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Director of Programs in the Americas
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Director of Communications
The Director of Communications will design and implement an international media strategy to promote the work and mission of Sites of Conscience. Download the complete job announcement here.

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CONTENTS: 

MEMORY ISSUES IN THE NEWS
Georgian and Ukrainian Museums of Soviet Occupation Irk Kremlin, Draw Protest
Comfort Women Museum Opens in China After Japanese Politicians Deny Military Coercion
Croatian Youth Hail Nazi Salute at Rock Concert

FEATURED PROGRAMS
Memorial at Former Killing Fields Remembers Genocide and Calls for Justice - Mirpur, Bangladesh
Students to Guide Visitors Through Exhibits on Human Rights Struggles - Santiago, Chile

EXCHANGING SITES OF CONSCIENCE PRACTICES: CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
Memorialization and Democracy: State Policy and Civic Action - Santiago, Chile
Coalition Members Rally in Support of Museum of Memory - Buenos Aires, Argentina

NEW INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS
Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Boston African American National Historic Site, Boston, MA, US
La Asociación Paz y Esperanza, Ayacucho, Peru
Casa por la Memoria y la Cultura Popular, Mendoza, Argentina
Comisión de Homenaje a las Víctimas de los CCD el Vesubio y Proto-Banco, La Matanza, Argentina
Dirección de Derechos Humanos del Municipio de Morón: Proyecto de Investigación Antropológica y Arqueológica Mansión Seré, Morón, Argentina
Instituto de Diálogo y Propuestas, Lima, Peru
Movimiento Ciudadano Para Que No Se Repita, Lima, Peru
Museo de la Memoria, Rosario, Argentina
Museo de las Memorias: Dictadura y Derechos Humanos, Asunción, Paraguay

COMING INTO SITE
Villa Grande, Oslo, Norway

Georgian and Ukrainian Museums of Soviet Occupation Irk Kremlin, Draw Protest
 
In quick succession, both Georgia and Ukraine recently opened national Museums of "Soviet Occupation," exacerbating tensions with Russia. After the new Museum of Soviet Occupation was unveiled in downtown Tblisi, the Ukrainian Museum of Soviet Repression also took the name "Museum of Soviet Occupation," following its Georgian counterpart. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili publicly voiced his support for the name change at the Kiev museum. The Kremlin protested that the museums contain nationalist propaganda, while Museum supporters stressed the need to educate younger generations about the repression of hundreds of thousands under Soviet rule. Museum staff in Kiev have received threats, and hackers have attacked the website for Memorial Society, which is sponsoring exhibits at the museum.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav060201.shtml
http://social.moldova.org/stiri/eng/51157/
http://eng.maidanua.org/node/737

Comfort Women Museum Opens in China After Japanese Politicians Deny Military Coercion
 
The first Chinese museum dedicated to the "comfort women" of World War II opened in Shanghai, one month after 44 Japanese parliamentarians took out a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post denying that the Japanese military forced up to 200,000 women into sexual slavery. The advertisement alleged that the women were licensed prostitutes who were often better paid than military officers. Japan has warned the US House of Representatives that passing a proposed resolution demanding an official apology from Japan for its wartime policy may seriously harm Japanese-US relations.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/07/content_912318.htm
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/80275.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070709.wxcomfort09/BNStory/International/home
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21909959-1702,00.html
http://http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701802_pf.html

Croatian Youth Hail Nazi Salute at Rock Concert
 
Croatian rock star Marco Perkovic, famous for his sometimes violently patriotic lyrics, sparked public protest last month at a concert when he quoted a notorious Ustashe World War II slogan, inspiring fans to raise the Nazi salute. Some youth wore black hats of the former Fascist Ustashe government that was responsible for the deportation of thousands of Gypsies, Jews, and Serbs to Nazi concentration camps. Several senior politicians and journalists excused the extremist symbols and slogans as "teenage rebellion," further shocking rights groups across the nation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/world/europe/02croatia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Memorial at Former Killing Fields Remembers Genocide and Calls for Justice - Mirpur, Bangladesh
(June 21, 2007)
 
After eight years of excavation work in cooperation with the Bangladesh Army, the Liberation War Museum has opened the site of a former killing field where 70 human skulls and 5,392 bones were recovered from mass graves. Five hundred people gathered for the opening of the Jallad Khana (Butcher's Den) Memorial Park in Mirpur to remember not only those who were tortured and brutally murdered in the 1971 genocide, but also countless victims of genocide around the world. A mural by popular artist Rafqul Nobi depicting the horror of genocide overlooks the site, which also contains a black marble slab engraved with the names of 12 killing fields from around the world and the number of people exterminated at each site, placing the Bangladeshi genocide in international context. The site was designed and conceptualized by architect Rabiul Hossain. Families of the victims of the genocide recounted their stories at the inauguration of the memorial.

