In Case of Genocide - Break Glass by Richard O'Brien

O’Brien retells how the Center for the Prevention of Genocide sounded the alarm on massacres in Sulawesi, D.R. Congo, Uganda and Sudan. It is also a historical review of the past one-hundred years of genocide including Armenia, the Ukraine, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Indonesia, Bosnia and Kosovo, Rwanda, Nuba and Darfur, Sudan, Nigeria and D.R. Congo. While it is a book about genocide, these unique stories emphasize that there is hope. Open to the public.

For four years with a staff and volunteers of twenty, the Center for the Prevention of Genocide (C.P.G) uncovered ongoing massacres and rushed the information to policy-makers who helped intervene in them. In Sulawesi, Indonesia, a midnight email told the CPG of a massacre that no one knew of. Its staff’s response helped set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the Indonesian government sending in 4,000 troops to stop the massacre. It played a pivotal role in informing USAID of the off-season man-induced famine in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan and USAID and WFP responded with enough to feed 30,000 who were starving. From Darfur, to Uganda, from Chechnya to India, it was the cutting edge of genocide prevention work from 2000 – 2004. The stories in the ‘Most Dangerous Century’ tell not only of the history of genocide in the past one-hundred years, but tell the unique story of an exciting young organization that saved lives and proved that genocide prevention really works. It is an important message with actual stories of successful intervention that should serve as examples. While it is a book about genocide, the undeniable emphasis is that there is hope.