The Washington Post
May 26, 2004 Wednesday

Final Edition

A Former Superpower’s Hazardous Legacy;
Experts Cite Risks of Aging and Unsecured Arms Caches in Ex-Soviet
Republics

by Peter Baker, Washington Post Foreign Service

KUTAISI, Georgia — Just beyond the rusted wire fence with gaping
holes and the teenage guards wearing slippers, dozens of napalm bombs
lay in the tall grass.

Nearby were canisters of land mines stacked in the open air, rotting
crates of ammunition for antiaircraft batteries, ancient guided
missiles and piles upon piles of various types of bombs. Stacked in
a nearby warehouse were thousands of launchers for shoulder-fired
rockets.

Once a bristling outpost of a global superpower, the former Red Army
base near here has deteriorated into a weedy munitions junkyard,
one of hundreds of aging, relatively unprotected stockpiles scattered
throughout the former Soviet Union. While the United States has focused
on securing potential weapons of mass destruction in this part of the
world, some security experts increasingly say conventional arsenals
may be dangerously vulnerable to theft as well.

Millions of tons of armaments were left behind in depots like the
one in Kutaisi when the Russian military largely withdrew from the
14 former Soviet republics that became independent from Moscow more
than a decade ago. Some of these bases have since served as one-stop
shopping centers for black-market arms traders who have little trouble
sneaking in or bribing guards to let them pass.

“The situation in my opinion is extremely bad,” said Yura Krikheli,
deputy director of the Gamma Center, a Georgian government institute
charged with securing arms caches. “Georgia lies in a very dangerous
location. If we consider what countries we border, then anything can
happen. There’s a danger of terrorists coming and people stealing
things and taking them to conflict zones.”

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a
regional grouping of 55 countries, has cited “huge risks” associated
with the weapons stockpiles. Foreign ministers from the member
countries last December approved a plan to secure and destroy many
of those weapons to stop “illicit diversion and uncontrolled spread
especially to terrorist and criminal groups.”

The corroding bombs and ammunition also pose a growing risk to the
environment and to the communities near the stockpiles. An explosion
at an old Soviet arms depot in Ukraine this month, possibly caused
by a cigarette, touched off about two weeks of secondary blasts and
fires that were extinguished only last week. Five people were killed
and 10,000 were evacuated; more than 2,000 buildings were damaged
or destroyed.

In 2001, a series of depots containing artillery shells left over from
the Soviet war in Afghanistan exploded in Kazakhstan, prompting the
evacuation of 1,000 soldiers and residents from a six-mile danger zone.

The problem exists in Russia as well. In the eastern port city of
Vladivostok, two officers were killed and five soldiers were injured
last August when a munitions facility exploded. It was the fourth major
fire at Pacific Fleet arsenals since the demise of the Soviet Union,
despite politicians’ demands that ammunition warehouses be moved away
from residential areas. Similar explosions have occurred in the Samara,
Sverdlovsk and Buryatia regions in the last six years.

Here in Georgia, a warehouse at a military base exploded in 1996
and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people for a
week, according to military experts, who fear that it could happen
again. “If there’s an explosion, there’ll be a chain reaction of
explosions,” said Imanual Yakov an Israeli consultant hired by the
Georgians. “There’ll be unbelievable damage.”

It is the fear of terrorists and guerrillas, though, that has generated
a new drive by officials in this mountainous country to address the
long-neglected danger.

The Russians still maintain two bases in Georgian-administered
territory, but in the 1990s, as part of the dissolution of the Soviet
Union, the newly constituted Georgian army was given control of more
than 30 Soviet bases, spread across a country smaller than South
Carolina. Many contain thousands of tons of unneeded arms, which are
guarded by little more than fragile fences.

“It’s a legitimate issue because we inherited from the Soviets a
huge infrastructure,” Defense Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said in an
interview. “Posts are spread all over Georgia. They need to be cleared
of mines.” Georgian officials said they had received virtually no
help from the Russians with these or other crucial tasks.

A recent tour of four bases in different parts of the country provided
a glimpse of the exposure. An arsenal in the capital, Tbilisi, was
surrounded by barbed wire that had been pulled apart at points so
intruders could easily come and go. At a base outside Tbilisi, the
fencing was so ineffective that cows, pigs, horses and mangy dogs
wandered in and out unimpeded.

