Symposium: Legacy of Armistice - Why Afghanistan?

Symposium: Legacy of Armistice - Why Afghanistan?

Thursday, 10 November 2005

World War II Hall of Memories

Time: 8.45am - 4.30pm

Auckland War Memorial Museum in partnership with Auckland University of Technology (AUT), the New Zealand Defence Force and the Australian High Commission invite you to join them for a day-long symposium to discuss New Zealand's role as peacekeepers from the context of conflict resolution in a land torn apart by centuries of conflict - Afghanistan.

The annual Armistice Symposium has been organised to commemorate the 1918 Armistice struck at the end of the First World War - the war to end all wars; an intellectual construct designed as a prelude for a peace that unfortunately failed.

Armistice is recognised in those Commonwealth countries around the world which fought in the war, but it is often noted more for its lack of rememberance and an awkward minute's silence. This Symposium has been designed as a fitting commemoration for the dashed hopes of the 'war to end all wars', as well as providing an appropriate venue for public discussion of the complex issues involved in defence and conflict resolution.

Legacy of Armistice - why Afghanistan? will be convened by Peter Greener, Head, Division of Public Health & Psychosocial Studies, AUT and Sir Paul Reeves, Chancellor, Auckland University of Technology, Chair of Toi te Taiao: The Bioethics Council, former New Zealand Governor General and Anglican Archbishop of New Zealand.

An opening address will be given by the Prime Minister of New Zealand exploring New Zealand's role in international peacekeeping, particularly in the volatile arena of Afghanistan.

Notable speakers include:

Professor Bill Maley

Foundation Director, Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, ANU

Dr William Maley is Professor and Director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. He taught for many years in the School of Politics, University College, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, and has served as a Visiting Professor at the Russian Diplomatic Academy, a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Refugee Studies Programme at Oxford University. He is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), and a member of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) .

Adeeb Ibrahim

Lawyer & former prisoner of the Taleban

Senior Consultant with McLeod & Associates, a law firm specializing in Immigration, Refugee and Human Rights laws. President of the Afghan Association of New Zealand, a community organisation representing the majority of Afghans in New Zealand. Imprisoned by the Taleban in 1996 for perceived political and ethnic crimes whilst working for the Afghani Ministry of Defence.

Peace in Afghanistan

11 november – 11 december

Pictorial Gallery

A moving account of the life of a New Zealand peacekeeper in a fractured, yet beautiful country. It is the story of people torn apart by war, the struggle to restore security and the stunning landscapes upon which so much blood has been shed.

In November 2003, a group of nearly 100 New Zealand Defence Force personnel deployed to the province of Bamyan, Afghanistan, as part of Task Group CRIB 2 – the second rotation of personnel that made up the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) - part of New Zealand’s contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom and the global war against terrorism.

This exhibition displays some of what was captured over the ensuing six months. It is very much a personal perspective of one New Zealander in a team of many, fascinated by the people and the place that he engaged with while providing security, aid and development to a war torn land, in an attempt to secure a future for a war weary people. The photographs provide a ground level, poignant and eyewitness account of some of what an NZDF peacekeeper saw when deployed on an operational mission.

Curator Lieutenant Commander Karl Woodhead, MNZM, RNZN, was armed, with weapons for protection, but also with a small digital camera hastily purchased on the day before leaving New Zealand. The camera went everywhere Lieutenant Commander Woodhead did.

ENDS