Peter W. Galbraith to Deliver Keene State College's First Annual Genocide Awareness Lecture
KEENE, N.H., 10/11/07 - Keene State College will launch an Annual Genocide Awareness Lecture Series on Monday, October 22, with Peter W. Galbraith’s “Preventing Genocide in the 21st Century: Lessons from Iraq, Bosnia, and East Timor,” at 7:30 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room.
“With this lecture the Cohen Center launches an annual event designed to encourage people of good will and conscience to give vigilant, public attention to our still genocidal world,” says Henry Knight, director of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies. “Annual lectures will feature scholars and other experts who can initiate thoughtful reflection and responsible engagement with the mass violence and perpetration of human atrocity that continue to hold others in our world hostage with fear for their lives and for those of their children.”
Galbraith served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia and has held senior positions in the U.S. Government and the United Nations. He has worked on Iraq issues for more than 25 years and is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End.
As U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, Galbraith was actively involved in the Croatia and Bosnia peace processes. He was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut Agreement that ended the war in Croatia by providing for peaceful reintegration of Serb-held Eastern Slavonia into Croatia. In 2000 and 2001, he was director for Political, Constitutional, and Electoral Affairs for the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and a Cabinet member in the First Transitional Government of East Timor.
In the late 1980s, Galbraith helped expose Saddam Hussein’s murderous “al- anfal” campaign against the Iraqi Kurds. His work on the Kurdish issue led the U.S. Senate to pass comprehensive sanctions on Iraq in 1988. During the 1991 uprising, he traveled throughout rebel-held northern Iraq, and his written and televised accounts provided early warning of the catastrophe overtaking the civilian population and contributed to the decision to create a safe haven in northern Iraq.
The Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, recognized as a “center of excellence” by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, boasts a strong collection of print and media resources, holds a biennial residential summer institute for educators, and supports a minor in Holocaust Studies at Keene State College. One of the nation’s oldest Holocaust resource centers, it is a nonsectarian organization dedicated to teaching the lessons of the Holocaust. It fulfills founder Dr. Charles Hildebrandt’s charge, “to remember … and to teach,” through annual community programming and educational outreach activities. For a schedule of workshops, in-service training, classroom presentations, and individual curriculum consultations, visit www.keene.edu/cchs/.
The Genocide Awareness Lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at 603-358-2490.
