Author: Karapetian Hovik

Mail & Guardian Online , South Africa
Aug 23 2004

Call for death penalty for SA ‘mercenary’

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea

The prosecutor in the trial of a group of suspected foreign
mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea said on
Monday he will call for the death penalty for the coup plotters’
alleged leader, South African Nick du Toit.

Attorney General Jose olo Obono also said at the start of the trial
that he will call for prison terms ranging from 26 years to 86 years
for the South African’s co-defendants.

Du Toit and 13 other suspected mercenaries from South Africa and
Armenia appeared in court on Monday, along with four Equatorial
Guinean defendants, on charges of plotting to oust the long-time
leader of the Central African country, President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema.

The eight South Africans, six Armenians and four Equato-Guineans,
including former economic planning minister Antonio Javier Nguema
Nchama, were charged with “crimes against the head of state, against
the form of government” and “crimes which compromise peace and
independence of the state, treason, illegal possession of arms and
ammunition, terrorism and possessing explosives”.

The involvement of the Equato-Guineans in the alleged plot to topple
Obiang, who has ruled the tiny Central African state since 1979, was
not mentioned until the court case got under way.

Obiang announced the arrests of the alleged mercenaries in early
March, saying they had been hired by exiled opposition leader Severo
Moto to oust him.

Handcuffed and in leg irons, the accused were brought by military
vehicles to the international conference hall in Banapa, a suburb of
Malabo, which has been transformed into a makeshift courtroom for the
trial.

About 80 people, including two of the suspected mercenaries’ wives,
human-rights activists and foreign diplomats, were in the public
gallery for the trial.

The South African and Armenian suspects have been held at Malabo’s
notorious Black Beach prison since March. Their arrests coincided
almost to the day with that of 70 suspected mercenaries detained at
Harare International airport in Zimbabwe following a tip-off from the
South African government.

The men in Equatorial Guinea, led by South African Nick du Toit, were
allegedly an advance group responsible for the preparations of the
coup d’état before the arrival of the 70 suspected soldiers of
fortune who took off from South Africa and stopped in Zimbabwe to
pick up weapons.

Family members of the men held in Equatorial Guinea say the suspects
have been tortured.

Fifteen foreign suspects were arrested on March 6 in Malabo, but one,
German Eugen Nershz, died on March 17, with the Equato-Guinean
authorities saying the cause of death was cerebral malaria.

But Amnesty International has said Nershz “died … apparently as a
result of torture”.

Three more men have since contracted malaria. Two have recovered but
a third is still ill.

The men have for most of their incarceration been held incommunicado,
according to Amnesty International, and two wives from South Africa
were only allowed to visit them for the first time earlier this
month.

A verdict is expected next week, defence lawyer Lucie Bourthomieux said

262 CASES OF VIOLATION OF NATURE PROTECTION LEGISLATION EXPOSED IN
FIRST HALF OF 2004

YEREVAN, August 20 (Noyan Tapan). In the first half of 2004, the
territorial inspections of the RA Ministry of Nature Protection
checked-up 561 entities (508 entities were checked-up during the same
period of 2003) and exposed 262 cases of the violation of the
legislation of nature protection (203 cases were exposed in the first
half of 2003). According to the RA Ministry of Nature Protection,
31.3% of violations fell on offences in the sphere of the protection
of water resources, 26.3% fell on atmospheric air protection, 24.8%
fell on flora protection, 9.2% fell on fauna protection, 6.9% fell on
the protection of land resources and 1.5% fell on the protection of
entrails. 178 people (as compared with 152 people of 2003) have
incurred administrative penalty for offences in the sphere of nature
protection, and fines of 14.5 mln drams (9.9 mln drams – in 2003) have
been set. 71 protocols on damaging of a total of 26.3 mln drams have
been compiled.

DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 20, 2004, Friday

US MILITARY BASES WILL APPEAR IN AZERBAIJAN

SOURCE: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 18, 2004, p. 4

by Rauf Mirkadyrov, Igor Plugatarev

Baku is making preparations for the US troops that will turn up in
Azerbaijan this autumn within the framework of re-deployment of
American troops abroad currently under way.