The base near Kutaisi has no lights to illuminate its 31/2-mile
perimeter at night because it has no electricity from midnight to 7
a.m. But that’s better than another base in central Georgia that has
no electricity at all.

“It’s very difficult for the soldiers to defend this place,” said
Col. Tomas Gagua as he showed visitors around the Tbilisi base. “We
need lights, we need signalization.”

Those able to get in would find a smorgasbord of weaponry. Probably
most useful to terrorists or guerrillas would be the SA-7 Strela
shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles or the similar Igla missiles.
In addition, S-5 57mm and S-8 80mm missiles, with a range of three
to five miles and normally fired from warplanes, can be modified into
shoulder-fired weapons, military officers said. Similar missiles were
launched from donkey carts at hotels and the Iraqi Oil Ministry in
Baghdad last year.

There are also thousands of land mines, burlap bags filled with
raw explosives, crates of ammunition, mortars and Alazan missiles.
“Everything that lies here should be worried about,” said Capt. Zaza
Khvedelidze, deputy commander at one base.

In many cases, there are no inventories, so if anything is taken it
might not be missed. It is unclear how much has been pilfered over
the years, but some officers said they suspected Georgian arms have
wound up in the hands of paramilitary forces in the separatist regions
of Ajaria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the
war-torn Russian republic of Chechnya.

“Everything’s possible. Nothing’s impossible,” said Maj. Paatu
Enukidze, chief of staff at the Tbilisi base. Soldiers earn just
$50 a month and sometimes have to wear civilian clothes because no
uniforms are available, so they are susceptible to payoffs. “For
$1,000 to $1,500,” said Enukidze, “you can buy anything.”

At the base near Kutaisi, army officials reported thwarting two
attempts to steal rocket parts and gunpowder in the last year,
one of them by local police officers. Maj. Guram Chinaladze, the
base commander, expressed confidence no one had gotten away with any
weapons. But he added, “All the weapons kept here are really dangerous,
and we’re really trying to secure them.”

At the request of the Georgian government, the OSCE last year began
a program to recycle and destroy stockpiles of munitions. So far,
officials reported that they have dismantled 13,000 rounds of artillery
and antiaircraft ammunition and by next month expect to have destroyed
nearly 500 air-dropped bombs, 47 ground-to-air missiles and another
2,000 antiaircraft shells.

But the OSCE estimated that the Georgians still have more than 1
million antiaircraft shells, among other ordnance. Officials are
seeking funds from OSCE member states to continue the disposal program
until next year.

The Georgians are also working with Imanual Yakov’s Israeli-Spanish
firm to improve security at their bases and destroy as many of the
arms caches as possible. But in an impoverished country, funds remain
short. Georgia’s national security adviser, Ivane Merabishvili, last
month sent Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a letter seeking
$6.5 million.

“They don’t have the money,” said Lenny Ben-David, a former Israeli
diplomat lobbying in Washington for the Georgians’ request. “If a
power like the United States would come in, it could be taken care
of. Otherwise it’s going to come back and bite them.”

A lesson in democracy
by Igor Fedyukin, Vitaliy Ivanov, Anna Nikolayeva

SOURCE: Vedomosti, No 88, p.A2

RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
May 26, 2004 Wednesday

Pro-democracy group says Russia is headed towards authoritarianism

Russia and other former Soviet countries outside the Baltics lag far
behind most of Europe in political reforms, a pro-democracy nonprofit
group said in a report.

The European Union’s recent expansion to include 10 new members,
eight of them in Eastern Europe, highlights a “widening and worrisome
democracy gap,” said the report, issued Monday by Freedom House.

The group’s annual “Nations in Transit” report tracks progress in
six categories: electoral process; civil society; independent media;
governance; constitutional, legislative and judicial framework;
and corruption.

Russia’s ratings declined in the greatest number of categories (5
out of 6). Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine performed better
(4 out of 6 each). Out of the CIS countries, Turkmenistan received
lowest ratings, followed by Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan
and Kyrgyzstan.

The report states that Russia “is moving further along the
authoritarian path.” In particular, President Putin “strives to
concentrate the power, leaving no space for viable civil society,
independent media or political opposition.”

