Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. and

Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights

are pleased to announce the next lecture in our

Human Rights Speaker Series

Teetering on Extinction:

The Anuak Genocide in Ethiopia

Presented by

Doug McGill

and

Obang Okello

Thursday, October 20, 2005, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

at

Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.

U.S. Bank Plaza (Formerly Pillsbury Center)

200 South Sixth Street, Suite 4000, Minneapolis, MN

Teetering on extinction, the Anuak people of western Ethiopia continue to receive little attention from the international community.  Former New York Times reporter and author of the McGill Report, Doug McGill will provide a fascinating report on a genocide occurring today in western Ethiopia that threatens to annihilate the Anuak people.  Obang Okello will then share his own powerful and inspirational story of journeying alone at age 11, traversing more than 1300 miles of African bush to flee from Ethiopia’s civil war.      

Doug McGill is a journalism professor and freelance writer based in Rochester, Minnesota, where he writes articles from what he calls a “glocal” perspective.  He defines this as journalism that “illuminates the invisible strands of mutual influence connecting every town and city to the rest of the world.” He is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and has taught on the role of the media in public affairs at the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in Minneapolis. He was a reporter at The New York Times from 1979 to 1989; a Fulbright Fellow in Tokyo, Japan from 1990 to 1991; and a Bloomberg News bureau chief in London and Hong Kong from 1992 to 1996.  A native of Rochester, Minnesota, McGill graduated with a degree in anthropology from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1977. 

Obang Okello was resettled in the United States as a refugee in 1996 and went on to graduate from Roseville High School in 1999.  He has since graduated from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota with majors in Finance and Theology.  He is a leader in the Anuak community in the United States and is committed to promoting peace and stability in the Gambela region of western Ethiopia.  He is determined to raise awareness of political injustice and the destructive exploitation of natural resources, in particular the oil reserves, which threaten to destroy the life and culture of the Anuak people.  He has shared his powerful story with audiences in Haiti, New York, Arizona and Minnesota.   

This human rights speaker series will be held on the third Thursday of every other month throughout 2005.  Lectures are free and open to the public with advance registration.  Lunch will be provided for those who preregister.  This is not a CLE event. For more information, please contact Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.  You may find directions to Fredrikson & Byron at: www.fredlaw.com/contact.htm

Please R.S.V.P. to Aaron Van Alstine at Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights by noon on Tuesday, October 18.

Phone: (612) 341-3302, ext. 127 • Email: avanalstine@mnadvocates.org