According to what information this newspaper has compiled, Azerbaijan
and the United States came to an agreement on deployment of an
American mobile contingent in this country during the recent visit of
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Before that, US AF General
Charles Ward, US Second-in-Command in Europe, spared neither time nor
effort to condition official Baku into acceptance of American
military presence. Ward made two visits to Azerbaijan in 2004. He
made another statement on American military presence in countries of
the southern part of the Caucasus the other day. Addressing a special
meeting at the US Senate in Washington, Ward said, “Georgia,
Azerbaijan, and Armenia are recognized now as the new geopolitical
edge due to the Caspian oil, threats of terrorism, illegal arms
deals, and traffic.” The matter concerns “strategic military
partnership” with countries of the region even though “the United
States does not intend to establish a permanent base there.” Ward
said that American servicemen in Azerbaijan will patrol the Baku –
Tbilisi – Dzheikhan pipeline and ensure its security. Proving himself
a smooth talker, Ward promptly avoided a collision with the law on
national security recently adopted in Azerbaijan which bans
establishment of foreign military bases on the territory of the
country. State officials and the military in Baku and Washington take
care not to call the US troops about to appear in Azerbaijan a
military base. The latter are called “provisionally deployed mobile
forces”. In the meantime, some Azerbaijani officials and politicians
do on denying the fact that some US troops are getting ready to move
into Azerbaijan. Deputy Chairman of the Parliament Ziyafet Askerov
told INTERFAX – Azerbaijan yesterday that his country does not plan
to have any foreign troops on its territory. Foreign Minister Elmar
Mamedjarov categorically denounced the very idea of establishment of
US military bases in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani military expert Dzhasur Mamedov says that American
specialists have already examined airfields located in Kyurdamir and
in the settlements of Nasosny and Gala. “More than that, the military
base in Kyurdamir is fully ready for the Americans now. The runways
there were repaired recently. The cantonment was modernized and
upgraded to meet NATO standards,” said Mamedov. “The Kyurdamir base
is conveniently situated. It is right in the center of the country.
>From there, it is possible to instantly respond to what happens along
the Baku – Dzheikhan pipeline and even control the territory of
Iran.”

Mamedov says that some of these airfields (Kyurdamir and Nasosny) can
even receive heavy transports of Ruslan type. TRML-3D mobile radars
with the range of 200 km are to be installed in Sanchagal near Baku
where the Baku – Dzheikhan pipeline terminal is located.

Last week, Rumsfeld visited Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Russian military
experts await the reports on deployment of a mobile American
contingent in Ukraine as well. General Vladimir Dvorkin of the
Institute of Global Economics and International Relations is
convinced that “it is to early yet to draw conclusions because there
is no saying at this point what troops of what strength and arms will
be deployed in Azerbaijan and Ukraine.” “In any case, I do not think
that the matter concerns any major American plans with regard to
these countries,” said Dvorkin. “First, deployment of large garrisons
there is not expedient from the military point of view. Second, there
is the European Arms Limitation Treaty. On the other hand, it goes
without saying that Baku and Kiev would not mind appearance of US
troops on the territories from the political point of view. Foreign
military bases mean additional jobs for the locals and a steady
income.”

Agence France Presse — English
August 18, 2004 Wednesday 2:37 PM GMT

Azeri FM in Moscow: Nagorny Karabakh and Caspian on agenda

MOSCOW

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the
conflict in the enclave of Nagorny Karabakh and the status of the
Caspian Sea had been top of the agenda of talks with his visiting
Azeri counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov.

Lavrov told reporters he was sceptical about the effectiveness of
international mediation to settle the conflict in Nagorny Karabakh,
an enclave in Azerbaijan with a majority Armenian population over
which Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a four-year war.

Russia “is ready to lend its aid (in the settlement of the conflict)
but no one can resolve the problem in the place of the two parties,”
he said.

The conflict has cost an estimated 35,000 lives and forced about one
million people on both sides to flee their homes.

A ceasefire was agreed in 1994, leaving Armenian forces in de facto
control of the enclave and surrounding Azeri regions. Azerbaijan has
said it is determined to force Armenian troops out of the territory.

Peace talks have been taking place intermittently for 10 years, under
the mediation of the Minsk Group (France, Russia and the United
States) to hammer out a permanent solution.

