What's Being Done On . . . Memory Projects?

Main List of Memory Projects Iran: Omid Memorial, Interview with Ladan Boroumand, Co-founder Cambodia: Documentation Center of Cambodia, Interview with Youk Chhang, Director South Africa: District Six Museum, Interview with Valmont Layne, Director Argentina: Memoria Abierta, Interview with Patricia T. de Valdez, Director International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, Interview with Liz Sevcenko, Director, Secretariat

Collective of the Families of the Disappeared:
The Collective of the Families gathers testimonies and establishes lists of those who have been "disappeared." The organization aims to set up committees for the families of the disappeared in various regions across Algeria and campaign to inform international opinion about the gravity and scale of the problem of disappearances. The Collective aids the families of victims by taking their cases to international and domestic institutions. The Collective is striving to create a coalition with other Algerian associations of victims in order to put pressure on the Algerian government to set up a "truth and justice commission." A major long-term goal of the Collective is to form an international coalition of associations of disappeared people, especially in the Arab world.
No Web site: Contact: Nassera Dutour: yn.dutour@wanadoo.fr (President of the Collective of the Families of Disappeared in Algeria.)

Desaparecidos (Disappeared) Online Memorial:
www.desaparecidos.org
This online memorial presents homepages for those who were "disappeared" during the Dirty War, about 600 so far, including photographs and additional information. The organization has erected an online Wall of Memory with photographs of the disappeared. Additionally, a list of names of the disappeared can be viewed with links to pages containing biographical information and details about the individual.

Memoria Abierta:
See profile.

See also:
http://www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/memoria.htm
http://www.memoriaabierta.org.ar/eng/principal.html

The Liberation War Museum:
http://www.liberationmuseum.org.bd/ The Liberation War Museum, established in 1996, commemorates the struggle of the Bengali nation for democracy and national rights following persecution led by the military rulers of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Persecution turned into an armed struggle leading to the emergence of Bangladesh as a democratic state in December 1971. The Museum is housed in a two-storied building with six galleries. Currently, the collections include rare photographs, documents, media coverage and materials used by freedom fighters and martyrs of the liberation war.

Documentation Center of Cambodia:
See profile

Villa Grimaldi, now a Peace Park:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/547/547p18b.htm
Villa Grimaldi, previously a detention and torture center for political prisoners during the Pinochet regime, has been converted to a park since being demolished during the last days of Pinochet's rule. It now commemorates those who suffered there. There is a fountain at the spot where prisoners were beaten, paving stones where prisoners were held in cells, and a wall of names of the 226 people who were killed on the premises.

The Commission for Historical Clarification:
Under the terms of the Oslo Peace Accord of 1994 that set the terms for ending the country's civil war, the parties to the accord (the government of Guatemala and the main opposition party) established the "Commission for Historical Clarification" (CEH). The CEH investigated the human rights abuses of Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which led to the disappearance of 200,000 people. The Commission was chaired by German law professor Christian Tomuschat of Berlin's Humboldt University, and included two Guatemalans, lawyer Edgar Balsells, and Otilia Lux Coti, a Mayan woman and university professor of education.

In a public ceremony held in Guatemala City in February 1999, CEH handed the final report, entitled "Guatemala: Memory of Silence," to representatives of the Guatemalan government, the former opposition group, and the U.N. Secretary General.

The Iraq Memory Foundation:
http://www.iraqmemory.org/
The Iraq Memory Foundation (MF) has no "higher purpose" than to place the Iraqi experience of suffering and oppression in the global context of the history of pain and suffering. The MF seeks to do this by filming and archiving the individual stories of many thousands of survivors and witnesses of atrocities. The MF also seeks to digitize, index, and classify all the documents recovered from the outgoing regime that are related to violations of human rights.

Pusan Democracy Park, Pusan Democratic Movement Memorial Association:
http://www.demopark.or.kr/en/
The Pusan Democracy Park, Pusan Democratic Movement Memorial Association commemorates the Korean struggle for democracy. The Pusan Democracy Park (PDP) remembers the April 19, 1960 revolution in Korea, a popular uprising led by students and labor groups seeking to oust Syngman Rhee, the autocratic ruler of the First Republic of Korea. At the culmination of the uprising, the Korean police killed 125 people and wounded over 1,000 young students. The Park also commemorates the Pusan-Masan democratic uprising of 1979 and the uprising in June 1987. The PDP contains a lecture hall, theater exhibition, and park complex.

Kigali Memorial Centre:
http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/
The Kigali Memorial Centre was opened in April 2004, on the 10th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. The Centre is built on a site where over 250,000 killed people in the Genocide are buried. The Centre is a permanent memorial to those who fell victim to the genocide and serves as a place for people to grieve those whom they lost.

Gulag Museum at Perm-36 :
http://www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/gulag.htm
The Gulag Museum is dedicated to promoting democratic values and civil consciousness in contemporary Russian society through the preservation of the last Soviet political camp as a vivid reminder of repression. It is a member of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience profiled in this installment.


Memorial:
http://www.memo.ru/
Memorial is a project to remember the violation of human rights on the territory of the former Soviet Union. A coalition of different sites, it is a community of dozens of organizations in different regions of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Georgia. Memorial is also a coalition of museums; a collective repository of documents; specialized libraries; and specialized research, human rights, and education centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and several other cities.

District Six:
See profile.

See also:
http://www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/d6.htm
www.d6.co.za/a

Constitution Hill:
www.constitutionhill.org.za/
Constitution Hill is the new home of the South African Constitutional Court. It was built on a historical site that housed the Old Fort prison complex, commonly known as Number Four, where thousands of ordinary people were brutally detained and punished before the transition to democracy in 1994. Many of South Africa's leading political activists, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were held here. The site holds numerous memories of South Africa's divided past and today symbolizes the bridge between South Africa's past, present, and future.

Robben Island Museum:
www.robben-island.org.za/
The Robben Island Museum, on the site of the notorious prison, aims to develop the island as a national and international heritage and conservation project. Today, Robben Island symbolizes the victory over Apartheid and other human rights abuses by educating visitors about the experiences of the prisoners who were held there, including Nelson Mandela. By documenting how prisoners overcame opposition from the prison authorities to organize sporting events, political debates, and educational programs to assert their right to be treated with dignity and equality, the image we have of the Island today is one of both oppression and triumph. The Museum runs educational programs for schools, youth, and adults; facilitates tourism development; conducts ongoing research related to the Island; and fulfils an archiving function.