Author: Karagyozian Lena

Armenian minister, NATO chief discuss ties

Arminfo
19 Mar 04

YEREVAN

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan and NATO Secretary-General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer have discussed the prospects for the development
of relations between NATO and Armenia. The meeting was held in
Bratislava today within the framework of the conference “Towards a
Wider Europe: The New Agenda”.

The Foreign Ministry press service told Arminfo that they paid special
attention to the murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan in
Budapest on 19 February.

Oskanyan also met the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group on the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement. However, no details of the
meeting have been reported yet.

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
March 19 2004

Kosovo: Violence Raises Questions About Media Responsibility
By Jeremy Bransten

This week’s deadly interethnic clashes in Kosovo have raised many
questions about why the violence spread so quickly and easily across
the province. One spark seems to have come from the way local media
reported on a particular incident in the divided town of Kosovska
Mitrovica. Should the media follow special guidelines when reporting
from an ethnically charged region, and do they bear a special
responsibility for maintaining stability?

Prague, 19 March 2004 (RFE/RL) — Tensions had been simmering in
Kosovo for some time. This week, ethnic Albanians demonstrated in
several of the province’s cities over the imprisonment of a former
rebel commander, union members announced a picket over privatization
plans, and Serbs protested against the shooting and wounding on 15
March of a teenager in an incident of ethnic violence.

In this context, Kosovo television’s 16 March nighttime broadcast of
an interview with an ethnic Albanian boy was the last straw. The boy
said he had barely survived an attack by local Serbs that left at
least two other children dead. Violence between the Albanian and
Serbian communities soon flared across the province, in the worst set
of clashes since 1999.

The boy — identified as 13-year-old Fitim Veseli — said he had been
playing along the river that divides the town of Kosovska Mitrovica
into ethnic Albanian and Serbian parts on 16 March with his brother
and two friends. Veseli told Kosovo television that when two Serbs
unleashed their dogs on the group, the boys jumped into the river in
an attempt to escape and swim to the other side.

“I think it’s all a matter of tone and a matter of context. If you
only screen the boy’s story, then that becomes the whole narrative.
If you screen the boy’s story but then you also screen other people
saying that this was an isolated incident, or people calling for
peace or people giving a fuller version of the story, then you can
put it in context.”Veseli said he was the only one who managed to
ford the swift current. The bodies of his drowned brother and another
boy were later found by the authorities. The fourth boy remains
missing and is presumed dead. Veseli’s harrowing account was
broadcast repeatedly by Kosovo television, fanning outrage in the
community and helping to ignite mass violence, which has now claimed
31 lives.

UN authorities today said they are continuing to investigate the
incident. There is no doubt two children were killed, but the
circumstances in which they died still remain unclear. The UN says it
has not been able to confirm Veseli’s story.

The question therefore arises — did Kosovo television act
improperly? Should the television station have withheld its interview
with the boy — aware that its report could fuel more violence —
since it was not able to confirm all the details? Or did it act
ethically, as a purveyor of available information, nothing more and
nothing less?

Robert Gillette is the temporary media commissioner for Kosovo for
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The
body is responsible for licensing and overseeing local media.
Gillette met with the heads of Kosovo’s three television channels
today and asked them to provide videotapes of their broadcasts over
the past two days for detailed analysis.

Gillette told RFE/RL today from Pristina that he does not want to
pre-judge the stations’ coverage before seeing the tapes. But he said
that if the tapes reveal that the broadcasters — through their
coverage — helped to ignite interethnic violence, sanctions could be
taken against them.

Regardless of what the OSCE concludes, the larger question remains.
What responsibility does the media bare when reporting from an
ethnically charged or religiously divided region? Thomas De Waal, of
the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), told
RFE/RL that the media — when broadcasting to such regions — do have
a special duty because lives are often at stake.

“The media should be extra super vigilant in a time of crisis, and
they should apply their professional standards even more carefully,”
he said. “Even a big organization like the BBC has indirectly — not
intentionally, obviously — caused deaths. For example, in India,
when they broadcast archive footage of ethnic violence which had
happened months before between Hindus and Muslims. And people
watching it in India thought that the footage was from the same day
and went and retaliated. And people died as a result of that.”

Sometimes, local media outlets are all too aware of what is at stake,
and they fan the flames of ethnic hatred intentionally. The
best-known case in recent times was that of Rwanda’s Radio-Television
Libre des Milles Collines (Free Radio Television of the Thousand
Hills), whose broadcasters in 1994 incited ethnic Hutus to slaughter
their fellow Tutsi countrymen.

