WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL TO DISCUSS GENOCIDE
By Marlene Toscano
Press-Enterprise
ews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_R_rworld14.42b890 e.html
May 14 2008
CA
RIVERSIDE: The event will feature an author and her photographs from
Rwanda and Darfur.
It was the image of the Madonna in a church in Rwanda surrounded by
piles of skulls and bones, high heel shoes and purses, and the skeleton
of an unborn child within its mother’s frame that inspired author
and photographer Lane H. Montgomery to write a book about genocide.
Montgomery, author of "Never Again, Again, Again…Genocide: Armenia,
The Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Darfur,"
will participate in a panel discussion on the genocide in Rwanda and
Darfur at 6:30 p.m. today at the Mission Inn in Riverside.
That image in Rwanda "spoke of such loss that I have never forgotten
it," Montgomery said in an interview on her Web site.
The event is sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Inland Southern
California, a forum in the Inland area for discussion of national
and international subjects.
After a talk and slide show, Montgomery will join Dr. Richard H. Hart,
president of Loma Linda University and Medical Center; Dr. Emmanuel
Rudatasikira, an associate professor at Loma Linda University from
Rwanda; and Mustafa Kuko, director of the Islamic Center of Riverside,
from Sudan, for the panel discussion. Hart has worked in Tanzania
and Ethiopia. An author and photographer, Montgomery has traveled
to Rwanda, Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia and Congo along with humanitarian
groups such as Americares, the International Rescue Committee and SIM,
a Christian advocacy sponsor for children with AIDS.
Interspersed in Montgomery’s narrative are first-hand accounts of
survival, reprints of interviews with war criminals and editorials by
ambassadors, academicians, human rights activists and journalists. In
the introduction to her book, Montgomery wrote about attending a
conference in 1993 in Germany called "We Must Never Let it Happen
Again."
She wrote about the passion and intelligence of those in attendance,
of all the races, nationalities and generations, and about how they
all felt reassured that "our world would never let it happen again."
Reach Marlene Toscano at 951-368-9660 or [email protected]
World Affairs Council
When: Today
Time: 5:30 p.m. reception and buffet, $35 to $45; 6:30 p.m. program
and discussion, $10 to $20; students free
Where: The Mission Inn Music Room, 3649 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside
Information: 951-222-8160