Reply-To: primoff@bard.edu
Organization: Bard College
Subject: Bard College conference on war crimes
Contact: Mark Primoff
914) 758-7412
primoff@bard.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONFERENCE ON PROSECUTING WAR CRIMES
TO BE HELD AT BARD COLLEGE OCTOBER 5-6
Former Hague Prosecutor Richard Goldstone is Keynote Speaker at "Accounting For Atrocities: Prosecuting War Crimes Fifty Years After Nuremberg"
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-Fifty years after the war crimes trials at Nuremberg sought to bring the perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice, the international community continues to seek methods to enforce international law and address war crimes. On October 5 and 6, 1998, Bard College will hold a conference, "Accounting for Atrocities: Prosecuting War Crimes Fifty Years after Nuremberg," in which statesmen, historians, military experts, and journalists will examine the legacy of the Nuremberg trials in the context of current international efforts combat and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity in Rwanda, Cambodia, South Africa, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. The
conference will reassess Nuremberg's legalist approach to conflict resolution in the post-cold war world and explore prospects for the future, particularly for an International Criminal Court.
Participants are Richard J. Goldstone, former chief prosecutor at The Hague for crimes relating to Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, who will give the keynote address; David Hawk, head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission for Cambodia;
Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute; Alex Boraine, deputy chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission;
David Scheffer, ambassador-at-large on war crimes issues for
Secretary of State Madeline Albright;
Anthony D'Amato, attorney for convicted war criminal Milan Kovacevic; Lt. Colonel Gary Solis, professor of the laws of war for commanding officers at West Point; journalists Philip Gourevitch;
Philip Nobile;
Nate Thayer;
Peter Maguire;
More
William Caming, one of the original prosecutors at Nuremberg;
Frank Buscher, author of The America War Crimes Program in Germany;
David Chandler, author of Brother Number One; J rg Friedrich, author of Das Gasetz des Krieges, and others.
"Five decades after the Nuremberg trials, the world community is still seeking an effective way to bring suspected war criminals to justice," says Susan Gillespie, director of Bard's Institute for International
Liberal Education, a co-sponsor of the conference, which has been organized by historian and Bard College alumnus Peter Maguire. "This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which sat in judgement of participants in genocide under the Third Reich. The anniversary of the tribunal and the
adoption of the Nuremberg Principles by the United Nations offers and occasion to reassess the trials and their legacy," says Maguire. "It is particularly important to examine these issues now as we attempt to
confront genocide and crimes against humanity in the post-Cold War era."
>
"The Bard conference will bring together the world's foremost experts on the subject to debate the legacy of Nuremberg and to examine current and future methods of uncovering and judging war crimes in the daylight of
an international system of justice," says Maguire.
"Accounting for Atrocities: Prosecuting War Crimes Fifty Years After Nuremberg," sponsored by Bard College, The Bard Center, and Bard's Institute for International Liberal Education, is free and open to the public. For further information, call Patricia Hansen-Storm at (914)
758-7404.
PROGRAM:
Monday, October 5
9:45 a.m. Welcome. Leon Botstein, president, Bard College
10:00 The Legacy of Nuremberg
Moderator: Peter Maguire, historian
Participants: Jonathan Bush, fellow, Institute of Advanced Study,
Columbia University Law School
William Caming, one of the original prosecutors at Nuremberg
J rg Friedrich, author, Das Gesetz des Krieges
Tina Rosenberg*, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
12:00 p.m. Lunch
more
Monday, October 5 (continued)
1:30 p.m. The Tokyo Trial
Moderator: Sanjib Baruah, title
Participants: Conrad Crane, professor of history at West Point
Philip Nobile, journalist and author
Lt. Colonel Gary Solis, professor of the laws of war for
commanding officers at West Point, author of Son Thang: An American War Crime
3:30 Law and War in the Former Yugoslavia
Moderator: Ed Vuillamy*, journalist
Participants: Michael Sharp, journalist
Anthony D'Amato, attorney for Milan Kovacevic
Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor at The Hague and Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
David Scheffer, Ambassador at Large on war crimes
issues for Madeleine Albright
6:00 Keynote Address: "Accounting for Atrocities: Fifty Years After Nuremberg"
Richard J. Goldstone, former chief prosecutor of The Hague Court; Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Tuesday, October 6
8:45 a.m. Welcome by Dimitri Papadimitriou, Bard Center
9:00 Law and War in Rwanda
Moderator: Chinua Achebe, Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature, Bard College
Participants:
Philip Gourevitch, journalist
Martin Garbus, attorney and author of Traitors and Heroes
Ibraham Gambari*, Nigerian ambassador to the United Nations
10:30 Law and War in Cambodia
Moderator: Peter Maguire, historian
Participants: David Chandler, scholar and author of Brother Number One Nate Thayer*, journalist who interviewed Pol Pot
David Hawk, head of UN Human Rights Commission for Cambodia
12:00 p.m. Lunch
1:30 Amnesties and Truth Commissions
Moderator: Amy Ansell, associate professor of sociology, Bard College
Participants: Alex Boraine, deputy chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Aryeh Neier, president, Open Society Institute and author of War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror and the Struggle for Justice, Crime and Punishment: A Radical Solution
3:30 Prospects for the Future: The International Criminal Court and Beyond
Moderator: Leon Botstein, President, Bard College
Participants:
Richard Goldstone
Aryeh Neier
David Scheffer
