ON THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH FRONTLINES
Zoe Powell
EurasiaNet, NY
Dec 14 2006
Recent announcements by Azerbaijan and Armenia have spurred hopes that
a Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement is within reach. But on a windswept
Karabakh military post northwest of the disputed territory’s capital,
Stepanakert, the struggle over this self-declared state seems far
from over.
At this position, roughly 300 to 400 meters from the Azerbaijani
lines, exchanges of gunfire are a daily occurrence, soldiers said. A
seven-person unit that is refreshed every seven days mans the post.
An Azerbaijani sniper recently killed a Karabakhi soldier not far
from here.
In a recent tour of the frontline organized for international
journalists by Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
officers were reluctant to discuss their views on the ongoing Karabakh
negotiations, and on the potential impact of a settlement on the
separatist government and military they serve.
"That’s for the politicians," said one army representative, a veteran
of the 1988-1994 conflict with Azerbaijan who gave his name as Artur,
when asked to comment about recent announcements of a breakthrough
in the negotiations. "The military doesn’t mix with politics. Nor
should we, right? We’ll do what we’re told."
The size of the Karabakh army is "a state secret," officials say, and
information about the defense budget is not readily available. A 2005
report by the International Crisis Group, however, cites an unnamed
official in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Yerevan mission who stated that the
army has 20,000 soldiers. Another source cited in the report, a US
military expert, put the number at 18,500 soldiers.
Along with military hardware, Armenia is thought to provide some
of the troops in Karabakh defense force. Former Armenian conscripts
interviewed by Crisis Group in Yerevan reported that they had been
sent to serve in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Conscripts serving at the frontline post, a bleak collection of
trenches, observation hut, one-room office and one-room living
quarters, asserted that they came from Nagorno-Karabakh, adding
that they were there "to serve the homeland." A clock with a large
image of Jesus dominates the office visually, standing across from
a Russian-language wall poster describing how to fight tuberculosis.
"This isn’t the American army," one defense ministry representative
on hand for the tour commented with a laugh about the stark scene.
"This is the Karabakh army. They have to be tough."
Young men in Karabakh are required to serve two years of military
service. The government says conscripts are paid 3,000 Armenian drams
per month (about $6.83) for "extras." Army representatives detailed
a long list of food items – including first and second courses,
salad and soup for dinner — reportedly brought in to feed frontline
soldiers daily — and, indicating one particularly bulky conscript,
claimed that they’re fed meat each day.
An academy "with a military inclination" exists in Stepanakert, but
students who wish to serve as officers in the Nagorno-Karabakh army
do their training in Yerevan, army representative said. Plans exist,
however, to open a more formal military academy in Karabakh, where
students would be taught, "as in Tsarist Russia," foreign languages
and ballroom dancing along with their regular course of study, he said.
Twelve years after the cease-fire agreement that ended the 1988-1994
war over the territory, ruined houses and other buildings still dot
the landscape outside of Stepanakert. The military did not allow
photos to be taken, but the images seen suggest a conflict indelibly
engraved in residents’ minds.
The economy appears to be recovering slowly, but independently
verifiable economic data is unavailable. At a December 6 plenary
parliamentary session, de facto Minister of Economy and Finance Spartac
Tevossian reported that Karabakh’s Gross Domestic Product expanded
by 20.8 percent for the first nine months of 2006, as compared with
the same period in 2005, reaching $97.4 million, the Armenian news
bulletin service De Facto reported. Monthly salaries average around
36,605 Armenian drams, or about $83.38, the minister claimed.
Primarily an agrarian society, Karabakhis are returning to
cultivating vineyards and wheat fields. A gold mine opened in 2002,
and construction projects – including a new parliament building and
adjoining hotel – can be seen throughout Stepanakert, often financed
by diaspora Armenians. The separatist leadership is also putting
increased emphasis on tourism: The government claims that in 2006
some 3,750 foreign tourists visited this rugged region, prized among
Armenians for its monasteries and churches, and that the number of
such visits is steadily increasing.
Security concerns remain foremost in Karabakhis’ minds. Interviewed
residents routinely cited maintaining an adequate defense against
Azerbaijan, which formerly controlled Nagorno-Karabakh, as their
territory’s largest problem. Many cast a doubtful eye on the return of
the seven territories surrounding their region to Azerbaijani control.
"If Armenia frees those territories, without a doubt, then, Azerbaijan
should take reciprocal steps and recognize our independence or, in the
worst case, recognize our right to a free choice," commented Vahram
Atanesian, chairman of the Nagorno-Karabakh parliament’s foreign
affairs committee. "We went toward independence because it was the
best way to guarantee our security."
While war veterans, refugees from Azerbaijan and long-term residents
interviewed by EurasiaNet all spoke out strongly against any resumption
of armed hostilities with Azerbaijan, feelings were mixed about the
return of Azerbaijani refugees to this predominantly ethnic Armenian
land. The government of Azerbaijan has insisted on such a right
of return as one of the conditions for a lasting peace resolution
with Armenia.
