UN News Centre
May 5 2004
14 elected to UN human rights commission
4 May 2004 – The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
elected 14 countries today to serve on the Commission on Human
Rights, the UN’s highest forum for examining civil rights around the
world.
Winning by acclamation were Guinea, Kenya, Sudan and Togo from the
African Group; Armenia and Romania from the Eastern European States;
and Ecuador and Mexico from the Latin American and Caribbean States.
The others were elected by secret ballot. Of the four candidates
nominated by the Asian Group to fill three vacancies, Malaysia,
Pakistan and the Republic of Korea were elected; Viet Nam lost its
bid for a seat. Canada, Finland and France, nominees from the Western
European and Others Group, where chosen while Spain was not.
After the African Group submitted Sudan for re-election to another
two-year term, the representative of the United States traded harsh
words with the Sudanese representative and the US delegation excused
itself and walked out.
US representative Sichan Siv said he was perplexed and dismayed that
the African Group had submitted, for the third time, the candidacy of
a country that massacred its own citizens in the western Darfur
region, where the humanitarian crisis had reached a tragic scale.
He urged the Group to consider the effect of that situation on the
Commission’s reputation and ability to function effectively as the
world’s protector of human rights and freedoms.
Sudanese representative Omar Bashir Mohamed Manis said his Government
had acknowledged fully the humanitarian problem in Darfur and had
asked the international community for help.
He said it was ironic that the US delegation, while shedding
crocodile tears over the situation in Darfur, was turning a blind eye
to the atrocities committed by US forces using the most lethal
weapons known to man against the civilian population in Iraq.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has
begun collecting information for a report on civil liberties in Iraq
and has said it hopes to complete it by the end of this month.
Similarly, a high-level UN fact-finding mission returned to Geneva
from Darfur last week and has been finalizing its report, according
to OHCHR. Senior UN humanitarian officials, meanwhile, have expressed
shock at the lack of protection provided to civilians in the
strife-torn region.
ECOSOC, to which the Commission on Human Rights reports, also held
elections to such panels as the Commission on Population and
Development, the Commission for Social Development and the Commission
on Sustainable Development.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Dignitaries Gather for European Summit
By VANESSA GERA
.c The Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Shop owners boarded up windows and police sealed
off parts of the Polish capital for a summit of eastern European
leaders focusing on the challenges facing the European Union after
eight former Soviet bloc countries join this week.
The European Economic Summit starting Wednesday brings together
hundreds of dignitaries, including 20 presidents and prime ministers
and representatives from leading corporations, for talks on EU
expansion.
The three-day event – organized by the Geneva-based World Economic
Forum, which is best known for its annual summit in Davos, Switzerland
– concludes Friday, hours before midnight celebrations in several
cities usher in the historic expansion.
Mark Adams, a spokesman for the group, said the forum provides
political and business leaders the chance for informal talks on
challenges of common concern such as health care, environment and
labor issues.
Anti-globalization groups have mobilized against the meeting, viewing
the forum funded by many leading corporations as an exclusive club for
the rich. About 5,000 protesters are expected to march Thursday,
organizers say.
Downtown Warsaw shops – from elegant boutiques to fast-food chains –
boarded up their windows with slabs of wood, corrugated tin and
cardboard. Police helicopters whirred above the city center as
officers in riot gear guarded a barricaded perimeter of several blocks
around the conference venue, a hotel.
But the government leaders can also expect criticism from other
quarters.
Daniel Gros, director of the Center for European Policy Studies in
Brussels, said economic dialogue in Europe has been reduced to “a
charade” as countries pay lip service to limiting their budget
deficits and economic reform, but then do little to measure up.
“In economic terms they don’t have to talk to each other a lot – they
just have to go home and do their homework,” said Gros, who will also
be participating.
Alongside workshops on the benefits of adopting the euro currency and
the competitiveness of the EU countries, one-on-one talks between
political leaders also feature at the forum.
These include a planned meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia, which have been locked in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, an
ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan.
Ethnic Armenian forces drove out Azerbaijan’s army from the region in
the 1990s and ethnic Azeris fled. Though a cease-fire was established
in 1994, the two sides periodically exchange fire.
