LOS ANGELES, CA — ANCA-WR supporters and staff met with John Negroponte, United States Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) on February 19, 2002 after he delivered remarks before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council (LAWAC). The event, which was a part of LAWAC’s regular presentations of world leaders in Los Angeles, attracted a cross section of the Los Angeles professional and political communities. Ambassador Negroponte, whose address focused on the US role within the structure of the UN, as well as the recent impetus of coalition building as a result of the international war on terrorism, met with ANCA-WR supporter Frank Zerunyan and Government Relations Director Aradashes Kassakhian, as well as ANCA-WR Board of Directors Member Raffi Hamparian. The Armenian American representatives spoke to the US diplomat about Armenia’s role in international organizations, as well as the Armenian American community’s close involvement with issues of concern, including human rights. At the Armenian American activists’ suggestion, Ambassador Negroponte agreed to meet with ANC representatives to discuss other areas of cooperation and expansion of relations. The US and Armenia missions at the United Nations have enjoyed a supportive and friendly relationship, since Armenia’s entry into the international organization as an independent republic. In 1998, the Armenian Mission at the UN introduced a resolution marking the 50th anniversary of the UN Genocide Convention. The Genocide Convention states that “genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law. It defines genocide as any of the acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including by killing its members; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting on a group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” John D. Negroponte was sworn in as United States Representative to the United Nations on September 18, 2001. Since 1997 Mr. Negroponte had been Executive Vice President for Global Markets of The McGraw-Hill Companies.