July/August 1995, pg. 121

Bulletin Board

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Convenings

The Middle East Institute's eighth annual Garden Series, "Voices of, Voices About the Middle East," will feature Reeva Simon, author of The Middle East in Crime Fiction, July 12, 6 p.m.; storyteller Margaret Chatham, in the first program for children ages 4-10, July 22, 11 a.m.; author Jason Thompson discussing 19th and early 20th century Western travel literature on the Middle East, July 26, 6 p.m.; and Persian poet Faramaz Soleimani reading his work antiphonally with Nader Majd on the tar and sitar. All programs are free to MEI members and children, $7 for others, and take place at MEI, 1761 N St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, phone (202) 785-1141, fax (202) 331-8861.

The Jerash Festival, featuring such international performers as the New England Youth Festival, India's Jugnu folk dance company, and England's Old Socks drama troupe, takes place July 19-Aug. 5. Tickets, less than $10 per performance, will be available at hotels in Amman and from the JETT bus company, which provides service to Jerash, a biblical city of ancient temples, forums and baths north of Amman. Information is available from the Royal Jordanian Airlines tour desk, (800) 758-6878.

The Association of Islamic Charitable Projects will hold its fifth annual "Obligatory Knowledge Camp" Aug. 14-27 at Camp Hidden Falls in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. In addition to an intensive Islamic studies program conducted in English and Arabic, the camp offers outdoor sports and recreation activities, a Qur'anic recitation competition and the opportunity to meet Muslims from around the country in a beautiful, relaxed rural setting. For more information contact AICP at (215) 387-3814. Registration deadline is July 28.

The Gaza Community Mental Health Program and the Palestinian Nongovernmental Network will host their second international conference, on "Palestinians in Transition: Rehabilitation and Community Development," Sept. 13-15 at the Rashad El Shawwa Cultural Center in Gaza. Topics to be covered include the history and effects of colonization and oppression, the effects of trauma, torture and other human rights violations, ideology and racism, women's issues, and community services. For complete information contact GCMHP, P.O. Box 1049, Gaza, Palestine, phone 011-972-7-865949, fax 824072/823532, e-mail GCMHP@BARAKA.GN. APC.ORG

Appointments

In the Balkans, John K. Menzies, a USIA career officer who is currently chargç d'affaires in Sarajevo, has been named the new U.S. ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, replacing Victor Jackovich, a strong supporter of the Bosnian government whose next assignment is as U.S. ambassador to Slovenia.

A. Elizabeth Jones, most recently executive assistant to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, has been named U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan. New U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan is Michael William Cotter, most recently deputy chief of mission in Chile.

Ambassador Robert Dillon, recently retired as president of AMIDEAST, has been appointed director of the Missing Persons Investigation in Cyprus. The multi-million dollar investigation, established by an act of Congress, is designed to obtain information on five U.S. citizens who have been missing from Cyprus since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island.

Deaths

Jacques Berque, one of France's foremost scholars on Islam, died June 27 at his home in southwest France at the age of 85. Born in Moliere, Algeria to French colonial parents, he too became a colonial administrator, working in Morocco from 1934 to 1944. After World War II, he moved to Paris where he joined UNESCO as a Middle East expert. In 1957, he was appointed chairman of social history of contemporary Islam at the College de France, where he remained until his retirement in 1982. The author of many books about the Arab world, including The Maghreb Between Two Wars; The Arabs, Yesterday and Tomorrow; Egypt, Imperialism and Revolution; Arabia and Islam in the World, his crowning achievement was the 1991 publication of his French translation of the Qur'an after two decades of work. A Catholic, he took every opportunity to correct Western misperceptions of Islam, saying, "I have spent my life with Muslims and, for me, Islam is not foreign."

Shri Janki Ganju, a press attachç at the Embassy of India in the 1960s, died May 29 in Washington, DC at the age of 67. He opened his own public relations firm in Washington after serving as press attachç and was known for his many contacts in the White House, Congress and among the Washington press corps.

Joseph Mogheizel, Lebanon's leading human rights advocate, died in Beirut of a heart attack, at the age of 71, on May 29, four days after being appointed environment minister. An Eastern Catholic from the town of Tibnin in predominantely Shi'i southern Lebanon, and a lawyer by profession, he was among 14 cabinet ministers chosen by Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri to be part of his new government.

Dr. Irfan Ljubijankic, foreign minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was killed May 28 at the age of 43 when his helicopter was shot down by Bosnian Serbs as it was leaving the besieged government enclave of Bihacé. Born in Bihacé, Dr. Ljubijankic was an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist who worked in northern Africa and Zagreb. In 1984, he became chief of the ENT Surgical Department at Bihacé General Hospital. He was elected to the Bosnian parliament in 1990 and appointed president of the Bihacé district. He contined his medical work in Bihacé, where his skills in facial surgery were particularly useful because of the many shrapnel injuries suffered by the town's population. He was appointed foreign minister in October 1993, and travelled extensively in an attempt to bring peace to his country. A composer and lover of contemporary music, he is survived by his wife and two children.

Chaudhry Altaf Hussain, the governor of Punjab, died May 21 of a heart attack at the Governor's House in Lahore. Born in the village of Ladhar in the Jhelum district, he graduated from the Formen Christian College in Lahore and earned a law degree from the Law College of Punjab University. In 1956, he became the youngest person elected to the legislative assembly in what was then West Pakistan. He open a legal practice in Jhelum and joined the ruling Pakistan People's Party in the 1970s.