrees, ethnic Germans and some Hungarians
were transferred from Czechoslovakia after World War Two and their
property was confiscated. The deportees and some politicians in
Germany and Austria as well as Hungary call the decrees incompatible
with Prague and Bratislava’s membership of the EU, and call for
their abolition.

California lawmakers hope to raise awareness about Armenian genocide
Scripps Howard News Service
May 27, 2004, Thursday
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Adolf Hitler was planning his 1939 invasion
of Poland and the extermination of Jews, he wasn’t worried about the
consequences of his brutality.
“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
he asked.
Nearly a century later, the effort to raise awareness about the 1915
genocide of 1.5 million Armenians reached the California state Senate
on Wednesday. California is home to hundreds of thousands of people
with Armenian ancestry.
“I grew up knowing of that experience,” said Sen. Chuck Poochigian,
R-Fresno, whose great-grandparents were murdered in the Turkish-led
genocide.
By a vote of 37-0, the Senate agreed with Poochigian to exempt from
taxes any insurance settlement payments to heirs and beneficiaries
of Armenian genocide victims.
The measure puts descendants of the Ottoman Empire-era atrocities
on par with those from the Holocaust, German labor camps and
Japanese-American internment camps. Those survivors and heirs also
don’t pay taxes on reparations or insurance payments.
In January, New York Life Insurance Co. reached a $20 million
settlement with heirs and beneficiaries of about 2,400 Armenian
genocide victims who took out policies between 1875 and 1915.
Armenian groups say policy documents were lost and destroyed during
the massacre. This year’s measure follows a 2000 bill by Poochigian
that extended the statute of limitations for lawsuits to be filed
against insurance carriers for unpaid claims.
The state expects a loss of $500,000 to $700,000 in tax revenue because
of the bill. But Poochigian said the bill is bigger than the modest
tax relief it provides.
“It’s a matter of simple justice that they get these payments,”
he said.
The bill heads to the Assembly, where it will receive strong –
and emotional – backing by Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton,
whose grandparents fled the region in 1915, eventually settling in
California in the 1950s.
“It’s important to keep the awareness of this high,” he said.
Turkey, a U.S. ally, rejects the genocide claim and maintains that
Armenians were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire.
(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service,
)

ARKA News Agency
May 27 2004
RA President Kocharian meets the plenipotentiary of Russian President
in Central Federal Region
WHO member countries display considerable interest to Armenicum –
Armenian drug for treatment of AIDS
Presentation of the book “Penelopa” by Gohar Markosyan-Kasper takes
place in Yerevan
*********************************************************************
RA PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN MEETS THE PLENIPOTENTIARY OF RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
IN CENTRAL FEDERAL REGION
YEREVAN, May, 28. /ARKA/. RA President Kocharian met the Russian
President Plenipotentiary in Central Federal Region Georgi
Poltavchenko. According to the RA President’s Press Service
Department, the sides emphasized the high level of Armenian-Russian
bilateral relations and noted that the potential for co-operation in
economic area is still high. Kocharian noted the importance of
activation of relations at the level of administrative and
territorial subjects of Armenia and Russia. He introduces the areas
which are especially being developed well and can be interesting for
co-operation. At that, Poltavchenko noted the volume of the
construction works done in the republic and the participation of the
Russian companies in them.
According to the press release, Poltavchenko sent RF President
Poutin’s regrds to RA President Kocharian. A.H–0–
*********************************************************************
WHO MEMBER COUNTRIES DISPLAY CONSIDERABLE INTEREST TO ARMENICUM –
ARMENIAN DRUG FOR TREATMENT OF AIDS
YEREVAN, May 27. /ARKA/. World Health Organization (WHO) members
states display considerable interest to Armenicum – Armenian drug for
treatment of AIDS, as said by Vahan Poghosyan, Head of Organization
of Medical Aid Department of RA Healthcare Ministry on press
conference. In his words, the drug was officially presented to the
international community during the 57 conference of WHO held in 16-23
May in Switzerland, mentioning that the participants displayed active
interest to the drug and they expect reactions in the nearest future.
He also informed that since 1 April 2004 Armenicum is included in the
state order on principle co-financing by the RA Government. He also
said that testing of the drug for treatment of tuberculosis for
strengthening of human immune system continue, however the survey is
in development stage and it is early to speak on concrete results.
