News

Newest WRI Women Member

Congratulations to Simone Maria Helwig on becoming the youngest WRI Women's Working Group member! Simone was born December 20, the first child of WRI Women's Working Group coordinator Maggie Helwig and former "Peace News" editor Ken Simons. Congratulations to the happy parents! Maggie and her family will be returning to Canada in a few months, where they will continue their peace work.

Campus Day Without Violence

The Peace Studies Association is issuing a call for a Day without Violence on the world's college and university campuses on 4 April 1996. An information packet with suggestions for activities, discussion questions and an evaluation will be sent to interested people. The day was chosen because it is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The purpose of the event is (1) to call attention to the desire by the university community everywhere for peace and an end to violence; (2) to focus on alternatives to violence such as conflict resolution, nonviolent conflict, and the creation of social structures that cultivate peace rather than war; (3) to promote the study of the processes of peace as a central aspect of the educational and research agendas of the Academy; and (4) to cultivate communication among interested individuals on campuses around the world. Contact: L. Kurtz, 30039 N. Waukegan Rd #104, Lake Bluff, IL 60044 USA. Fax: +1 708-234-0068; Tel. +1 708-735-8715; email: lkurtz@nwu.edu

War Rape in Rwanda

In February last year the report of French child psychiatrist Catherine Bonnet documented the mass rapes of Rwandan women by mostly Hutu soldiers and paramilitaries during the 1994 massacres. "The scope of the rapes is unimaginable. Virtually every woman or girl past puberty who was spared from massacre by the militias had been raped," she wrote. The National Population Office of Rwanda estimated that some 5,000 women are pregnant as a result of the war rape. Health officials estimate that some 90 percent of the women do not want to keep the babies.