Rwanda quickly turned into a gigantic killing field, with an
estimated 800,000 people losing their lives before the carnage was
halted. Almost a decade later, in December of last year, the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted the radio
station director and sentenced him to life in prison for his role in
inciting the massacre. Two newspaper editors were also sentenced to
life and 35 years in prison, respectively. They were the first
convictions of media workers by an international court in more than
50 years.

The Rwanda case most powerfully illustrates the potential influence
of the media when it is operating in an ethnically divided
environment. In the case of Kosovo and Fitim Veseli’s testimony, what
should local television have done?

The IWPR’s De Waal said, “I think it’s all a matter of tone and a
matter of context. If you only screen the boy’s story, then that
becomes the whole narrative. If you screen the boy’s story but then
you also screen other people saying that this was an isolated
incident, or people calling for peace or people giving a fuller
version of the story, then you can put it in context.”

Dramatic personal accounts attract big audiences. Ordinary people
relate best to such stories. But De Waal says the failure of local
broadcasters to put their stories into proper context often leads to
one-sided reporting. “What often happens in these ethnic conflicts —
and one sees this in the Caucasus, particularly in Azerbaijan and
Armenia — is that one side mythologizes personal stories,” he said.
“They fill the news, and there’s absolutely no political context to
it. And I think [the importance of not doing this] has to be
inculcated into the news reporters who are reporting on things like
this.”

Aly Colon teaches ethics at the respected Poynter Institute for
journalists in the United States. He echoed De Waal’s comments. “You
can gather the information — in other words, you can take
information from witnesses who were on the scene. But I also think
it’s best to make sure that you know all the information you possibly
can gather at that time so that you can put it in some sort of
context — so that people can see it from a variety of perspectives,
to have a fuller picture of what’s going on. Just one source is only
one piece of the story — not an unimportant one, not necessarily one
that’s not factual, but you need as much detail as you can so that
people can see this in perspective,” Colon said.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer yesterday called on the
news media in Kosovo to exercise caution in their reporting, to avoid
fanning further hatred. “I have called on the media, as well, to show
restraint in reporting because this [violence] should stop,” he said.

NATO has increased its peacekeeping presence in the province. Despite
isolated incidents today, the situation appears to be calming down.

USA wants speedy reforms in Azerbaijan

Zerkalo, Baku
12 Mar 04

The key goal of US officials’ recent visits to Baku was to persuade
the Azerbaijani leadership to carry out radical economic and political
reforms, Azerbaijani daily Zerkalo has said. Washington wants
Azerbaijan and other South Caucasus countries to share its values and
pursue its policy. To that end, the USA is trying to attract
Azerbaijan to NATO and has promised Baku assistance in reorganizing
its army, Zerkalo said. However, the paper said, Washington’s military
aid is linked to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
over Nagornyy Karabakh. Azerbaijan will have to make some compromises
in the peace talks, and US officials seem to have partly convinced the
Baku government, the daily said. The following is an excerpt from Rauf
Mirqadirov’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 12 March
headlined “Washington insists on speedy reforms in Azerbaijan” and
subheaded “The White House will wait for another three months”;
subheadings inserted editorially:

Americans dominate Baku

Americans dominated Baku this week. Never has the capital of
Azerbaijan seen so many high level delegations during the course of
one week. Moreover, one cannot help but notice that predominant among
the Americans landing in Baku were State Department emissaries and
military officials.

Judge for yourselves. At the beginning of the week there was a
delegation from the US airforce college together with US Deputy
Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Lynn
Pascoe. Staying in the capital yesterday was a delegation headed by
the US State Department deputy director for European security and
political affairs, Eric Schultz, and the deputy political adviser at
the US mission in NATO, Bruce Rogers.

And arriving today in Baku from Washington is yet another very
impressive delegation comprised exclusively of military and diplomatic
officials. This time it is a mission of the supreme advisory council
to the US European Command (EUCOM), headed by the deputy commander of
the US European Command, Gen Charles Wald. Also part of the delegation
are Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe Adm Gregory
Johnson and many ambassadors of various ranks.

In a word, Azerbaijan is keeping diplomats and military officials
busy, while economic questions have moved down to the second order of
importance. It is clear why. The most important geopolitical task of
the USA in the region involving economic aspects has already been
resolved. The building of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is already
under way, and all the problems connected with the financing of this
project have been resolved.

Need for radical reforms

Today, the Americans are trying to accomplish several tasks at the
same time.

