AAA SENT A LETTER OF CONCERN REGARDING THE POSTPONEMENT OF A UN EXHIBIT ON THE RWANDA GENOCIDE TO UN SECRETARY GENERAL

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
April 17 2007

The Armenian Assembly of America this week sent a letter of concern
regarding the postponement of a UN exhibit on the Rwanda Genocide,
"Lessons from Rwanda", due to an unwarranted interference by the
mission of Turkey to the United Nations over a reference to the
Armenian Genocide. The letter was sent to UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public
Information Kiyotaka Akasaka.

In the letter, Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny expressed
disappointment with the suspension of the exhibit, which included
a description of the Armenian Genocide as a prototype of the
international crimes requiring concerted response and prevention
attributed to Raphael Lemkin, who had authored the UN Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Assembly also applauded the decision of the exhibit’s organizers
to continue to resist the removal of the reference to the Armenian
Genocide as a matter of principal and urged the UN support of the
initial exhibit without qualifications.