Jallad Khana is one of over 5,000 killing fields across Bangladesh, and serves as a focal point in the struggle to open archived files and bring the perpetrators of the 1971 war crimes to trial. For more information on Jallad Khana and the work of the Liberation War Museum, visit http://www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/lib_war.htm

Students to Guide Visitors Through Exhibits on Human Rights Struggles - Santiago, Chile
(June - November, 2007)
 
In 2006, Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi's (Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace Corporation) traveling exhibits "Anne Frank, A Relevant History" and "Villa Grimaldi: Past, Present and Future" attracted over 10,000 visitors at schools near the Villa Grimaldi site. Building on this immense success, the Corporation is traveling the exhibits to 12 new schools in greater Santiago. Beginning at two schools in La Pintant, one of the most economically disadvantaged areas of Santiago, the exhibits were then showcased at the National Museum Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna, and will continue to travel to public schools across the city. The traveling exhibits are part of Villa Grimaldi's human rights education program and will train 15 youth from each school to serve as guides while the exhibits are at their schools. Training sessions include a case study of Anne Frank, introduction to the history of Villa Grimaldi, visits to the historic site with teachers, and dialogue sessions on issues the exhibits and the site raise, including freedom of expression, right to life, tolerance, racism, and anti-Semitism.

Teachers from all schools will work closely with staff from the Park, and participate in dialogues to explore the sensitive issues raised by the exhibits, challenges in addressing them in the classroom, strategies for addressing them effectively, and ideas on how the exhibit content and issues could be integrated into the school curricula after the exhibit has left. Following a tour of the Villa Grimaldi site, Park staff will also facilitate a dialogue among teachers and students to reflect on the visit and contemporary issues it raised, as well as jointly develop ideas and recommendations for how to promote human rights within schools. For more information on Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace and its exhibits, visit http://www.villagrimaldicorp.cl

Global Conference on Memorialization and Democracy: State Policy and Civic Action - Santiago, Chile
(June 20 - 22, 2007)
 
The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, together with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the Latin American Faculty of Social Science-Chile (FLACSO-Chile), recently hosted a major international conference on memorialization and democracy. The conference brought together 130 policy makers and practitioners from human rights, democracy-building, historic preservation, education, tourism, urban planning, and other fields to develop recommendations for national and international frameworks to support Sites of Conscience.

Through panel discussions, case studies, and visits to local Sites of Conscience such as the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park, participants explored how sites of memory can support human rights and democracy-building. Participants addressed several key questions surrounding sites of memory, including:

• How can memorialization honor victims of conflicts while fostering dialogue among different sectors of society?
• How can sites of memory balance between establishing objective truths while incorporating multiple perspectives?
• How can sites and memorials engage young people in carrying on the lessons of the past forward into the future in ways that are relevant and meaningful to them?

Recognizing the need for policymakers to create innovative, self-conscious strategies for integrating memory into transitional justice and democracy building, participants worked together to develop the first set of recommendations for specific ways states and civil society in different national contexts can work together to open historic sites as new centers for lasting citizen engagement in protecting human rights. Among other recommendations, conference participants called for significantly increased investment of resources in sites of memory - along with concomitant mechanisms for public scrutiny, accountability, and evaluation.

Coalition Members Rally in Support of Museum of Memory - Buenos Aires, Argentina
(June 25 - 26, 2007)
 
Led by Coalition Board Member and Argentinean Consul General Héctor Timerman and founding member Patricia Valdez of Memoria Abierta, Argentina, Coalition Members from Constitution Hill, South Africa; Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Chile; Gulag Museum at Perm-36, Russia; National Civil Rights Museum, US; Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole, Italy; and Terezín Memorial, Czech Republic met with First Lady and Presidential hopeful Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and other government, museum, and human rights officials to advocate for the preservation of the ESMA, the infamous Navy Mechanics School in Buenos Aires where thousands of people were detained, tortured, and killed during the military dictatorship. Plans to open the ESMA as a permanent, public space for memory and human rights had been stalled. The Coalition's visit attracted significant media attention and helped renew momentum and revive public debate over the ESMA as the country approaches its presidential elections. Coalition members also held workshops with stakeholders and designers of the site to share their experience and strategies they have used to open sites of difficult history for public dialogue. For more information and press coverage on the meeting (in Spanish), visit http://www.memoriaabierta.org.ar/prensa/prensa_visita_esma.doc

Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana (Memorial Museum of Dominican Resistance), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
 
Presently under construction, the Memorial Museum of Dominican Resistance will document and exhibit the history of political struggles from the beginning of the dictatorship under Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina in 1930 to the end of his political career in 1978. The Museum will be the first public institution to systematically address the history of the "Trujillo Era", which is considered one of the cruelest and bloodiest dictatorships of the 20th-century and a history that citizens of the Dominican Republic still struggle with today.

Using the site of a restored jail that was once used for torture, the Museum plans to help the public, and younger generations in particular, understand the struggle for democracy. A visit to the Museum will be used to train military, police and other state security personnel, and will become an integral part of the education program for secondary school students. Although it is commonly believed that 8,000 people were killed and 30,000 disappeared, the Museum plans to conduct research and create an archive to officially document what happened during the dictatorship. For more information, visit http://www.cultura.gob.do/Default.aspx?tabid=211 or contact Luisa De Pena Diaz at museodelaresistencia@gmail.com

Boston African American National Historic Site, Boston, MA, US
 
A division of the National Park Service, the Boston African American National Historic Site is comprised of the largest area of pre-Civil War black owned structures in the U.S. The site offers thousands of visitors each year a chance to explore the rich history of the 19th-century free black community in Boston.

Together with its allies, this community led the charge against slavery and racism, both in the city and throughout America. National Park Rangers lead historic tours of the north slope of Beacon Hill, where this community lived, worked and worshiped. Along the tour are homes of important activists and leaders in the Abolition Movement and the early battles for equal rights, as well as safe houses that were part of the Underground Railroad. For more information about this unique National Historic Site, please visit http://www.nps.gov/boaf or call (617) 742-5415.

Sites of Conscience Regional Workshop Partners: South America
 
Over the next few issues, Matters of Conscience will feature new Institutional Members that participated in Sites of Conscience regional workshops in Africa, Asia, Russia and South America.

La Asociación Paz y Esperanza, Ayacucho, Peru
 
La Asociación Paz y Esperanza (Peace and Hope Association) is a Christian organization that promotes social justice and defends the human rights of individuals and communities that are marginalized or have no access to justice. Paz y Esperanza has worked with the families of victims of internal armed conflict to establish a commemorative monument, and install two memorial centers in Ayacucho, the epicenter of political violence in the 1980s and early 1990s. For more information, contact pazayacucho@hotmail.com

Casa por la Memoria y la Cultura Popular, Mendoza, Argentina
 
Casa por la Memoria y la Cultura Popular (House of Memory and Popular Culture) works to coordinate the efforts of organizations in Mendoza and surrounding areas on several projects: opening legal processes for the disappeared people from the region, identifying clandestine detention centers, and creating an oral archive. For more information, contact bibliotecaycasaporlamemoria@yahoo.com.ar

Comisión de Homenaje a las Víctimas de los CCD el Vesubio y Proto-Banco, La Matanza, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
 
Comisión de Homenaje a las Víctimas de los CCD el Vesubio y Proto-Banco (Commission of Tribute to the Victims of El Vesubio and Protobanco Clandestine Detention Centers) works to document evidence of human rights abuses in La Matanza during the military dictatorship, gather evidence and offer testimony in the legal trials against members of the dictatorship, and reclaim the El Vesubio and Proto-Banco Detention Centers as evidence in prosecutions and as a future site of memory. For more information, contact vesubiovictimas@yahoo.com.ar for more information.

Dirección de Derechos Humanos del Municipio de Morón: Proyecto de Investigación Antropológica y Arqueológica Mansión Seré, Morón, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
 
Dirección de Derechos Humanos del Municipio de Morón: Proyecto de Investigación Antropológica y Arqueológica Mansión Seré (Department of Human Rights, Municipality of Morón: Mansión Seré Anthropological and Archaeological Investigation Project) is conducting an excavation of Mansión Seré, a former clandestine torture and detention center run by the Air Force during the early years of the Argentine dictatorship. The center was shut down after two years because several prisoners escaped. The building was later destroyed and a football field and playground were built on the site. In addition to operating a House of Memory on the site for public tours, the Department of Human Rights of the Municipality of Morón involves local youth groups in the site's excavation, collecting artifacts and photographs associated with the site, and investigating abuses that took place during the dictatorship. For more information, contact guillermo.m@moron.gov.ar

Instituto de Diálogo y Propuestas, Lima, Peru
 
The Instituto de Diálogo y Propuestas (Institute of Dialogue and Proposals) is a non-governmental development organization founded in 1986. Its main objectives are to promote dialogue and reflection on social and political processes among the different democratic players in Peru, both at local urban and rural levels, and nationwide. Its main activities focus on diagnosing the conditions for democratic governance, promotion of citizens' participation in community affairs and political cultural analysis of Peruvian reality. It has worked on the issues of political violence and democracy and promotes dialogue and reflection at national and international seminars, debate workshops and the "Cuestión de Estado" culture and politics journal. For more information, visit http://www.ids.org.pe/ids.html

Movimiento Ciudadano Para Que No Se Repita, Lima, Peru
 
Para Que No Se Repita (Never Again Citizens Movement) is a coalition of over 400 human rights organizations and community groups across Peru. The coalition was established to disseminate the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was charged with investigating the violence and human rights abuses that surrounded the bloody conflict between the Maoist rebel group "Sendero Luminoso" (Shining Path) and government forces between 1980 and 2000. The coalition is now working to respond to requests for assistance in organizing memorialization events and sites for victims and survivors of the conflict. For more information, visit http://www.paraquenoserepita.org.pe/joomla/index.php

Museo de la Memoria, Rosario, Argentina
 
Museo de la Memoria (Museum of Memory) was founded in 2001 to call attention to what occurred in Argentina during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983) and to advance the investigation and dissemination of information about human rights violations committed by the Argentine state, while promoting the protection of present-day civil liberties. The Museum will soon move into the former headquarters of the Army Second Command, which functioned as the central base for military operations and the implementation of terror amongst citizens of Rosario. The headquarters also was used as the administrative base for formulating policies of persecution and extermination in the city and throughout six central and coastal Argentine provinces during the dictatorship. For more information, visit http://www.rosario.gov.ar/sitio/lugares_disfrutar/museomemoria/museomemoria1.jsp

Museo de las Memorias: Dictadura y Derechos Humanos, Asunción, Paraguay
 
Museo de las Memorias: Dictadura y Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memories: Dictatorship and Human Rights) was initiated by the Celestina Pérez de Almada Foundation following the discovery of thousands of documents chronicling the workings of then-President Alfredo Stroessner's secret police (known as the "Archives of Terror") in an Asunción police station in 1992. Housed in the building where government intelligence officers from Dirección Nacional de Asuntos Técnicos ("la Técnica") once operated a clandestine torture center, the Museum works to gather testimonies, honour the victims and reveal the history of recent human rights violations in Paraguay and Latin America; provide space for reflection on and dialogue about the past from diverse perspectives with the opportunity to draw one's own conclusions; and help visitors understand factors that lead to state terrorism in order to prevent future repression and cultivate a culture of peace. For more information, contact msedu@rieder.net.py

Villa Grande, Oslo, Norway

The historic Oslo mansion and former home of Vidkun Quisling, fascist politician and co-founder the Nasjonal Samling (National Unity) party, now houses the Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Norway. The building features a tower from which Quisling viewed ships that carried Norwegian Jews to concentration camps in the winter of 1942-1943. It has served as a symbol of state oppression, dishonor, and treason in the years since Quisling's execution in 1945.

Through informative exhibitions, educational programming, and research efforts, the Center aims to transform the building into a space of productive dialogue focused not only on the historic experience of the Holocaust, but on contemporary issues of ethnically, religiously, and racially motivated repression. In 2006, the Center opened a permanent Holocaust exhibition to educate about the atrocities committed by the Nazi State in persecution of Norwegian Jews. The exhibition is a compilation of mixed media, including sounds, images, films, and personal items, to commemorate as well as to record the memory of the 20th-century European genocide against Jews and other minorities. The Center aims to inspire reflection upon such barbaric behavior so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past. For more information, visit http://www.hlsenteret.no/English

We welcome your feedback! To submit comments or suggestions, receive a text-only version, or update your e-mail address, please contact coalition@tenement.org
 
Matters of Conscience is supported in part by the Ford Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, National Endowment for Democracy, Open Society Institute and Samuel Rubin Foundation.