President Johannes Rau of Germany, President Ion Iliescu of Romania
and President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia are also expected to
address the meeting.
On the eve of the summit, Poland’s President Aleksander Kwasniewski
stressed the importance of bringing together generally richer Western
countries with the new EU members as well as countries further east
that face difficult obstacles in their search for prosperity.
“I am convinced that the conference hosted by Poland will show that
no new curtain will appear in our continent – not even a velvet one,”
Kwasniewski said.
04/28/04 01:24 EDT

Pravda.RU:World:
US does not intend placing permanent military bases in South Caucasus
18:09 2004-04-27
The United States will not be placing military bases either in Azerbaidjan
or in the South Caucasus region in general, according to deputy commander of
US European forces, Charles Wald.
As reported by a Rosbalt correspondent, Wald told a press conference in
Yerevan that ‘we will, together with Russia, Armenia and Azerbaidjan, fight
terrorism, and are ready for ongoing cooperation. At the same time, we do
not want to have permanent military bases here.’
© RosBalt

The Moscow Times
Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2004. Page 2
Armenian Opposition Rallies, Halts Talks
The Associated Press Several thousand people rallied in the heart of the
Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Tuesday calling for the ouster of President
Robert Kocharyan, and opposition leaders said they have halted talks with
the governing coalition.
The rally, estimated at up to 7,000 people, was the latest in the weeks-long
series of protests that have raised political tensions in the country.
On Monday, opposition figures met with the speaker of parliament and other
governing coalition figures in an effort at easing the tensions, but Viktor
Dallakyan of the opposition Justice Party said Tuesday that the talks were
discontinued.
“The authorities are only pretending to be in the middle of a dialogue with
the opposition, but they are in fact continuing the policy of terror against
their own people,” Dallakyan said.
Dallakyan said that the next rally will be held May 4, after the situation
in Armenia is brought up at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe.
Parliament Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan said the decision to halt talks was
mutual and was meant to give the two sides time to ponder each other’s
proposals.
Kocharyan won a second term in presidential elections a year ago that led to
mass protests, including nearly daily demonstrations between the first round
and the runoff.
Opposition groups alleged widespread violations in both rounds of the
election, which was followed by a parliamentary ballot in which the
pro-government party won the most votes.

Noah’s Ark Found? Turkey Expedition Planned for Summer
Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
April 27, 2004
Photo caption: This satellite image of Mount Ararat in Turkey shows what
looks like a large object emerging from melting snow. An expedition is
planned to visit the site to see if it is Noah’s Ark.
Image Courtesy Shamrock/DigitalGlobe
Satellite pictures taken last summer of Mount Ararat in Turkey may
reveal the final resting place of Noah’s ark, according to Daniel
McGivern, the businessman and Christian activist behind a planned summer
2004 expedition to investigate the site.
“We’re telling people we’re 98 percent sure,” said McGivern, a member of
the Hawaii Christian Coalition. “In one image we saw the beams, saw the
wood. I’m convinced that the excavation of the object and the results of
tests run on any collected samples will prove that it is Noah’s ark. ”
McGivern wrote a list in his Bible more than 20 years ago of ten great
projects. Finding Noah’s ark was at the top of his list.
McGivern began his quest in earnest in 1995, when the publication of a
book on the topic moved him to arrange for satellite images to be taken
of Mount Ararat.
Attempts to take satellite images in previous years had been foiled by
clouds, unavailability of imaging equipment, and lack of image
resolution. But the attempts had helped pinpoint the location. In the
summer of 2003, everything came together.
“Last year was the hottest summer in Europe since 1500; more than 21,000
people died of the heat wave,” McGivern said. “The summer melt was far
more extensive than it has been in years.”
DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite-imagery company, confirmed that
they took the images that McGivern is using.
An international team of archaeologists, forensic scientists,
geologists, glaciologists, and others is being recruited to investigate
the site sometime between July 15 and August 15.
Ahmet Arslan, a professor in Turkey who has climbed the mountain 50
times in 40 years, will lead the expedition. Arslan reported an
eyewitness sighting of the ark and took a photograph in 1989 from about
220 yards (200 meters) away. However, he couldn’t get any closer, and
the picture is not definitive.
“We hope to assemble what we’re calling the Dream Team,” Arslan said.
