wfn.org | May 21 "Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda" Book Party

[Carol Fouke <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2252; news@ncccusa.org
NCC5/15/01

A CELEBRATION OF HOPE IS AT THE HEART OF
"WITNESS TO GENOCIDE: THE CHILDREN OF RWANDA"
May 21 'Book Party' at the United Nations Marks Book's Publication

A reception celebrating the publication of the book "Witness to Genocide: 
The Children of Rwanda," which features artwork by child survivors of the 
1994 Rwandan genocide, will be held May 21, 2001, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 
the Delegates Dining Room, The United Nations, 4th Floor, in Manhattan.

AT THE RECEPTION:

Among those invited to participate in the reception are: the book's editor, 
Richard A. Salem, a conflict mediator well known for his work in the U.S. 
and abroad; U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), who wrote the 
book's foreword, and H.E. Dr. Richard Sezibera, Ambassador of the Republic 
of Rwanda to the United States, who contributed an essay to the book.

Officials of the National Council of Churches (NCC), including Dr. Bob 
Edgar, General Secretary, will attend the May 21 event.  The NCC's 
Friendship Press published "Witness to Genocide."  The nation's leading 
ecumenical organization, the NCC includes 36 Protestant and Orthodox 
communions (denominations), whose congregants number more than 50 million.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

This collection of drawings by Rwandan children who survived the genocide 
in their country is "a truly inspirational book," according to the NCC's 
president, Ambassador Andrew Young.  The book "not only presents the tragic 
tale of death and mutilation through the artwork of these young witnesses, 
but also tells of the hopes, dreams and wisdom of these children as they 
look to their future.  This book is disturbing.  It is also a sign of 
hope."

Royalties from the sale of the book will be donated to trauma treatment 
organizations in Rwanda.

For review copies and additional information, please contact NCC Consultant 
Trudy Mason, 212-744-8841; Fax: 212-737-4650

MORE ABOUT THE BOOK:

Standing over a young boy, a man grasps a nail-spiked wooden club, ready to 
strike a deadly blow. "I promise never to be Tutsi again!" cries the boy, 
apparently in hopes that his life will be spared.

This devastatingly vivid image was drawn and captioned by a child survivor 
of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which nearly one million Rwandans, mostly 
of Tutsi ethnicity, were killed. Similar images of the brutality they 
witnessed pervade the thoughts of a multitude of other Rwandan children.

"Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda," published by the National 
Council of Churches' Friendship Press, is a collection of artwork created 
by some of these child survivors of genocide.

"Their drawings may be unsettling, but they are the images emblazoned on 
the minds of innocent children who witnessed the brutal slayings of their 
parents, siblings, and neighbors," writes Richard A. Salem, editor of the 
book and president of Conflict Management Initiatives, a not-for-profit 
organization that supports the use of mediation and other collaborative 
processes to manage community conflicts.

The children's drawings also serve as a vehicle to end their distress, as 
Hillary Rodham Clinton notes in the book's foreword, written when now U.S. 
Senator Clinton (D-NY) was First Lady. "I realized that these drawings are 
not just depictions of brutal violence but are acts of recovery, healing, 
and hope," she writes. "The very acts of talking, writing, and drawing are 
helping these children confront their past experiences and express their 
feelings about them."

In the book's final chapter, Rwandan Ambassador to the United States Dr. 
Richard Sezibera picks up the theme of healing. Stories of the Rwandan 
genocide "must be told again and again and again, not out of a morbid 
desire for gruesome tales but out of concern that the innocent dead should 
continuously sear the memories of the living," he says. "Not only does 
collective memory contribute to the healing that comes with shared pain, 
but it also gives hope that the world will remember and avoid the pitfalls 
of yesteryear."

A percentage of royalties from the book will be donated to trauma treatment 
organizations in Rwanda. Contributors to the book include the W.K. Kellogg 
Foundation, Church World Service, Friendship Press, Conflict Management 
Initiatives, and members of the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda. The 48-page 
"Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda" is available for $19.95 by 
calling Friendship Press at 1-800-889-5733. Or buy online at 
www.cmi-salem.org.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Richard A. Salem's life journey has taken him from journalism to conflict 
mediation and, most recently, to a fusion of those two 
disciplines_including his most recent book, "Witness to Genocide: The 
Children of Rwanda."

Born in New York City, N.Y., Salem chose journalism as his path in school 
as an undergraduate at Antioch College in Ohio and a graduate student at 
Columbia University. He worked as a general assignment reporter for the 
Washington Post, a journalism lecturer at American University, and 
publisher of a newsletter about small businesses, in Washington, D.C.

However, Salem soon detoured to a position working for President Lyndon 
Johnson's "War on Poverty," in the Small Business Administration's Economic 
Opportunity Loan Program.

That position exposed Salem to the issue of race relations, which 
eventually led him to a career in conflict management. Salem has worked as 
a mediator in the U.S. and abroad since 1968 when he became the Midwest 
director of the Community Relations Service for the U.S. Department of 
Justice, an agency that helps communities address racial and ethnic strife. 

Salem mediated the Skokie Nazi conflict in Illinois, the Kent State 
University dispute over construction on the site of the 1973 student sho  
otings, and numerous police-community, prison, school desegregation and 
other civil rights conflicts. In 1973 he received a citation from President 
Richard Nixon for his mediation during the takeover of Wounded Knee at Pine 
Ridge Indian 	Reservation in South Dakota.

Salem's passion for writing did not end when he changed careers. He 
co-authored a law text, "A Student's Guide to Mediation and the Law," and 
wrote several articles on mediation that have been published in books and 
journals.

Between 1979 and 1995, Salem made 15 extended trips to South Africa where 
he pioneered training in community conflict management. He subsequently 
trained and consulted in six countries in East and West Africa, in Northern 
Ireland and El Salvador.

His work in Rwanda led to the publication of "Witness to Genocide: The 
Children of Rwanda."  Salem was sent to Rwanda by the U.S. State Department 
in 1997 as a trainer in community conflict. While visiting a Rwandan trauma 
treatment center that was in need of additional funding, Salem saw drawings 
of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, by the children who survived it.

"When I first looked at the drawings," Salem says, "I saw how dramatically 
the children remembered the trauma... the visions of life-threatening 
events that they still see every day and that keep them awake every night.

"For the rest of us, these drawings are a reminder of what inevitably 
happens when the international community permits power -crazed leaders to 
foment genocidal violence," he writes. "It is important that adults 
everywhere pay attention to the children's stories, as horrifying as they 
may be."

Salem responded quickly, collecting works from over 50 Rwandan children. 
"Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda" is a compilation of the 
artwork of those child survivors. The foreword was written by Hillary 
Rodham Clinton when she was First Lady. The Rwandan ambassador to the U.S., 
Richard Sezibera, M.D., contributed a chapter. Salem's wife Greta, a 
professor of political science at Alverno College in Milwaukee also 
contributed to the book.

"It was a labor of love for a lot of people," said Salem.

Salem, who lives in Evanston, Ill., is now the Conflict Management 
Initiative's president. He expressed his hope that "Witness to Genocide: 
The Children of Rwanda" will move its readers to "decide to contribute 
toward a peaceful end to violence somewhere in the world."

In fact, anyone who buys the book will be doing just that. Royalties from 
the book will be used for the treatment of trauma in Rwanda. The 48-page 
book is available for $19.95 by calling Friendship Press at 1-800- 
889-5733. Or buy online at www.cmi-salem.org.

"Trauma is not self-healing...it can cripple many. So resources are needed 
to treat children and adults in Rwanda," Salem said.

-end-