On 10 December 1999 clinic for treatment of AIDS opened in Yerevan.
The treatment is being done by Armenicum developed by eth Armenian
scientists. Today already five countries purchase Armenicum. T.M. -0-
*********************************************************************
PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK “PENELOPA” BY GOHAR MARKOSYAN-KASPER TAKES
PLACE IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, May, 27. /ARKA/. Presentation of the book “Penelopa” by
Gohar Markosyan-Kasper took place in Yerevan. As Levon Ananyan, the
Chairman of the Armenian Writers Union, stated during the
presentation, the novel written in Russian reflects the Armenian
reality. He emphasized that the novel is very humorous and contains
delicate hints and associations. Ananyan noted that preparatory work
is done fore translation of the novel into Armenian next year.
According to RA Deputy Minister of Culture Karine Khodikyan, the
novel is about the purity of human sole and strong will to live. She
noted that the history which first seems to be ironical and light,
has a philosophical ideas of high prose.
Gohar Markosyan-Kasper is an Armenia living in Estonia for already 13
years. Her works are well known not only among the Russian speaking
population. Her works are translated into English, German, Holland
and French. The novel considered by critics as one of the most
original modern works and impresses by the professionalism of style,
humor, and irony. A.H. -0–
*********************************************************************

Russians Take Over Armenian Chemical Plant
The Nairit factory has been sold to a foreign investor for a second time.
By Tigran Avetisian in Yerevan and IWPR in London (CRS No. 235, 27-May-04)
Armenia’s giant chemical factory, Nairit, the object of ownership
battles over the last few years, has acquired a new and little-known
Russian owner, in a sale welcomed by both government and workers.
The takeover of one of Armenia’s prize assets follows the acrimonious
departure last year of Ransat, the British-based company that tried
to turn around the factory, but ended up quarrelling with the Armenian
government.
A provisional deal was struck on April 16 by Armenia’s central bank,
which was in de facto control of the company, to sell Nairit to the
Volgaburmash company, based in the Russian city of Samara.
The final details of the deal are still pending as currently an
audit is being carried out to determine the worth of the factory. Its
results will be announced in August.
Nairit produces chloroprene rubber. In Soviet times it had a monopoly
and was the only factory in the USSR making the product. It is still
one of only five factories around the world turning out the synthetic
rubber and has customers in 20 countries. Anil Kumar, general director
of former owner Ransat, told IWPR last year that if the plant operated
well, it would be worth 50 million US dollars.”
Ransat pulled out last May after a row over who was responsible for
the factory’s energy debts. Kumar said he had “spent ten million
dollars before a single ton of rubber was produced” and blamed the
Armenian government for not supporting his plans to turn around the
company. (See “Armenian Chemical Deal Ends in Tears, CRS 177, May 1
2003 )
Kumar said Ransat had promised to invest 25 million US dollars in the
factory over a five-year period and progressively settle its debts,
estimated variously at between 30 and 35 million dollars.
After Ransat pulled out of Armenia, the factory’s shares passed
to Haykapbank and, as the bank did not have enough assets and was
therefore taken under administration by the central bank, effectively
placing it under Armenian government control.
The Armenian government then handed management of Nairit to the Russian
bank Runabank, one of whose major shareholders is the Volgaburmash
holding company. Volgaburmash is owned by Samara businessman Andrei
Ishchuk who is also a member of Russia’s upper house of parliament,
the Federation Council.
The holding company has several factories in Ukraine and Russia that
produce drilling equipment and several factories producing heating
equipment, 11 construction companies and two banks. The Russian news
agency Interfax reported that Volgaburmash had an annual turnover of
200 million dollars.
However as Volgaburmash has not previously dealt in chemicals,
questions are being asked about how and why it acquired Nairit.
“The Yerevan chemical factory is not a prestige project for
Volgaburmash,” Gleb Stolyarov, Samara correspondent of the Russian
business newspaper Vedomosti told IWPR.
Volgaburmash declined to answer IWPR’s questions, but Stolyarov pointed
out that the company’s vice-president Yury Trakhtenberg had told a
press conference that, “the personal connections of the president of
the holding, Andrei Ishchuk, played a role.”