The State Duma’s independent deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov told Vedomosti he
fully agrees with Freedom House: “Our democracy has indeed degraded
in all aspects, and it has been noted by all the international
organizations that monitor the development of democratic institutions.”

Such ratings “are as relevant to reality as the Pravda’s reports in
the sixties about the hard life of African Americans in the U.S.,”
believes Aleksey Volin, the Cabinet’s former deputy chief of staff.
“Even Armenia has been ranked higher than Russia, although there the
presidential elections and the state of opposition sparked serious
criticism of foreign observers,” Volin remarks. “And if Freedom
House believes that the status of Russian-speaking minorities in
the Baltic states corresponds to the international norms, then the
Pravda’s reports about life in the U.S. were absolutely true.”

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
May 26, 2004, Wednesday

CIS: QUANTITY, NOT QUALITY[]

SOURCE: Krasnaya Zvezda, May 22, 2004, p. 1

by Roman Streshnev

The latest meeting of CIS Council of Defense Ministers took place in
Yerevan under the chairmanship of Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov on
May 21.

Agenda of the meeting included over 20 issues ranging from
military-political to military to military-technical cooperation.
Special attention was paid to development and maintenance of combat
readiness of the CIS Untied Antiaircraft Defense System. Defense
ministers endorsed the Draft program of dealing with aerial forces
and means of the potential enemy. Among other things, the document
stipulates modernization and rearmament of antiaircraft defense
systems comprising the CIS Untied Antiaircraft Defense System.

Ministers also discussed the procedures and mechanisms of
implementation of the CIS Program of military-technical cooperation
and the plan of joint actions of tactical training in 2005. A large
joint exercise is to be run in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan this August.
Exercise West-Antiterror is to be run in Moldova in late June.
Counter-terrorism units of some CIS countries including Russia,
Ukraine, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan will participate in the exercise.

Participants of the meeting also discussed coordination of positions
in the struggle to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. Defense ministers touched upon activities of Collective
Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict area and
methods of peacekeeper unit training. Some important decisions were
made with regard to flights of combat aviation, establishment of a
common system of communications, better cooperation in the sphere of
weather forecasts. Some organizational and personnel matters were
discussed as well.

Ivanov attended several tete-a-tete meetings with his CIS opposite
numbers. Specifically, he met with Defense Minister of Armenia Serzh
Sarkisjan before the meeting of CIS defense ministers. The condition
and prospects of military and military-technical cooperation between
Russia and Armenia were discussed at the talks. To be more precise,
Ivanov and Sarkisjan discussed deliveries of Russian military
hardware to Armenia. Ivanov emphasized that Armenia as a member of
the Organization of the CIS Collective Security Treaty was welcome to
buy Russian military hardware at domestic prices. Yerevan already
bought two IL-76 transports from Russia at this price. The agreement
was made to continue the training of Armenian officers at military
educational establishments in Russia.

The ministers also discussed the prospects of establishment of a
joined regional army group in the southern directorate on the basis
of the 102nd Russian Military Base in Armenia. Ivanov said that there
were no plans to reinforce the 102nd base but that it would get some
modern weapons and military hardware. Ivanov announced that an
emphasis would be made on quality, not quantity. “We view the base
seriously and want the base, an element of the Russian Army Group in
the Caucasus, to be properly equipped and capable of regular combat
training,” Ivanov said. “Generally speaking, there are no problems
with our military cooperation or any problems around the 102nd base
in Armenia…” Sarkisjan in his turn said that official Yerevan was
not even thinking in terms of demanding withdrawal of the Russian
troops from the territory of Armenia.

Defense ministers of Russia and Armenia signed a protocol when the
talks were over.

Ivanov dwelt on a great deal of issues at the press conference
afterwards. He denounced the rumors that Moscow intended to close the
military base in Tajikistan and withdraw its contingent from the
country altogether. Neither would there be a hasty withdrawal from
Georgia, he said. “Time and considerable money is needed to settle
the personnel and military hardware withdrawn from Georgia in
Russia,” Ivanov said. The upcoming Russian-Georgian are supposed to
set the date of withdrawal of the Russian bases from Georgia and
their status. Ivanov also denounced the rumors on the joint use of
the Gabala radar installation in Azerbaijan by the Russian and
American military. Asked for comments on the Russia – NATO relations,
Ivanov replied, “Russia participates in exercises together with NATO
only when it is convinced that this participation is useful. Our
approach is selective. We promote our national interests first and
foremost.”