“The slopes are very, very harsh and dangerous on the northern face-it
is extremely challenging, mentally and physically.”
Noah’s Ark
The story of Noah’s ark is told in the Book of Genesis. It says God saw
how corrupt the Earth had become and decided to “bring floodwaters on
the Earth to destroy all life under the heavens.” God is said to have
told Noah, an honorable man, to build an ark 450 feet (137 meters) long,
75 feet (23 meters) wide, and 45 feet (14 meters) high, and fill it with
two of every species on the Earth. It reportedly rained for 40 days and
40 nights. After about seven months, the waters receded, and the ark
came to rest, according to the Bible.
Three major world religions-Christianity, Judaism, and Islam-believe in
Noah and his ark. Reports of ark sightings have been numerous. Witnesses
often describe an old wooden structure sticking out of the snow and ice
near the summit of Mount Ararat.
Despite the numerous sightings and rumors-of pictures taken by the CIA
and locked in vaults, of lost photographs taken by a Russian expedition
at the behest of Tsar Nicholas Alexander in 1918-no scientific evidence
of the ark has emerged.
“On the one hand, I’m hopeful. On the other hand, I’m very skeptical” of
the validity of the satellite images, said Rex Geissler, president of
ArcImaging (Archaeological Imaging Research Consortium). “There is no
publicly available picture that readily shows a man-made object that has
any clarity whatsoever . Some of the photos are outright
misrepresentations, non-scientific, and do not prove anything.
“We think that with the hundreds of explorers who have visited the
region, if the ark was jutting out of the ice, it would be obvious.”
ArcImaging was the first organization to receive permission from the
Turkish government to survey the mountain since 1981. The archaeological
research organization conducted a preliminary investigation of the
icecap using ground-penetrating radar in 2001.
The Search Continues
The Bible states that Noah landed in the region of the ancient kingdom
Urartu. Mount Ararat (its name probably a corrupted version of Urartu)
has been the focus of those seeking the ark because it-at 17,000 feet
(5,165 meters)-is the highest point in the area.
A volcanic mountain, Ararat is covered by an icecap from 14,000 feet
(4,300 meters) to 17,000 feet (5,200 meters). The icecap is about 17
square miles (44 square kilometers) in size and is as deep as 300 feet
(90 meters).
Known to locals as Agri Dagi-Turkish for “mountain of pain”- Ararat is
not easy to access. Located in eastern Turkey-close to the borders of
Armenia and Iran, and only 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Iraq-the
region is politically volatile and often dangerous. Much of the region
is part of a military zone, and getting permission to explore it is
extremely difficult.
The ArcImaging team hopes to visit the region to continue their mapping
of the icecap this summer.
McGivern is optimistic his group will also be on the face of the
mountain this summer. He and Arslan met last week with the Turkish
ambassador to the U.S. Arslan, who at one time worked in the Turkish
prime minister’s office, plans to meet with the prime minister next
week.
“The ark is broken into a minimum of three pieces, up to six, from a
huge earthquake that occurred in 1840. But it’s been miraculously
preserved. The satellite imagery shows vertical beams, and one
horizontal beam,” McGivern said.
© 2004 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 28 2004
European economic summit opening in Warsaw

WARSAW, April 28 (Itar-Tass) – A European economic summit, organized
by the World Economic Forum, opens here later Wednesday.
The conference entitled Europe’s Enlargement and Future Prospects
will take three days and is organized under the patronage of Polish
President Alexander Kwasniewski.
It is expected to bring together 700 people representing the economic
and political elite of 45 nations, including the presidents, prime
ministers and ministers from 31 countries.
Expansion of the European Union coming May 1 and its impact on the
future economic and political activity of the EU, as well as the
pressing issues of competition, demography, public health, and
pensions make up the core of the agenda.
Russia has delegated to the conference President Vladimir Putin’s
special spokesman on the EU expansion, Sergei Yastrzhembski, and a
group of businessmen.
Some other high-rank participants are Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, Malta’s Prime Minister Tonio Berg, Lithuanian Prime Minister
Algirdas Brazauskas, Romanian President Ion Iliescu, Armenian
President Robert Kocharian, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma,
President Svetozar Marovic of Serbia and Montenegro, German President
Johannes Rau, Georgian President Mikhai Saakashvil, Slovak President
Rudolf Schuster, and Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin.