First, to talk the Azerbaijani leadership into some radical economic
and political reforms. As we have already learned from well-informed
diplomatic sources, this theme was key to questions discussed between
Lynn Pascoe and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Once again Pascoe brought to Baku’s attention the White House’s
position, concluding that relations between the two countries could be
raised to a qualitatively higher level only through assurance that
both governments share the same values, i.e. adhere to the principles
of democracy, respect and uphold human rights and liberal democracy.

If we put all the abovementioned from the diplomatic language into
plain language, Pascoe’s statements imply that Azerbaijan should share
the values recognized by the USA.

Pascoe, however, noted that the White House did not rule out the
possibility of inviting Ilham Aliyev to Washington on an official
visit before the US presidential elections. But, the same diplomatic
sources say that Pascoe stated that such an invitation could take
place only if Baku did not confine itself to verbal promises but took
real steps towards putting reforms into practice.

Washington gives Baku another three months

Delegation members did not hide the fact that Washington was
disappointed with the developments in Azerbaijan and with Baku’s
activities since 15 October [presidential elections]. Azerbaijani
officials were informed about this in a private conversation with a
member of the American delegation. At the same time, he [the
delegation member] said that Washington would wait for another three
months. If, by this time, serious steps towards reforms have not been
taken, then Washington will totally lose its faith in the ability of
the current Azerbaijani leadership to lead the country on the path of
integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures, with all ensuing
consequences.

Second, the USA will try not to lose the initiative in the South
Caucasus to other players in the geopolitical game, above all, to the
European Union and Russia. Pascoe said this with typical American
straightforwardness at a meeting with Aliyev. Pointing out the growing
interest of the European Union in Azerbaijan and other countries of
the region, Pascoe said that the USA was making every effort “not to
stay behind” this competition.

USA wants “great changes”

The US diplomat said that he intended to discuss a number of issues
with Aliyev and to hold an exchange of views on “great changes” in the
region. In fact, Pascoe hinted that Washington was worried about an
undisguised increase in the activity of the European Union in the
South Caucasus, where up until recently the USA has regarded its
position as unshaken. However, now that “a democratically-elected
president” came to power in Georgia, the European Union is ready to
include the South Caucasus countries into its Wider Europe – New
Neighbourhood policy. This means that the EU sees the region within
its ranks in the near future. It is no coincidence that in Baku,
[Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili proposed creating a
mini-European Union of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Having left the
Azerbaijani capital, he included Armenia and then Russia in this list.

Things are clear with Russia – the EU does not want to see it as its
member for good reasons, at least in the near future. But the EU views
the South Caucasus as a single geopolitical and economic space. It is
no coincidence that the EU’s special representative for the South
Caucasus, Heikki Talvitie, has more than once said that this
organization treated equally all the three countries of the region.

USA wants South Caucasus to pursue its policy

The USA, in principle, is not against this prospect but would like to
see the South Caucasus countries as countries pursuing Washington’s
policy, like Spain, Poland and some other countries in the Eastern
Europe. Therefore, the USA is trying to attract the countries of the
South Caucasus, above all Azerbaijan and Georgia, to NATO where
Washington still has the final say. The USA thinks that this process
should be completed over the next two or three years.

However, except for the aforesaid, the armed forces of the regional
countries have to be reorganized to meet NATO standards and also the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict has to be resolved. Strange as it may
seem, but these two problems interrelate.

It is no coincidence that at a meeting with Azerbaijani Defence
Minister Safar Abiyev, Eric Schultz and Bruce Rogers discussed
strategic partnership between Azerbaijan, the USA and NATO. US
ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish noted at the meeting that
US-NATO cooperation with Azerbaijan and other countries of the South
Caucasus was aimed at eliminating instability in the region. He said
that the USA intended to continue cooperation with Azerbaijan to
ensure security. Harnish noted that the USA was expecting Safar
Abiyev’s visit to the USA where aspects of military cooperation
between the countries would be discussed.

[Passage omitted: at a meeting with the US delegation, Safar Abiyev
said the liberation of Karabakh was priority]

USA promises military assistance

The matter is that without a settlement to the Karabakh conflict, the
USA cannot render proper assistance to Azerbaijan to reorganize and
upgrade the army in compliance with NATO standards.

Suffice it to say that the Armenian group of the Congress took
painfully the US decision to allocate to Azerbaijan in military
assistance several million dollars more than to Armenia.

We have learned from diplomatic sources that during the negotiations
in Baku, Washington’s emissaries promised assistance to Azerbaijan in
reorganizing the army and in creating a large unit under NATO
standards within two or three years.

Need for compromises

However, Azerbaijan will have to make certain compromises in the
Karabakh peace talks.