ESTONIAN NEWSPAPERS OFFER DIFFERENT REASONS FOR BUSINESSMAN’S MURDER

Baltic News Service
May 26, 2004

TALLINN, May 26 — Citing unnamed sources, major dailies in Estonia
on Wednesday held out different versions of the reason behind the
assassination of the well-known Russian-speaking businessman Gennadi
Ever in Russia the day before.

According to the Postimees daily, the killing may be the revenge
of the Estonian underworld for Ever’s unfulfilled promises to local
crime lords.

Sources speaking to the newspaper on condition of anonymity suggested
that Ever’s talkativeness, especially among people considered to be
leaders of the Estonian underworld, may have sealed his fate.

“Ever enjoyed their attention, he wanted to look influential and
authoritative,” a police source said.

Police sources say one of the promises that Ever, a member of the
previous lineup of the Tallinn city council, gave but never fulfilled
was a promise to alleged underworld boss Harun Dikayev several years
ago to obtain all necessary permits to build a mosque in Tallinn.
There is no mosque in the Estonian capital to this day.

The other possible reason may be linked to Ever’s businesses in Russia,
Postimees reported.

As the newspaper was told, Ever’s partner in restaurant business
in Pskov was an ethnic Armenian businessman known as Rubik. Rubik
was active in Estonia in the early 1990s, unofficially handling the
bookkeeping for local underworld figure Vartan Sarkisyan, who was
murdered in 1994.

Rubik, who moved to Russia after the murder of Sarkisyan, was
assassinated in Pskov two months ago.

“It cannot be ruled out that Ever got into the way of the local
underworld,” a police source said.

Eesti Paevaleht meanwhile is linking Ever’s murder to the gunning
down of Estonian media businessman Vitali Haitov in front of his
Tallinn home in 2001. Sources told the newspaper that Ever may have
been killed by the underworld for being too open-mouthed and telling
his acquaintances how he ordered the murder of Haitov from Dikayev,
and ethnic Chechen. Having heard about this, Dikayev allegedly pledged
to have Ever killed, Eesti Paevaleht said.

The report said it was namely for this reason that Ever last fall
sold most of his business interests and real estate in Estonia and
headed for Russia.

“Since the trial of the murder of Vitali Haitov is still going on,
the topic remains on the agenda,” a police source who investigated
the murder of Haitov said.

Ever was killed with shots from a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the
courtyard of a house in the Russian regional capital Pskov Tuesday
morning.

The killer left the rifle equipped with a silencer on the scene of
crime and fled in a car which was later abandoned and set on fire.

La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest
25 mai 2004

RUBRIQUE: Édition INDRE; LA CHATRE – ÉDUCATION; Page 8

Les lycéens et le court-métrage ;

Dans le cadre de l’opération ” Les lycées au cinéma “, les élèves
du lycée George-Sand ont accueilli Raymond Delvax, co-réalisateur,
avec Serge Avédikian, d’un court-métrage.

Dans le cadre de l’opération « Lycées au cinéma », les élèves des
classes de seconde et terminale des sections carrières sanitaires et
sociales, de seconde de comptabilité et secrétariat, de terminale de
bio-service et du bois, du lycée George-Sand, ont travaillé sur un
court métrage en noir et blanc pour en étudier la réalisation. Ils
l’avaient visionné au cinéma Lux en début de mois et accueillaient
mardi dernier l’auteur de « Ligne de vie », Raymond Delvax,
co-réalisateur avec Serge Avédikian.

C’est un court-métrage de douze minutes sorti en 2003 en France noir
et blanc/couleur produit par Les films de l’Arlequin.

Né en Arménie soviétique en 1955, Serge Avédikian est arrivé en
France lorsqu’il était adolescent. Passionné pour la littérature
et le théâtre, il fait le Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Paris
et connaît une belle carrière d’acteur. Il passe à la réalisation
en 1980. Il rencontre alors le nouvelliste et peintre belge Raymond
Delvax, avec qui il entreprend la réalisation de « Ligne de vie ».

