:: Writers for Peace Committee

The Writers for Peace Committee was founded in 1984, during the period that was marked by the Cold War. Its founder and Chairman was Milos Milkeln, a Slovene writer who dedicated great energy to promoting the cause of peace. From its beginning, the Writers for Peace Committee has enjoyed the hospitality of the Slovene P.E.N. Centre, and its annual meetings are held within the framework of the International Writers' Conferences organized by the Slovene Centre at Lake Bled each year in May. At these sessions, representatives of P.E.N and all other interested writers discuss their actions regarding armed conflicts in different regions of the world.

The Committee aims to organize dialogues and peaceful coexistence between writers and intellectuals in different regions of conflict (former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, Kurdistan, Chechnya, etc.). Its activities include writing protest letters to presidents of countries that are involved in armed conflicts or practise repression of human rights and freedom of expression.

    P.E.N. is a literary organization, and it is therefore only logical that the Writers for Peace Committee focus its attention on the abuse of literary language for the purpose of war propaganda and the instigation of hatred against nationalities, religions, cultures, etc. This is the main topic at one of the round tables at the annual meetings at Lake Bled.

    Since the seat of the Writers for Peace Committee is in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, one of the former Yugoslav republics, it was natural that the Committee should be instrumental in organizing humanitarian help for the writers who were refugees from different parts of the former Yugoslavia and for other victims of the tragic regional war.

    During this period, Boris A. Novak, at that time Secretary of the Committee and President of the Slovene P.E.N. Centre, set up a wide international network of P.E.N. Centres, different cultural organizations and individuals which in the name of International P.E.N. offered help to 200 writers (155 from the besieged city of Sarajevo). This help included financial aid, searching for temporary jobs and shelter, organizing numerous common literary and peace events, translating and publishing their works, solving legal problems (organizing visas, transit visas, a legal status in Slovenia and other states), enabling their children to enroll in schools,etc. This help was invaluable to sick and wounded writers.

    P.E.N. Centres all over the world and other donors contributed precious financial aid to this operation in which DM 220,000 were distributed to colleagues in need during the years 1991-94. This proved to be one of the greatest humanitarian operations in the history of the world writers' organization, and it was on the basis of this activity that Boris Novak was elected Chair of the Peace Committee in 1994, a position he held until he retired in spring 2000.

In May 2000, at the 67th International PEN Congress in Moscow, Veno Taufer, President of the Slovene P.E.N. Centre, was elected Chair of the Writers for Peace Committee.

Member Centres of the Writers for Peace Committee

American, Bulgarian, Croatian, Esperanto, Finnish, Flemish, French, Ghanaian, German, All-India, Israeli, Japanese, Kurdish, Macedonian, Netherlands, Palestinian, Perth, Polish, Russian, Scottish, Senegalese, Serbian, Slovene, Swedish and Swiss German.

Annual events: annual meeting at Bled in May, Writer for Peace Day in March.

Chair: Maja Hagerman
e-mail: maja.hagerman@telia.com

Chair of Writers for Peace Committee of International P.E.N: Veno Taufer c/o Slovene P.E.N. Centre
Tomsiceva 12
61000 Ljubljana
Slovenien
tel/fax: + 386 61 125 48 47
email: slopen@guest.arnes.si 
Vice-Chair: Musa Kaval