It seems that the emissaries have managed to partly convince Baku’s
officials. Not long ago, the Azerbaijani leadership did not rule out
that the negotiations had to be started from scratch. However, Ilham
Aliyev recently expressed his surprise at a pessimistic statement made
by the Russian deputy foreign minister over the situation in the
negotiations to settle the Karabakh conflict.

Aside from this, against the background of the US week in Baku, a
surprising report has emerged saying that Aliyev will pay a visit to
Bratislava (Slovakia) on 18-19 March to attend an international
conference “Towards a Wider Europe: The new Agenda”.

[Passage omitted: list of countries which are to attend the
conference]

CENN – MARCH 15, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:
1. `Georgian Bank’ and BTC Reach Coop Agreement
2. Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan Talks on Oil for Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline
in ‘Final Stage’
3. Armenian Government Steps in to Eliminate Disaster Aftermath
4. Armenian Minister, Iranian Governor Discuss Agricultural Development
5. Misery is Environment’s Bitter Enemy
6. Workshop Announcement – International Water Demand Management

1. `GEORGIAN BANK’ AND BTC REACH COOP AGREEMENT

The Georgian Bank and Company BTC signed an agreement on financial
servicing of the funds assigned by the International Monetary Fund,
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Tbilisi on March 12.

Under the conditions, the Georgian Bank will provide banking services of
all expenditures for the construction of Georgian section of the
pipeline. Therefore, the Bank has become a member of the financial
association, which affiliates 78 companies.
AzerTag, March 13, 2004

2. AZERBAIJAN-KAZAKHSTAN TALKS ON OIL FOR BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN PIPELINE
IN ‘FINAL STAGE’

Negotiations on an agreement between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on
Kazakhstan oil moving through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline are
in the final stage, according to Natik Aliyev, president of the State
Oil Company of Azerbaijan, a Rosbalt correspondent reported. Aliyev said
the agreement would be signed sometime this year but would not be more
specific. He said the date would depend on the intensity of the talks.

Aliyev said the agreement would constitute the legal basis needed by
investors. It will set out the details of tax, customs and trade
arrangements connected to the movement of oil as well as specify the
manner of resolving ecological problems. He said the agreement would be
in line with existing treaties between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Rosbalt, March 13, 2004

3. ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT STEPS IN TO ELIMINATE DISASTER AFTERMATH

The Armenian government adopted The public awareness campaign for the
nomadic population relied purely on rural radio stations and the role of
local authorities, notables and elected officials. decision to allocate
510m drams [950,000 dollars] from its reserve fund to eliminate the
consequences of spring floods and strong winds.

Armenian Minister for Coordinating Territorial Administration and
Production Infrastructures Ovik Abramyan told journalists that the funds
would be allocated for the reconstruction of roads, bridges, schools and
hospitals and for accommodating people left homeless as a result of the
disaster. He noted that the final damage will be calculated in 10 days
and that aid is being allocated to carry out urgent reconstruction work.

A major part of the funds – 71m drams [116,000 dollars] – will be
allocated to Tavush and 58m drams [106,000 dollars] to Aragatsotn
regions, which have been badly damaged. Additional 200m drams [355,000
dollars] will be allocated to the Armenian Agriculture Ministry for
purchasing seeds and fertilizers for the ravaged regions.
Arminfo, March 11, 2004

4. ARMENIAN MINISTER, IRANIAN GOVERNOR DISCUSS AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

The deputy governor of Iran’s Ardabil Province, Hajaf-Azari, and
Armenian Minister for Coordinating Territorial Administration and
Production Infrastructures Ovik Abramyan, discussed prospects for
agricultural cooperation between Iran and Armenia.

The government’s press service told Arminfo news agency that the sides
debated the possibility of supplying Armenia with fertilizers,
seedlings, seeds, including the future of cooperation in stockbreeding
and exchanging scientific achievements.
Arminfo, March 11, 2004

5. MISERY IS ENVIRONMENT’S BITTER ENEMY

Vardan Aivazyan, The Minister of Environment of Armenian is convinced
that the main cause of many environmental problems is poverty in which
that the population of the republic lives in.

The other day, walking along the park he found almost all trees cut
there. As it became clear later, the trees were cut by nearby houses
tenants for heating their homes, the minister said.
, March 13, 2004

6. WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT – INTERNATIONAL WATER DEMAND MANAGEMENT
May 30-June 3, 2004

On behalf of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Jordan, we would
like to announce the Professional Development Workshops delivered during
the International Water Demand Management Conference May 30th-June 3rd,
2004. The workshops will provide participants with an in-depth training
in selected water demand management topics. In addition, the workshops
provide a short, practical hands-on skills training related to water
demand management. Participants can use the information, techniques
and/or software in their day-to-day operations. Each workshop is
conducted by industry leaders in the field. To learn more about the
workshops please visit the conference website at

—
*******************************************
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)

Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

A1 Plus | 14:58:31 | 09-03-2004 | Official |

KOCHARYAN ACCEPTED HUNGARY’S CONDOLENCES

New Hungarian Ambassador to Armenia Ferentc Contra /residence in Moscow/ has
today presented his credentials to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.