Un dessin…

Ce court-métrage raconte la vie d’un homme âgé, qui trace sur un mur
un dessin lequel fait remontrer en lui des souvenirs douloureux de
l’époque où il était prisonnier d’un camp de concentration. Il se
souvient surtout d’un autre prisonnier qui ne cessait de dessiner en
cachette, seule preuve de vie et d’humanité dans ce camp de la mort.
Aidé par un soldat, ils furent découverts : le soldat fut pendu et
l’on coupa les mains de l’homme barbu. Ce dernier continua cependant
à dessiner. Il fut abattu froidement par les gardiens alors qu’il
traçait les traits d’une femme sur un mur, celui-là même que le vieil
homme regarde. La fresque, seule survivance du camp de concentration,
est devenue un mémorial.

Serge Avédikian a voulu parler du peuple arménien et le confronter
à son histoire. Les élèves ont parlé avec Raymond Delvax, peintre à
Bruxelles, de la réalisation de ce court-métrage. Il est l’auteur de
cette nouvelle et des peintures qui accompagnent le texte. Plus d’un
millier de dessins a été nécessaire, réalisés par ce peintre belge,
en noir et blanc, parfois rehaussé de gouache, pour ce court-métrage.

Une face du cinéma que les élèves ne connaissaient pas et que le
peintre belge a expliqué par son côté littéraire et pictural.

GRAPHIQUE: Image: Raymond Delvax a présenté aux élèves quelques-uns
des dessins qui ont servi au court-métrage.

ZDNet France News
25 mai 2004

Le ministre de l’Industrie moins expéditif sur la prescription des
délits de presse sur internet

par Jerome Thorel, envoyé spécial, ZDNet France

Patrick Devedjian était l’invité vedette du Forum des droits sur
l’internet (FDI), qui fête ses 3 ans d’existence. Après un exposé
timide de la future LCEN, le ministre est revenu sur un amendement
qui modifie les délais de prescription sur internet.

BODY:

«Toute loi est faite pour évoluer, celle sur la liberté de la presse
de 1881 comme celle sur l’économie numérique», a lancé ce mardi le
ministre délégué à l’Industrie Patrick Devedjian. Il était l’invité
du FDI, le Forum des droits sur l’internet, une instance consultative
créée il y a tout juste trois ans sous l’impulsion des pouvoirs
publics. Le ministre était présent pour résumer le contenu du projet
de loi portée par sa prédécesseur Nicole Fontaine: la fameuse loi sur
la confiance dans l’économie numérique (LCEN), adoptée définitivement
début mai. Elle est en cours d’examen par le Conseil constitutionnel.

À une question de ZDNet sur l’un des épisodes les plus remarqués du
débat sur la LCEN, Patrick Devedjian a dû revenir, bien malgré lui,
sur la question de la prescription des délits de presse sur
l’internet. Une modification de dernière minute à la LCEN est sur le
point de changer la donne pour les médias en ligne: le délit sera
continu, il ne sera plus prescrit au bout de trois mois comme c’est
le cas pour toute publication imprimée (ainsi que le stipule la loi
de 1881). Cette modification, défendue au Parlement par le sénateur
René Trégouët, il convient désormais de l’appeler “amendement
Devedjian”, puisque le ministre en est le véritable instigateur,
comme nous l’avons relaté la semaine dernière.

La logique de la prescription de trois mois part du principe que plus
le temps passe, moins la “publicité” d’un article publié dans un
journal papier perdure, c’est pourquoi elle peut se justifier, a-t-il
expliqué. En revanche avec internet, le phénomène s’inverse: la
publicité du même article peut devenir plus importante plusieurs mois
après la première publication. «Il y avait donc matière à agir»,
a-t-il poursuivi.

La presse en ligne moins bien traitée que la presse papier

Coïncidence: dans la salle était présent, invité lui aussi par le
FDI, le sénateur Trégouët. Il prend aujourd’hui à son compte les
arguments du ministre, tout en soulignant une lacune de taille:
«C’est vrai que la portée de ce texte pose un autre problème», a
répondu spontanément René Trégouët. «La lacune, c’est de ne pas
mettre sur un pied d’égalité la presse en ligne et la presse
traditionnelle». Un point sur lequel a semblé d’accord Patrick
Devedjian, qui n’a donc pas exclu d’y remédier lors d’un prochain
examen parlementaire, sans en dire plus.