Alexander Kwasniewski, Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, Foreign
Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, and Labor Minister Erzy Hausner
will play host to the participants.

DetNews.com, MI
April 28 2004
Oakland People in the News
Farmington Hills: Wayne State University senior Charles Stamboulian
of Farmington Hills is one of two graduating students who will
receive the Howard A. Donnelly Award during the university’s spring
commencement ceremonies May 6 at Cobo Center. The award is given each
year to an accomplished male and female student. They should have a
good academic record and have contributed to the university by
participating in student activities and, leadership and service
groups. Stamboulian, a graduate of North Farmington High School, will
receive a Bachelor of Science in education, magna cum laude.
Stamboulian also served as president of the Society of Armenian
Students at Wayne State.
[parts omitted]

Los Angeles Times (subscription), CA
April 28 2004
Steve Lopez:
Points West
Progress Overtakes Movie, or Does It?
“On May 14th,” said the billboard above a Sav-on Drugs in Hollywood,
“there will be no Mexicans in California.”
It sounded like maybe Pete Wilson was plotting a return to politics.
But in fact, the ad was a promo for an upcoming movie that’s
pro-immigrant.
As you might have read last week, someone missed the point and lodged
a complaint, so the billboard above the Sav-on came down. But since
then, more ads are popping up around town, including one in Spanish.
“En Catorce de Mayo, Los Gringos Van a Llorar.”
On May 14, the Gringos Are Going to Cry.
OK, I thought. I’ll bite. And so I called for an advance copy of “A
Day Without a Mexican,” a 97-minute film by director/writer Sergio
Arau and his wife, actress/writer Yareli Arizmendi. Both were born in
Mexico and now live in Hollywood.
The movie opens with a blond woman named Mary Jo Quintana waking up
alone in bed and wondering where her husband has disappeared to.
“And then I heard on the news that all the Mexicans were gone,” she
says in great distress. “And my husband is a Mexican.”
All across California, everyone of Latino descent is disappearing
without a trace in the over-the-top mockumentary. This creates one
crisis after another in the home of state Sen. Stephen Abercrombie
III, who looks strikingly like former California Gov. Pete Wilson.
Abercrombie was elected to office by whipping up anti-immigrant
fervor. Now the senator’s Latina maid doesn’t show up for work, and
he is completely unprepared for the tragic consequences.
“There’s no fresh orange juice,” the suffering senator informs his
wife.
“There’s no clean clothes,” she whines, practically in tears.
“There’s no lunch.”
This is a senator who in one scene scolds his Stepford wife for
hiring illegal immigrants for odd jobs.
“If we use regular Mexicans,” his wife snaps, “it’s going to cost a
lot more.”
But alas, there are no more Mexicans or Guatemalans or Hondurans
available for hire, regular or otherwise. A state of emergency is
declared and the U.S. military is called in to figure out how nearly
half of California’s residents could suddenly vanish into thin air.
Meanwhile, state commerce grinds to a halt, streets are trash-strewn
because there’s no one to sweep them, leaf blowers lie abandoned,
fruit goes unpicked, carwash customers riot.
“This is a real disaster,” says a university policy wag named Abdul
Hassan. “Forget about parking your cars and valets. Forget about
getting a glass of water at restaurants. Forget about restaurants.”
Later, pounding a point that is by then quite obvious, Hassan says:
“I’m really afraid for this state, because the more we start figuring
out how dependent we are on Latinos, the more desperate people are
going to get.”
OK, I get it.
But wouldn’t the film have been more appropriate in the days of
Wilson and Proposition 187? A 187 redux just failed to qualify for
the November ballot because backers couldn’t get enough signatures.
Arau and Arizmendi said Prop. 187 was in fact the inspiration for the
movie, which appeared several years ago as a short. The infamous
proposition, approved by voters and shot down by courts, is history,
Arizmendi agreed. But she got nervous when Wilson reappeared as one
of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advisors.
“It’s not a law this film is addressing, it’s an attitude,” she said.
“Turn on talk radio and you hear that the problem in the U.S., and
California in particular, is these illegal aliens who are coming and
taking our jobs.”