On behalf of the Hungary Government Ambassador expressed condolences over
murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest on February 19.

In his turn Robert Kocharyan voiced confidence that the law-enforcement
bodies of Hungary will display the necessary consecution and the criminal
will be punished under the stringent law.

Stating that Hungary will become an EU member in May, Ambassador Contra said
that his country is ready to stimulate intensification of cooperation
between Armenia and European Union as far as possible.

—

A1 Plus | 17:15:54 | 09-03-2004 | Social |

TRUST REFERENDUM IS TO TAKE PLACE

Considering the application of presidential candidate Stepan Demirchyan on
declaring invalid the elections, on April 16, 2003 Constitutional Court
decided to leave unchanged CEC decision, simultaneously suggesting
Parliament and Armenian President to hold a Trust Referendum within a year.

The above decision of CC became a subject of discussions. “All the opponent
stances saying CC exceeded its commission while making the decision are
senseless”, Stepan Safaryan, expert of Armenian Centre of National and
International Studies, says.

According to Safaryan who was the guest of “Political Debate Club”, “CC was
obliged to finally settle the conflict but it just offered a mechanism for
the problem solution”.

The expert says the reason for this is that CC hasn’t enough and appropriate
powers and it couldn’t assess the volumes of vote frauds and the
consequences of them on the election results.

He also said like any other CC decision the one for Trust Referendum is
final, too, and is subject to obligatory implementation.

—

Dissident Voice, United States
March 8 2004

The Coming Uncivil War: The Fire This Time
by Richard Oxman

“Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken,
their manhood effaced; better that they should die than live the
miserable wretches that they are.

— L. Frank Baum, later to become author of The Wizard of Oz, writing
as editor of South Dakota’s Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, encouraging
the extermination of each and every Native American, December 20,
1891.

Garland’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” had just ended. I was
lounging around, sipping my slave-picked Earl Grey from Sri Lanka,
and pouring over my May 11, 1911 original edition of Le Petit Journal
when the postman rang twice. A typical Tuesday afternoon, although
it could have been Wednesday this week. Unreal.

I’ll tell you what was in the parcel post piece shortly, a bombshell
of sorts for America. First, the obligatory parsing of pain.

The publication’s ink drawing portraying violent audience members at
the opera house of Livermore, Kentucky — spotlighting a quavering
figure on stage in the foreground — is unforgettable. There, yoked
to a pole, his upper torso strapped tight, with rope drawn across the
ankles forcing his lower body to bend at the knees, the black figure
in profile seemed to angle to the right, a twist, wanting to get away
from the drawn rifles and handguns, much like a dog — too afraid to
move — knowing that the Master is about to do something painful.
Perhaps more like a fish caught with a troll, in frozen anguish. His
clothes are in tatters, in stark contrast with a clenched fist behind
the back which is shooting out, stretching in the opposite direction
of his protruding lip. Millay’s “clutching at the South, screaming at
the North” comes to mind, the contortion commanding all. And
speaking of shooting, the public execution at Kentucky’s cultural
center only cost the usual prices for admission. However, those
holding orchestra tickets were allowed six shots whereas balcony
tickets were limited to one. For real.

Like Stamp Paid, the mid-19th century black man in Toni Morrison’s
Beloved, does when he notices a bit of bloody scalp, I want to scream
out “What are these people? You tell me, Jesus. What are they?” Of
course, they were white settlers. Demonic, not insane, to use
Terrence Des Pres’ yardstick. (1) Genocidal by all the standards
Raphael Lemkin established following Nuremberg.

The Jewish Holocaust was not an abominably unique event, unless one
is going to acknowledge the same for a million Armenians, Stalin’s
fourteen million “terror-faminized,” et. al. in Bangladesh, Burundi,
the Brazilian Amazon, Kampuchea, East Timor and elsewhere*(often with
our invaluable assistance). (2) Respecting Africans and Native
Americans, the only way Americans can make conscious-soothing
distinctions — allowing them to “do lunch,” shedding tears over
asparagus at an Oprah-based Book-of-the-Month tête-à-tête, in lieu of
taking any significant action — is to adopt the typical Eurocentric
bias that indiscriminately groups dark-skinned and red-skinned people
into only two undifferentiated masses; do that with white-skinned
people and one can totally exterminate the Polish population without
owning to genocide.