En revanche le ministre n’a pas voulu s’étendre sur les motivations
personnelles qui l’auraient poussé à proposer cet amendement au
sénateur Trégouët. Mais il n’a pas non plus démenti être concerné
directement, d’abord par ses origines arméniennes. Car il est
régulièrement l’objet d’une campagne de dénigrement de la part d’un
site internet (pas un site d’information), ouvertement négationniste
vis-à-vis du génocide dont ont été victimes les Arméniens par les
Turcs au début du siècle dernier.
Répondant à sa place, René Trégouët a évoqué l’effet amplificateur de
l’internet, qui consiste à multiplier les références hypertextes pour
faire remonter une vieille information dans les moteurs de recherche.
«C’est un exemple frappant qui montre bien qu’avec ces procédés,
l’internet permet de remettre en “Une” une information préjudiciable
qui date de plus de trois mois», a argumenté le sénateur.

Un autre intervenant, l’avocat Cyril Rojinsky, membre d’un groupe de
travail au FDI (*), a souligné que cet amendement était «précipité»,
et qu’il risquait tout bonnement d’être annulé pour n’avoir pas été
notifié au préalable aux instances européennes. Bref, le ministre
aurait donc été bien inspiré de demander un avis plus large sur le
fond et la forme de cette modification. En coulisses, les
administrateurs du FDI ont regretté de n’avoir pas été consultés.

La prochaine fois, Patrick Devedjian pourra même le faire en ligne et
publiquement: l’une des deux «actions prioritaires» du Forum en 2004
est de «mettre en place un service de médiation destiné à régler les
différends liés à l’internet [comme par exemple] des différends entre
particuliers pour des questions de diffamation ou de droits
d’auteur».

(*) Le rapport annuel 2003 du FDI n’est pas encore disposible
librement en téléchargement (il peut se commander en ligne pour 23
euros à la Documentation française). Seul un court résumé de ses
trois ans action a été diffusé publiquement.

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
May 26, 2004

DIAMANDA GALAS A FERRARA PER ATERFORUM SU ‘FOLK SONGS’ ;
(NOTIZIARIO TURISMO EMILIA-ROMAGNA)

FERRARA

(ANSA) – FERRARA, 26 MAG – La prima europea di ‘Defixiones, Will and
Testament’ della cantante e pianista Diamanda Galas, chiudera’ il
13 giugno al Teatro Comunale di Ferrara ‘Aterforum’, la diciottesima
edizione del festival che a partire dal 4 giugno proporra’ sei concerti
all’insegna di ‘Folk songs’.

Straordinaria vocalist di origine greca, Diamanda Galas e una
performer di grandissima profondita’ espressiva. ‘Defixiones, Will
and Testament’ e’ una meditazione, intensissima, sul genocidio dei
popoli armeno e greco anatolico avvenuto ad opera dei turchi nei
primi decenni del Novecento.

La serata inaugurale (a Casa Romei) vedra’ l”Omaggio a Berio’ della
cantante Cristina Zavalloni, accompagnata da Andrea Rebaudengo al
pianoforte. Tutti in esclusiva italiana gli altri cinque concerti,
dislocati tra Palazzo Ludovico il Moro e Casa Romei (ore 21,15).

Il chitarrista e pianista brasiliano Egberto Gismonti (5 giugno)
proporra’ la sua ricerca musicale che mescola i suoni antichi degli
indios d’Amazzonia e la moderna improvvisazione. Seguira’ il 6 il
doppio concerto dedicato al folk inglese: prima il chitarrista John
Renbourn in duo con Clive Carroll, poi il trio con la cantante Norma
Waterson, il chitarrista Martin Carthy e il fisarmonicista Chris
Parkinson (Palazzo Ludovico il Moro). L’11 giugno il compositore Aldo
Brizzi sara’ affiancato dal gruppo brasiliano Aco do Acucar. Seguira’
il 12 un omaggio all’Armenia con il trio di duduk di Gevorg Dabaghyan e
il duo formato dalla violoncellista tedesca Anja Lechner e dal pianista
greco Vassilis Tsabropoulos. Il concerto sara’ preceduto la mattina
(ore 12, Biblioteca Ariostea) da un incontro con Tigran Mansurian,
considerato il massimo compositore armeno vivente.