"There’s no chance we can live together now," said octogenarian
Areg Oganisian, an Azeri-speaking ethnic Armenian refugee from
the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait who returned to his family village
outside of the Karabakhi town of Shushi after the 1988 pogrom against
Armenians in Sumgait. "But I also can’t say that all Azerbaijanis are
bad. They are civilized, too . . . . If it hadn’t been for Sumgait,
we could have worked things out, but Sumgait was a detonator."
"We took Karabakh by blood," said a Karabakh war veteran, who gave
his name as Artur. "How will there not be a war if Azerbaijan tries
to take it back?"
Editor’s Note: Zoe Powell is the pseudonym for a journalist based
in Tbilisi. Sophia Mizante is a freelance photojournalist based
in Tbilisi.
Dec 14 2006
France trying to cover up its role in genocide Wednesday, 13th
December, 2006
Alfred Ndahiro
By Alfred Ndahiro
Rwanda’s decision to sever diplomatic relations with France continues
to be a subject of animated discussion among those who have an interest
in the political evolution of Rwanda, and the proxy war that France has
waged since the defeat of the Interahamwe extremists who masterminded
the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The recently published report by Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, now
discredited by most legal experts and even those he claims to be his
informers, can only be construed as a facet of that proxy war.
>>From the time of the downing of the plane carrying Habyarimana
and his Burundian counterpart, credible commentators and analysts
concluded that extremists in the Habyarimana government, with the
help of the French army, brought down the plane.
Yet, Judge Bruguière brushes this aside and instead indicts the
leadership of Rwanda and senior aides of the Rwandan president. In
so doing, Bruguière aims to cover the role of the French government,
by intimidating Rwandans and attempting to divert them from their
effort to unearth the truth about French involvement in Rwanda.
The following are but a few of the facts that Judge Bruguière knows
but chooses to ignore: At the time of the plane crash, the entire
airport and the surroundings were under the control of the French
soldiers and the then Rwandan presidential guard.
When soldiers of the United Nations peace-keeping force in Rwanda
attempted to reach the scene of the plane crash, they were blocked
and prevented from accessing it by those same forces. That is how
the whereabouts of the black box have remained a mystery to-date,
although French officials admitted having it, at some stage.
France trained, armed, and fought alongside the former Rwandan forces
before, during, and after the 1994 genocide, just as its soldiers
trained the Interahamwe militias.
The Rwandan Patriotic Army fought and single-handedly stopped the
genocide.
France continues to harbour and give sanctuary to the architects
of the Rwandan genocide, including Agathe Habyarimana, Fr Wenceslas
Munyeshyaka, and others, who masterminded the carnage.
Judge Bruguiere’s so-called evidence is based on false testimonies
provided by genocide fugitives and Rwandan dissidents who aim to
use it either to deny the occurrence of the Rwandan genocide or to
advance their misguided goals and justify their applications for
political asylum.
The French government has never come to terms with the regime change
in Rwanda and have worked ceaselessly towards achieving their hope
that some day, their former proteges would be reinstated.
In ignoring the above facts, Judge Bruguière’s injudicious project
serves to advance the broader political enterprise and hidden agenda
of the French government.
All this, however, is beginning to crumble, and many legal experts
and his alleged informers are distancing themselves from his findings.
One such alleged informer, quoted in his report, is Emmanuel
Ruzigana. In a letter addressed to Bruguière on November 30, Ruzigaza
draws the attention of the judge to the fact that he was forcefully
picked from the airport in Paris and taken to Bruguière’s office by
his members of staff on March 29, 2004.
In Bruguière’s office, Ruzigana was questioned as to whether he
belonged to the "Network Commando" and whether he knew the person
who shot down the Habyarimana plane. In spite of having denied both
allegations, Ruzigana appears in the judge’s report as having confirmed
the allegations.
Another of his principle informers by the name of Abdul Ruzibiza was
a nursing assistant in the north-west of Rwanda, far away from the
scene of the plane crash. How such a fellow can claim to be privy to
the plans of an operation of such sensitivity boggles the mind.
Besides, he is a convicted criminal, having stolen soldiers’ allowances
before his escape.
A third key witness, a certain Innocent Marara, claims he was privy
to RPA planning to assassinate Habyarimana in 1993. Yet Marara joined
the RPA in 1994, and not 1990 as Bruguiere claims.
The missiles Judge Bruguiere claims shot down Habyarimana’s plane
were found to have been a hoax, foisted upon the world by a French
Parliamentary mission of information. One of the launchers allegedly
used to down the plane still had its missile unfired when it was
allegedly photographed after the event.
Finally, Judge Bruguiere, without a shred of evidence, accuses key
regional leaders, including President Museveni, of being complicit
in the killing of Habyarimana, a thinly veiled political attack on
what the French call their "Anglo-saxon" enemies.
There is no doubt that France can do a lot of good for itself by
coming clean. It cannot blame Turkey for refusing to acknowledge the
genocide of the Armenians in 1915 and at the same time withhold its
own ‘mea culpa’.
In any case, France, even in its might, should have understood that the
Rwandans are a people with a proud legacy of a rich culture, history
and values. They will not allow France to subdue and subjugate them.
France should also learn that people who uphold the truth, and who
have the right cause, will always triumph. It was so when Rwandans
fought the genocidaires on the battlefield, it will be so on the
‘diplomacy-field’!
The writer is the advisor in communication and public relations in
the office of the President of Rwanda
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