Background/
The Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights organized a “Dialogue on Cham Issues.” Participants identified areas of agreement as well as disagreement at their first meeting (October 19, 2013). At the second meeting, which was co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute, scholars from Albania and Greece discussed events in greater depth (February 28, 2014). David L. Phillips, who directs the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and Alexander Cooley, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and Deputy Director for Social Sciences Programming at the Harriman Institute, co-chaired the session. The meeting included scholars and civil society members from both communities.
Statement
Professor Lambros Baltsiotis (Adjunct Lecturer, Research Centre for Minority Groups – Athens, Panteion University) and Professor Pellumb Xhufi (Professor of History, Albania Institute of History) participated in the second meeting. The organizers requested them to prepare scholarly perspectives of about 1,000 words commenting on the following statement: “Cham-Albanians suffered internment beginning in 1940, killings in 1944-45, and expulsion in 1945. Thousands of Cham-Albanians were killed in 1944 and 1945. These events occurred in a context and cycle of violence. It is alleged that Cham-Albanians were collaborators with the fascist and Nazi governments of Italy and Germany during World War II.”
The papers, available under Publications, Special Reports on the Harriman Website, are presented in alphabetical order of the authors’ names without comment or editorial intervention.
Historical Dialogue on Cham Issues
http://harriman.columbia.edu/content/special-reports
Ronald Meyer
Communications Manager, Harriman Institute
Adjunct Associate Professor, Dept. Slavic Languages
Columbia University
420 West 118 Street
New York, NY 10027

212 854-6218