Info: 0532/202675
(ANSA).

VATICANO: INIZIA OGGI VISITA CARD. KASPER A GERUSALEMME

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
May 24, 2004

(ANSA) – CITTA’ DEL VATICANO, 24 MAG – Inizia oggi la visita a
Gerusalemme del card. Walter Kasper, presidente della Commissione
per i Rapporti Religiosi con l’Ebraismo e del pontificio Consiglio
per la Promozione dell’Unita’ dei Cristiani. Il cardinale, presente
ieri alla Sinagoga di Roma per il centenario del Tempio, nel corso
del viaggio incontrera’ il patriarca latino di Gerusalemme, Michel
Sabbah, e gli ordinari cattolici, il nuovo Custode di Terra Santa,
padre Pierbattista Pizzaballa, religiose, religiosi e fedeli laici
e celebrera’ la Santa Messa nella chiesa di S. Caterina a Betlemme,
al Santo Sepolcro e nella chiesa della Dormizione.

L’agenda del porporato include la partecipazione ad un colloquio
organizzato dall’Istituto Ecumenico di Tantur per gli studi di teologia
su ‘Il perdono e le sue dimensioni’. Sono inoltre previsti colloqui
con i rettori di istituzioni culturali, quali l’Ecole Biblique de
Jerusalem e la Facolta’ di Scienze Bibliche e di Archeologia, e dei
Seminari di Beth Jala, Salesiano e Francese.

Nell’ambito del dialogo ecumenico e interreligioso il presidente del
dicastero vaticano fara’ visita al Patriarca greco ortodosso Ireneos
I e al Patriarca armeno Torkom Manoogian, ai rabbini capo di Israele
e ai responsabili di altre tradizioni religiose. La fine della visita
del card. Kasper e’ prevista per il 28 maggio. (ANSA).

Authority as objective in itself or ensured changes

Q&A with ARF Supreme Body of Armenia representative Armen Rustamian

Yerkir/am
21 May 04

Q: Mr. Rustamian, what conclusions can be made of the political
developments of the passed year?

A: Indeed, it is time to take a break and look back at the developments
of the passed several months and give a proper assessment.

The first wave of tensions has passed and has left its consequences. It
is obvious that the opposition plans to raise another wave of
tensions. What was the logic and reasons of the first wave? They should
be divided into two parts: subjective which includes the strategy
of the opposition and objective which is displeasure with certain
unsolved problems in the country. Let us touch upon them separately.

For one year on, the opposition, not recognizing the results of
the elections, was trying to spread this view in the society and
raise a wave of protest to artificially sharpen tensions so that
revolutionary moods are shaped and the end the opposition appears to
be the party that can relieve the society of the authorities. They
made an impression that they resist the revolutionary passion of the
people and fist try to solve the issue in the constitutional court.

And due to it they come to the parliament. And since the authorities
did not carry out the decision of the court, once more proving their
illegal nature, all the legal ways are closed and the only solution
is revolution. And the events that took place in our country were
the results of that revolutionary behavior. At the same time, the
authorities were accused of forcing them to pursue that way.

This logic is destructive for the country. It also means that the
opposition wants to create a new situation in Armenia and change the
logics of development of the country.

This was challenge to the authorities and the latter had to
respond. Thus, there was a need for an alternative matching the
situation, separating the objective and subjective layers. It was
necessary to point out a solution which would keep the country safe
from shocks and would bring it back to normal life, fostering reforms
and making the solution of current issues effective.

And as a result of this analysis, the Dashnaktsutiun made its
well-known announcement which pointed out an alternative and said
that otherwise there may be a conflict and nobody will benefit from
it. The alternative is not the way of conflict but a way of passing the
conflict to political field. This is what a dialogue implies. After
that, a new situation would be created in Armenia. We suggested the
mechanisms of reaching a political agreement. From that moment on,
two processes started developing in the country.