*There was a “total extermination of many American Indian peoples and
the near-extermination of others, in numbers that eventually totaled
close to 100 million.” (3)

It’s all horror that still goes on today, unabated here since the
European foot first stomped on this hallowed ground. But you’d never
know it to watch the parade of obese Americans, driving their SOVs
(Standard Obese Vehicles) going about their dailys. Not waiting on
them anymore to become compassionate, it looks like the guys who
mailed me the package have a Plan B. As promised, I’ll get to that
below.

At a mid-90s conference sponsored by the Global Alliance for
Preserving the History of World War II in Asia (AOHWA) in Cupertino,
California I saw the most horrific photographs I had ever seen up to
that point. They were photographs, poster-sized, of the Rape of
Nanking. Relative to writings about the Jewish Holocaust, very
little has been made available to us concerning atrocities
perpetrated in China, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore and
Indonesia. The Japanese military was responsible for approximately
50 million deaths, 30 million alone in China. It begs the question,
“Why?”.

>From December 13, 1937 to February 1938, in the single city of
Nanking, the International Military Tribunal of the Far East (IMTFE)
estimates that 260,000 were killed. The Memorial Hall of the Victims
of the Nanking Massacre in Nanjing claims that the number was over
300,000. Some Japanese put the figure as low as 3,000, its leading
historian of the war guessing that it was no higher than 42,000. (4)
Live burial competed with burning and freezing and the slowest and
most excruciating forms of killing ever known. Children were a
special delight.

A long time ago. None of it has much to do with us now, right?
We’re not killing minorities in cruel ways any longer, yes? We have
our figures straight these days, no? Our scruples in a row, like so
many ducks, vraiment? All I can say is “Quack, Quack!!” to the good
doctors (Ph.Ds, Ed.Ds et. al.) who have diagnosed Our Day that way.

I believe former UN relief chiefs, Hans Von Sponeck and Denis
Halliday –with decades of devotion to UN efforts behind them– would
not agree. As I remember, they quit their UN posts at very crucial
times over the cruel sanctions that were being imposed on the Iraqis.
Over the bombings, too, that had been going on for at least ten
years; there was that incredible 18-month study that John Pilger
cited not too long ago in The Mirror, wherein something like 36,000
sorties were flown over the Iraqi no-fly zones, 26,000 of them combat
runs (when there was no war!) (5), all in violation of international
law. And that didn’t account for the British bombs or the Turkish
air-campaign atrocities inflicted on the Kurds, the American and
British flyboys conveniently looking the other way.

In our own country, as Jeffrey St. Clair points out — lamenting the
federal government’s abandonment of efforts to prevent
pesticide-caused cancer — “Corporate and governmental statisticians
will broker the ‘acceptable’ number of people permitted to contract
cancer from pesticides residues, comforted in the knowledge that most
of these people will be poor and black or Hispanic.” (6)

I cite the particulars above — when there are an endless number to
choose from — because, for the most part, they’re the ones that were
alluded to in the little package I opened on Wednesday, March 3rd.
The one that informed me –anonymously– that something was in the
works, and motivated me to do something about it all.

“There is a physical difference between the white and black races
which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on
terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot
so live, while they remain together there must be the position of
superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of
having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

— Our own Abe Lincoln during the Stevie Douglas debates
(Undermining underlining mine)

As much as any other man? What man? He’s not talking about
Frederick Douglas here. Nor you, I presume. Certainly, he’s not
speaking for me. And I know those fellows who mailed their missive
to me have quite a different attitude.

However, one can’t say the same for Tommie Jefferson (“the
blacks…are inferior to the whites”) or Benny Franklin (“Why
increase the sons of Africa….?”); and they were the so-called
“soft-liners” who were nowhere near as maniacal as the likes of
Andrew Jackson, a leader far more representative of our past. Of
course, there’s the shining example set by John Quincy Adams who
“gave lip service” to the Indians and others. (7) What a crew. What
a foundation. Quelle dommage!

The point is is that the country is rotten to the core respecting the
issues touched upon above, and the stench is starting to motivate
compassionate/infuriated minorities, and their sympathetic brothers
and sisters of different stripes, to take trenchant (unprecedented in
America) measures. Take note, if you will, a house divided will not
stand.