The acquisition of Nairit follows a pattern where major plants
in Armenia have been acquired by Russian companies, while western
companies have experienced significant difficulties in the Armenian
market. The Razdan hydroelectric power station and the Metsamor
nuclear power station are managed by Russian companies.
The Armenian government is enthusiastic about Nairit’s new owner. Karen
Chshmaritian, minister of trade and economic development said that,
“Four or five years ago, no one believed that Nairit would ever be
privatised – first of all, because of its size, and secondly because
of all the problems that had accumulated. But today that has become
a reality.”
Political analyst Aghasi Enokian commented that a big business like
Nairit could not succeed in Armenia without support from top levels
of governmen.
Whatever the politics of the deal are, there is general agreement
that Nairit is now undergoing a revival.
Mikhail Zavetyayev, who represents Volgaburmash, said that 3.5 million
dollars had already been invested in the factory over the past ten
months and that it was already bringing in a profit.
Ruben Saghatelian, the new executive director of the factory, told
IWPR that Nairit was now working at full capacity and that “we have
no more problems with putting out the product”.
Chshmaritian said that thanks to its new owner Nairit had not acquired
any new debts over the past ten months, that the almost 2,000 workers
on the payroll were receiving their wages regularly and that 350,000
dollars worth of back wages had been paid out. Factory director
Saghatelian said that they had worked out a schedule for paying
off debts.
The workers are also pleased with the new management. “We are happy
that finally we’ve started to receive our salaries on time,” Hrachik
Tadevosian, chairman of the trade union representing the factory’s
workers, told IWPR.
But he added, “We are still owed a lot of money. Not only from the
Ransat period but from much earlier.”
“I have no interest at all who owns Nairit or where our rubber
gets sold,” said Sarkis, a 43-year-old worker at the factory.”I am
content now, thank God. “If only they could pay us the money we’re
owed from before.”
Tigran Jrbashian, an economic analyst, said that the situation
at Nairit was now “very promising”. But he said that a lot of the
previous problems plaguing the factory remained. “The problem of
transporting the product still remains very serious and that directly
puts up costs.”
Tigran Avetisian is a journalist for Aravot newspaper in Yerevan.

Armenian National Committee, Central California
Post Office Box 626
Fresno, California 93709
PRESS RELEASE
May 27, 2004
Contact: Rich Sanikian
Armenian National Committee, Central California Mobilizes Demonstration
to Encourage Speaker Dennis Hastert to Act on Genocide Resolution
On Friday May 28, 2004, US Speaker of the House of Representatives
will be attending a political fundraiser for California Senator Ray
Ashburn at Pardini’s on Shaw and Van Ness Avenues. From 11:30-12:30
p.m., the Armenian National Committee (ANC), Central California will
organize a protest demonstration to urge Speaker Hastert to bring
House Resolution 193 (HR 193) to a floor vote.
An ongoing ANC national postcard campaign sent Speaker Hastert and
Majority Leader Bill Frist 100,000 signed postcards urging them to
take action. Unfortunately, it has been over a year and the resolution
has not been brought up for a vote in the House.
If the House and Senate leaderships do not schedule votes on their
respective Genocide Resolutions, this human rights legislation will
die with the end of the Congressional session this November.
House Res.193 is a Genocide Resolution marking the 15th anniversary
of the U.S. implementation of the United Nations Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. This landmark Convention,
adopted by the UN in 1948, specifically identifies genocide as a
crime under international law. The legislation cites the Armenian
Genocide as an example of past genocides along with the Holocaust,
the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides.
In Fresno alone, this postcard campaign has been endorsed by Fresno
County Supervisor Juan Arumbula; Fresno Councilmen Henry T. Perea,
Brian Calhoun, Tom Boyajian; Councilwoman Cynthia Sterling, Mike
Villines, and Former Senator Jim Costa. Fresno Mayor Alan Autry is
also a strong supporter of the postcard campaign along with many
state officials throughout California.
The Central California ANC hopes Speaker Hastert realizes the
importance of House Res.193 in Fresno as well as across the nation,
where thousands of victims of various ethnic backgrounds settled after
the genocidal attacks of their oppressors. It is hoped that Speaker
Hastert and Majority Leader Frist move in a positive direction to
bring this important bill for a vote in the House.
###
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress