Media Alert: BEFORE on AllAfrica.com

Who: Ambassador Dane Smith (ret.), Member of the BEFORE Advisory Committee for West Africa and Team Leader of the BEFORE Guinea Assessment Team
What: AllAfrica, a multi-media content service provider, systems technology developer and the largest electronic distributor of African news and information worldwide.
When: Thursday, October 29, 2009

The violence against peaceful demonstrators in Guinea-Conakry led to the death of as many as 150 civilians on September 28th. On October 28th, exactly one month after the tragic events, BEFORE Advisory Committee for West Africa member and Team Leader of the BEFORE Guinea Assessment Team Ambassador Dane Smith (ret.), Member of the BEFORE Guinea Assessment Team and Professor of Political Science Siba Grovogui, Phd. and Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs William Fitzgerald spoke on a panel “Guinea: Hope for Reform?” at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

The panelists and subsequent discussion included the nuances of ethnic relations in Guinea, the Obama Administration’s efforts to support women raped and injured during the September 28th events and policies and how the international community can support a peaceful resolution and further large-scale violence in Guinea. Some of the points made by Ambassador Dane Smith during the USIP event are available in English at AllAfrica.com and in a French article by the United States Bureau of International Information Programs, which was picked up by several French and African news websites.

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