The first was the continuation of the opposition strategy which was not
rejected by the opposition, and the second was the need to fix the need
of a dialogue within the society mentality. There was a competition
of two approaches and it ended in the victory of the second and more
civilized one which is the dialogue. This is proved by the public
feedback and the discussions with the intelligentsia organized by ARF.

An important milestone in these developments was the European Council
(EC) resolution which had certain remarks and suggestions in which the
dialogue was underlined as a priority for breaking the deadlock. Thus,
this idea definitely proves its vitality.

The result of overcoming the first wave of tensions is that today
we have a situation with a better articulated public demand and
steps to be taken. These positive tendencies should be considered,
as well as the negative sides. The objective is now to create a new
political situation in the country which is also approved by the
opposition. There is a positive tendency in the latest tendency which
is that the political forces prioritize creation of such a situation.

Q: What does the new political situation imply?

A: We should admit that a great part of the society had an active
participation in this process. The society certainly demands the
following: there is no need for an abrupt regime change, but there
is a need for ensured, radical changes and a political agreement
over it. This is what we should fix as a formed public demand. Note
that even if many people find regime change as a possible option also
realize that it should be prepared.

Suppose the president resigns and elections take place in 40 days,
anyway if the elections would took place in this situation, there
would be winners and losers. Our today’s electoral resources are
not such as to enable the losers to congratulate the winners. Again
we will have a situation where the elections will be doubted. Thus,
by trying to change the situation we will appear in a worse plight.

Q: Why do you think the dialogue between the authorities and the
opposition does not take place?

A: One of the most important questions is who really wants the
dialogue and who does not and why. It seems the suggestion of the
coalition gave a real chance to the opposition have the authorities
make serious changes in most important issues.

This was not just a right to participate in discussions but an
influential participation, with the right of veto. And in these terms
the dialogue is rejected. I believe this makes clear that there are
forces within the opposition who have the objective to provoke shocks
in the country. This is explained by the simple logics that clashes
are followed by negative consequences. Eventually, the opposition
is to be accounted which will be then criticized by international
organizations and weakened.

The opposition will avoid the charges against it without implementing
any goals of realizing projects or ideas. It will assume the shape
of a force persecuted for political aspirations. In this way, the
consequences of tensions will be more and more discussed than the
reasons of all this. However, this is the way that should be rejected,
since otherwise others will suffer. The impacts will fall on the
country. One should not create artificial problems and then try to
solve them on national level.

Q: What steps do you see for emerging from the situation?

A: Since there is a public demand for an agreement, the
authorities-opposition relations should gain a new quality. Today’s
relations are antagonistic and lead to self-destruction.

The authorities-opposition clash should have a creative nature. What
we call the fight of opponents is quite right, but it should take
place through joint efforts which is demanded by the simplest, classic
dialectic principle. Fight without uniting goals is really destructive
and unity without fight is inert. We should avoid these two extremes.

Thus, preserving contradictions should not make them destructive. The
country stability should be raised to a new level so that it really
serves strengthening of our foreign positions for securing better
development of the country. Thus, we should continue the process of
political agreement and we should name the issues we have. First of
all, we should prevent a second destructive wave.

Both the authorities and the opposition should clarify their future
steps. Let us start from the authorities. It must take care of
solving actual issues including those already pointed out by the
coalition. Regardless of whether the opposition joined or not, these
issues must be focused on. Better mechanism for their salvation should
be developed.

Armenian foreign minister, speaker receive Estonian MPs

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
25 May 04

[Presenter over video of meeting] Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan discussed Armenian-Estonian cooperation issues with a
delegation of the Estonian parliament, led by Chairman of the Foreign
Affairs Committee Marko Mihkelson.

Vardan Oskanyan noted that Estonia’s admission to the European Union
(EU) is creating new opportunities to develop the Armenian-Estonian
relations. The sides can give a new impetus to the economic relations
using the Armenian-EU agreement on cooperation. In this context, the
sides attached great importance to Armenia’s and the South Caucasus
countries’ participation in the “Enlarged Europe, the new neighbours”
programme.

The Estonian parliamentarians also met their Armenian
colleagues. Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Artur Bagdasaryan
received them. He noted that it is expected that the Caucasus agreement
pact will be signed with the support of the political forces of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in Strasbourg,
which should be a good basis for the peaceful settlement of the
regional conflicts and the development of political and economic
relations.