One has to get notions of rebellious rag-tag youth gathering at the
gates of the Capitol Building (putting heads on the chopping block)
out of one’s mind. It’s not going to happen that way. Mau-Mau in
Kenya is more the model*. Mobilization by MoveOn will not be the
order of the day. And to make hay, the midnight killers — for
that’s what they will be if our present momentum is not reversed —
will not require huge groups, consensus or any form of
politically-correct sanction. They will be Invisible Revolutionaries
more along the lines of the Algerian Resistance. But unlike the
Algerians and Vietnamese, they will not demand the cover of the
general population. For they will not be fighting — in the most
immediate sense — for the people, nor in unison, but, rather, out of
rage, and out of unrequited love for what’s right. They will be
frustrated warriors who — in the face of stultifying surveillance
and overwhelming weaponry — simply can’t sit by and take it anymore.
Without any Grand Plan that all the academics and most
“officially-approved” leftists demand of those who would force
change. Arundhati Roy and Pilger, of course, are exceptions, but
where are the prominent U.S. examples?

* Minus the secret society meetings, the mountains of retreat being
replaced by myriad buildings, “habitats for humanity” in the minds of
many. No Kenyatta to capture, the individual insurgents will
proliferate on their own like cancer cells.

It’s a real shame ’cause it wouldn’t take much for a Bush or a Kerry
or a Nader or SOMEONE to simply step forward regularly, acknowledge
the horrors we continue to perpetrate…and remind the populace that
there’s not much else that’s more important than changing the course
of history in this respect. To show that they are doing this and
that…daily…to make it so, to make things right. A little bit of
Emily Dickinson’s “thing with feathers,” not token gestures.

That, or I’m afraid it’ll be a thousand points of burning lights,
illuminating everything from gas stations and office edifices to
private residences, ski lodges and wherever it is that golfers
congregate. Perhaps fire won’t be necessary in the clubhouses.

Thomas C. Mountain of the Hawaii Black History Committee, in an
article that appeared in Counterpunch, February 27, 2004, asked, “How
are we ever going to come to grips with racism in this country if we
continue to deny people of color their historical place? How could
white people hate people of color if they were taught Jesus would
pass for black if he were to rejoin us today?” He noted that Buddha,
Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed and Moses were all people of color.

Indeed. Again, what would it take for a president at a podium to
preach what’s begging to be expressed? To talk constructively about
what’s been wrong, in real language. Not much. Little for anyone.
But nothing like that is heard, periodic pontifications on places
like Haiti –during crises only– notwithstanding. On the other
(bloody) hand, it wouldn’t take much for the senders of my package
and their underground compatriots to set off bonfires in continental
coordination, sort of flambes for freedom, if you will. Bonfires,
originally, were fires in which bones were burned, evil-smelling
affairs that were nothing like the celebratory fires of today.
Nothing liked brings nothing liked.

Please tell Ashcroft, once he’s back to full health, making his
disgusting, fascistic overtures in full force, that I burned the
communication I opened last week; it would be too easy for him to
draw a line between this article, my recent piece “AH!” ARSONISTS FOR
HAITI” (which appeared on and
), the coming catastrophes and (alleged)
advocacy on my part. That’s if he asks. I want no part of an
investigation into the coming Kikuyu-like catastrophe that we’re
bringing on to ourselves.

Yes, I’ve got nothing more to say to the Justice Department or the
American people regarding the above. After all, it IS the American
people who are responsible for what’s taking place –as per legal
precedent established at Nuremberg by us– and they will have nothing
to complain about once the fan starts blowing, hurtling unwanted
waste and more their way.

“Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood, clean from my
hands?”, asked Macbeth. Today, yes. The day after tomorrow, maybe
not.

Finally, it would behoove us to give some thought to these additional
(personal, emailed) words of Thomas C. Mountain (quoted also above),
perhaps relating them to this article’s opening quote from L. Frank
Baum,

“You might want to consider just how bad for black folk “integration”
or rather assimilation has turned out. Before
integration/assimilation black folk controlled the institutions in
their lives, the schools, the shops, the sports, even the music.
When their struggle began to lead the movement in the US, the move
was made to “integrate” them into white society, to take their
children out of the schools they controlled and assimilate them into
white schools, with white teachers etc. If one looks at the
statistics covering the majority of black folk, the 2/3s who did not
benefit from equal opportunity, life has gotten worse since the
“civil rights movement”, since assimilation started. Infant
mortality, maternal mortality, birth weights, drop out
rates/graduation rates, incarceration rates, drug addiction rates,
all the statistics show that life has gotten worse for most black
folk. In other words, if you want to break a people, break their
institutions first, than they become a crushed and broken people easy
to control and not a threat to the status quo.”

Keep in mind, if you will, that we’re not just talking about
dark-skinned people here. And the parameters of hostility might
easily extend to include people wanting to protect our public
lands…and many others.