Mamedyarov, who said Azerbaijan saw its relationship with Russia as a
strategic partnership, meanwhile called for an “intensification of
diplomatic efforts” to find a status for the Caspian Sea.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1994 the five countries
bordering the sea have been in dispute over how to share its oil and
gas reserves, estimated to be the third largest in the world.

Iran and Turkmenistan says each of the five littoral states should
own 20 percent of the sea’s resources. But Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and
Russia say that the shares should reflect the length of the
coastline, which would leave Iran with only 13 percent.

CREDITS OF GERMAN BANKS FOR $50 MLN WILL BE ATTRACTED FOR
MODERNIZATION OF FOIL-ROLLING PLANT ARMENAL IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, AUGUST 16. ARMINFO. Credits of a group of German banks for
$50 mln will be attracted for modernization of the foil-rolling plant
Armenal in Armenia, Deputy Director General of Russian Aluminum JSC
Alexander Livshits told journalists in Yerevan today.

He said that the plant’s modernization program and the current
situation at it were presented to Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan. Livshits said that Rusal, the owner of Armenal, intends to
make the plant the best in Europe. “It is a good project, and it will
be a toy and not a plant,” he said. The largest banks in Germany
headed by “Baerishelandes bank” come out as creditors. The credit is
planned to be received against guarantee of the German State Insurance
Society Hermes. A principal agreement in connection with provision of
guarantees is expected already by the late August, he said. The total
cost of the investment program will total $70 mln. The remaining $20
mln will be invested by Rusal. Livshits said that the Russian company
has already invested $1.5 mln in elaboration of a feasibility study
and other works. The cost of the investment program rose in connection
with plans not only to produce foil, but also to establish
aluminum-rolling line. Thus, a closed loop enterprises will be
established, he explained. Livshits added that the general contractor
on modernization of the plant is a German company Achenbach. He
assured that the plant is planned to be activated in 2005, with the
6-9 micron aluminum foil produced by it to be highly in
demand. According to Livshits’s estimations, after the plant’s
modernization, some 1,000 people will be employed there, and the
production volumes will increase to 25,000 tons yearly. Last year, 9
thous. tons of foil were produced, in 2002- 5.5 thous. tons.

Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
August 8, 2004 Sunday, Home Final Edition

FICTION THE LAST DAY OF THE WAR;
HISTORICAL NOVEL AVOIDS USUAL PITFALLS

by Margaret Quamme, FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Judith Claire Mitchell’s assured first novel, The Last Day of the War
, neatly masters the historical novel’s biggest challenge: It breaks
through a potentially overwhelming tangle of events to focus on the
actions of a few well-defined characters and uses them to illuminate
a broader scene.

The novel wears its thorough research lightly, Mitchell never larding
The Last Day with details that don’t contribute to characters or
plot.

As World War I draws to a close, and after the official cessation of
hostilities, two young Americans become entangled in a Paris-based
plot to take revenge against the Turks, who massacred the Armenians
in 1915.

Nineteen-year-old Yael Weiss, a young woman with suffragette
leanings, meets U.S. intelligence officer Dub Hagopian, of Armenian
descent, in a St. Louis library.

There he has been scheduled to pick up weapons for Erinyes, the
secret vengeance organization run by the “old and maimed lion” Aram
Kazarian, who has had four fingers lopped off by the Turks.

Attracted to Dub and bored with St. Louis, Yael signs up with the Red
Cross in order to follow him to Europe, changing her name to Yale
White and listing her age as the required 25 and her religion as
Methodist.

On the boat to Europe, she is assigned alphabetically to room with
impetuous, ginger-haired Mary Brennan White, who is “thin as broth,
but hardly as dull” and flaunts her failed relationship with a
married man.

The two come into conflict with supervising matron Amo Winston, a
repressed former beauty cream saleswoman, who is constantly
“unsquinching” her eyes to avoid wrinkles; and with the unctuous Rev.
Alban Bliss, “an imposing man, large in the manner of President Taft,
his pink face composed mostly of cheeks and chins, his chest and
belly straining the buttons on his uniform, his roly-poly thighs
testing the inner seams of his jodhpurs.”

Their lives are later complicated by Dub’s thuggish friend Raffi,
whose life dream is “to be a full-time professional vengeance
seeker,” and by Raffi’s sister Ramela, who has barely survived the
Turkish atrocities, and whom Dub has promised to marry if she will
stop cutting and burning herself.