Reality, unfortunately, is always more complicated than what you get
from talk radio or the movies.
Southern California is fast approaching A Day Without Breathable Air,
A Day Without a Swimmable Ocean, and A Day Without a Chance Any New
Resident Can Afford a House.
All of those would make good movies, too, and people should be able
to talk about those subjects without being called bigots.
But then again, we do have a few bigots on the loose, including those
who regularly encourage me to return to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba,
Uruguay, etc. So it’s a kick to see a satire in which the Dodgers
have to cancel games because without Latinos they can’t field a team.
Meanwhile, as Border Patrol agents wonder what to do with their days,
Sen. Abercrombie makes a quivering appeal to the missing Mexicans.
“More than ever, we need to be the great California familia and bring
back our Hispanic brothers and sisters,” he says in a statewide TV
address.
Arizmendi, who was in the film “Like Water For Chocolate,” plays the
one remaining Mexican in California. She courageously donates her
body so scientists can solve the mystery. At the last minute,
however, she finds out she’s actually an Armenian who was raised by
Mexicans.
Don’t miss the sequel.
A Day Without Armenians.
*
Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

Baku Today
April 28 2004
U.S. General Says He Got Assurances From Aliyev To Let Armenia Join
To Exercises
Baku Today 28/04/2004 13:52
Trend – U.S. Gen. Charles Wald said in Yerevan that he had received
assurances from President Ilham Aliyev that the Armenian military
could participate in NATO’s Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises
planned to be held in Azerbaijan in September.
Gen. Wald noted that he discussed the issue with the Azerbaijani
President and “Ilham Aliyev assured me that the Armenian military
will face no problems to participate in the exercises.’
The General added that Nicholas Barns, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO,
was also involved in issue of Armenia’s joining to the Cooperative
Best Effort-2004.
Col. Gen. Mikhael Arutunian, chief of General Headquarters of
Armenian army, asserted on Tuesday that the Armenian side was ready
to join the exercises.

St. Petersburg Times, FL
April 28 2004
Chamber music concert spans eras
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
ST. PETERSBURG – The Moretti-Polera-Kluksdahl Trio brought this
season’s Encore Chamber Music Series to a brilliant close Tuesday
night at the Palladium Theater. The program ranged from a pillar of
the repertoire, Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, to the
premiere of St. Petersburg composer Vernon Taranto Jr.’s Second Trio.
Most thrillingly, the group – Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin and
concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra; Scott Kluksdahl, cello; and
Noreen Cassidy-Polera, piano – wound up with a virtuosic performance
of Paul Schoenfield’s dashing Cafe Music.
It was fascinating to hear the Mendelssohn and Schoenfield back to
back. Mendelssohn’s trio is a model of form, including the stunning
sonata-allegro first movement, a lavish melody in the second, the
quicksilver scherzo of the third movement and a passionate chorale in
the climax.
However, for all the excellent, brightly paced play – Polera’s
glittering 16th-note runs, the singing tone of Moretti, Kluksdahl’s
expressive phrasing – the piece seemed to take its own sweet time to
make its points. The classical and romantic forms that governed
Mendelssohn’s world tended to produce music that strikes the modern
ear as a bit longwinded.
The aesthetic distance from the 19th century to today became clear in
Schoenfield’s quick-witted Cafe Music, full of jazzy licks and
complex rhythms, with a sardonic undertone that suggested none of it
should be taken too seriously. The three-movement piece was
breathtakingly difficult to perform, but the trio made it look almost
easy. Schoenfield, born in 1947, sounds like his generation’s
long-lost heir to Gershwin and Rodgers, and it would be a shame if he
wasn’t given a chance to breathe some life into musical theater.
Taranto’s trio, which he described as “a kind of fantasia” in the
talkback after the concert, featured lyrical passages for the violin,
and there was a satisfying density to the texture of the work. Polera
created just the right atmosphere of skittering restlessness with the
spare, neo-Debussyian piano part.
The evening’s only dull entry was by the Armenian-American composer
Alan Hovhaness, one of his early works from the 1930s, the Trio in E
minor. The group didn’t find the spiritual quality that is necessary
to animate such simple music.