Those dangerous-sounding gents who reached me at home via the postal
service –color not clear– claimed to be the three guys who I wrote
about recently in the Counterpunch piece cited above. I understand
the points they made about the U.S. not honoring The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of December 9, 1948, and our ignoring
subsequent related international agreements and conventions. What I
don’t understand is a) why they contacted me, b) how they were able
to read my article and get something out so quickly (a day following
its appearance!), c) why they used a box when the only contents were
a letter, and d) how they got my home address.

I have a lot of questions.

Richard Oxman, a big fan of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, can
be reached at [email protected]. He has fire gear available
upon request.

REFERENCES

(1) Terence Des Pres, “Introduction” to Jean-Francois Steiner,
Treblinka (New York: New American Library, 1979), p. xi.

(2) See Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, The History and Sociology of
Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1990). Also, Richard G. Hovannisian, ed., The Armenian
Genocide in Perspective (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers,
1986). And Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet
Collectivization and the Terror Famine (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1986), especially chapter 16.

(3) David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New
World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 151.

(4) See Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of
World War II (New York: Basic Books, 1997), pp. 99-104. Also, Haruko
Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History (New
York: New Press, 1992), p. 39.

(5) John Pilger, The Secret War: “The U.S. War Against Iraq is well
under way” in The Mirror (December 20, 2002), as posted on ZNet
().

(6) Jeffrey St. Clair, Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green To
Me: The Politics of Nature (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press,
2004), p. 133.

(7) R. David Edmunds, “National Expansion from the Indian
Pespective,” in Indians in American History, ed. Frederick E. Hoxie
(1988), pp. 159-165.

ArmenPress
March 10 2004

MUSLIM LEADER DENIES REPORTS ABOUT INVITING KAREKIN II TO BAKU

BAKU, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS: The head of Caucasian Muslims,
Alahsukur Pasazade, based in Baku, denied local press reports that he
invited the head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Karekin II, to
visit Azerbaijan when they had met in Moscow on March 2-3 during a
gathering of CIS religious leaders.
He said the reports appeared after it was decided to hold the
regular meeting of the CIS interfaith council in Baku, scheduled for
2007 with around 3000 participants, including also all CIS religious
leaders. Pasazade said that reporters should not write about what did
not take place. He said the decision to hold the meeting is to be
approved by thee executive committee of the CIS inter-faith council.
“As regards inviting Karekin II to Baku it is the question of the
future which is to be reconciled with appropriate bodies,” he said.

ArmenPress
March 10 2004

NO ARMENIANS KILLED IN MADRID EXPLOSIONS

MADRID, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS: A clergyman of the Armenian Church,
Father Masis, dispatched to Madrid to help local Armenian community
to resolve their organizational issues, was quoted by RFE/RL as
saying that no Armenians were identified among 173 people, killed
today morning in a series of explosions hat ripped through crowded
passenger trains during the rush-hour.
Official sources had earlier confirmed that around 130 people were
killed.
Authorities blamed the attacks on Basque separatist group ETA,
which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the
European Union. According to some estimates, some 45,000 Armenians
live in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
March 10 2004

PRESIDENT GHUKASSIAN RECEIVED RA MINISTER OF EDUCATION

On March 8 the president of the Republic of Nagorni Karabakh Arkady
Ghukassian received the delegation of the Ministry of Education and
Culture of Armenia headed by Sergo Yeritsian. The director of the
National Institute of Education of Armenia Victor Martirossian was
also in the delegation. During the meeting the minister told that the
aim of his visit to Nagorni Karabakh is to get closely acquainted
with the problems in the sphere of education in NKR. In this
reference he said that the ministry is willing to provide their
assistance to the further development of the sphere in Artsakh. The
participants of the meeting touched upon several aspects of the
program of bringing the new system of education to NKR, which
provides a wide use of computer technologies, and requires retraining
of school and university teachers. The minister of education of
Armenia promised to provide about 600 computers to the schools of
Nagorni Karabakh and mentioned that the possibilities of his ministry
will be used to solve the problems that will occur during the
implementation of the new educational program. Speaking about the
prospects of development of the educational system in NKR Mr.
Yeritsian emphasized the importance of promoting relationships
between the universities of Armenia and Nagorni Karabakh. During the
meeting it was mentioned that due to the efforts of the corresponding
ministries of the two Armenian republics the representation of the
National Institute of Education of Armenia was opened in NKR. The NKR
president expressed his confidence that daily cooperation between the
ministries of Armenia and Nagorni Karabakh, the implementation of
joint programs may influence positively the promotion of the sphere
of education in Artsakh.

AA