The scope of The Last Day is rare in a first novel. Each of the
characters is fully developed, and their interactions are thoroughly
believable. So is the world in which they live: It shapes the
characters just as they, in some small way, shape it.

Equally rare is Mitchell’s finely tuned pacing. Allotting each scene
enough time to unfold fully, but never bogging down the narrative in
incidents that don’t advance the action, she builds to a conclusion
as satisfying as it is unpredictable.

SEVEN OFFICERS OF RA ARMY TO PARTICIPATE IN NATO TRAINING TO BE HELD
IN AZERBAIJAN

STEPANAKERT, August 12 (Noyan Tapan). Armenia will fully participate
in the NATO training. RA Minister of Defence Serge Sargsian told
journalists about it. According to him, 7 officers of commanding
positions will participate in the training to be held in Azerbaijan
within the framework of NATO “The Best Joint Effort – 2004” program.

S. Sargsian noted that the division of the Armenian troops will not
participate in the training since the Azeri side does not guarantee
the safety of the latter. In connection with the statement of the
Azeri Foreign Minister that the training held in Nagorno Karabakh may
have an effect on Armenia’s participation in the NATO training, the RA
Minister of Defence noted that if it were so, Armenia would get a
relevant response from NATO. “Let Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign
Affairs occupy himself with his own country, his troops, his
problems. The NKR Defence Army, and, in general, the training of the
Armenian Army is no businees of his. I think that the agreements that
we reached during the previous seminar still remain in force. Our
officers will participate in them,” S. Sargsian stressed.

US DEFENCE CHIEF SAYS IRAQ ELECTIONS DISCUSSED IN BAKU

Lider TV, Baku
12 Aug 04

(Presenter, over video of Rumsfeld at news conference at Baku’s Heydar
Aliyev airport) US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to
Azerbaijan has ended.

At a news conference a short while ago Rumsfeld spoke about the
purpose of his visit to Baku. He said that the USA was in talks with
allied countries in connection with the upcoming presidential
elections in Iraq. Rumsfeld said that he had discussed this subject
during his Baku talks as well.

As for the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Rumsfeld
hoped that this problem would be resolved within the framework of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

IN FIRST HALF OF 2004 HIGHEST INDEX OF VOLUMES OF INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT
REGISTERED IN ARAGATSOTN REGION

YEREVAN, August 12 (Noyan Tapan). The growth of industrial output
registered in January-June 2004 was especially high in the Aragatsotn
region (59.2%) in comparison with the same period of last year in
seven regions of the republic.

According to the RA National Statistical Service, the indicated
volumes were completely provided owing to diamond processing, which
increased 2.4-fold in comparison with last year. In the Armavir region
growth was mainly conditioned by the production of electricity
(2.5-fold growth), partially by the production of the finished
metallic products. In Vayots Dzor a 21.2% growth was conditioned by
the growth of the production of electricity (11.8-fold growth),
foodstuffs and beverages. In Gegharkunik growth made 19.1% due to the
production of medical equipment, precision tools and metallic ore
output. A 18.1% growth of industrial output was registered in Yerevan
during the period under review, which is conditioned by the growth of
the volumes of the production of chemical industry, spinning and
clothing industry, rubber and plastic items, metallurgical industry
and metallic ore, machines and equipment, jewelry production.

ARMENIAN DRAM INCREASES BY 0.10% AGAINST U.S. DOLLAR IN EARLY AUGUST

YEREVAN, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). The Armenian dram increased by 0.10%
against the U.S. dollar trading at 518.57 drams instead of 519.07
drams from July 30 to August 5. Exchange deals amounting to 52 mln,
229 thousand dollars with an average weighted exchange rate at 517.50
drams were carried out on the currency market of the republic during
the same period. According to the data published by the RA Central
Bank, during the indicated period the Central Bank released 51-week
state bonds of 500 mln drams with an annual yield at 5.2584% and paid
off 51-week state bonds of 600 mln drams with an annual yield at
10.7351% and 48-week state bonds of 500 mln drams with an annual yield
at 10.5961%. During the indicated period the Central Bank also
carried out 1 mln, 450 thousand-dram currency swap (with the duration
of 48 days and with an annual yield at 3.51%).