Observer photo by Eun Sil Kang
William Cohen urged the U.S. government to become involved in preventing genocide.

By EUN SIL KANG

Government officials announced plans to form a Genocide Prevention Task Force at a news conference Tuesday. The government project would partner with public and private organizations in hopes to prevent genocide throughout the world.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen will be co-chairing the task force.

Both Albright and Cohen stressed the need to prevent genocide and said the U.S. government should become more actively involved in the issue.

The new government task force, which will include a joint coalition between the American Academy of Diplomacy, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the United States Institution of Peace, will provide recommendations to countries affected by genocide.

Brandon H. Grove is the task force’s executive director and also an American diplomat. He said the task force will be designed to make recommendations on military intervention and provide early warning systems to prevent future genocide.

“The goal is to forgo the need to call on military action. We need to rely on diplomatic means. It’s going to take [political] leadership in the future, which will help guide future leaders,” said Cohen.

According to the CIA World Factbook, during World War I, Ottoman Turkey instituted a policy of forced resettlement and other harsh practices that resulted in an estimated 1 million Armenian deaths. The historical event has made headlines lately after democrats in the House of Representatives proposed a bill to officially recognize the conflict as genocide. The bill failed to come to a vote. Today, Turkey does not officially acknowledge the conflict as genocide.

“We need to match the words, with the deeds and actions to stop these kinds of unacceptable acts,” said Albright.

Albright and Cohen agreed that the Armenian tragedy should be officially acknowledged as genocide.

“Terrible things happened to the Armenians. U.S. policy regarding reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia is that parties need to acknowledge what happened,” said Albright.

Although Albright and Cohen discussed what the task force will try to do, they acknowledged concerns on how guidelines could be enforced. Cohen said it is still too early to determine what will happen.

“We’re at the beginning of this process. It’s just starting,” said Cohen.

The Task Force will issue a report on its findings in December 2008.