Benjamin Zawacki '97
By Kathleen S. Carr '96
After receiving his degree from Holy Cross, Benjamin Zawacki spent two years teaching with Jesuit Volunteers International in the Federated States of Micronesia. He then pursed a law degree at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.
Zawacki spent two years as a legal officer with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Bangkok, Thailand, representing asylum-seekers from regional and non-regional countries before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He later took a post in Thailand as a legal protection officer—and was working in Bangkok when crisis struck the region.
Could you tell us about your humanitarian work following the Myanmar cyclone crisis?
Once the cyclone struck, I left immediately. The press was interested in Amnesty International’s position on both the cyclone and the referendum, and I drafted the press releases and took their calls. Meanwhile I began researching the human rights violations taking place in the context of the relief effort. On June 5th, I held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand and released a briefing paper. Key findings included over 30 confirmed cases of the forcible eviction of cyclone survivors from their places of refuge back to their destroyed villages, and over 40 confirmed cases of the obstruction, diversion, or misuse of aid. The government of Myanmar or their official supporters perpetrated all such violations. At the same press conference, I released my report, “Crimes against humanity in eastern Myanmar.” It detailed crimes perpetrated by the Burmese military against ethnic minority Karen civilians and recommends that the U.N. Security Council take action accordingly.
The conference and the reports received global coverage in both the print and broadcast media. More importantly, it was considered by the U.N. Human Rights Council, and caused the government of Myanmar to issue a formal, public and defensive rebuttal the following day.
Who or what at Holy Cross may have influenced what you’ve chosen to do with your life?
Looking back at the past 11 years, it would be difficult to overstate the influence Holy Cross has played on my life and work. In particular, the First-Year Program, with its emphasis on how to live, was immeasurably influential. The College program to Mexico was also enormously formative as was the course on liberation theology taught by Jim Nickoloff. I say “was” but, in fact, I still count those programs and courses—and the people behind them—as the beginning of the continuum on which I’ve lived and worked since, and I still count Holy Cross and what I learned there as “north” on my moral and ethical compass.
Kathleen S. Carr '96 is a freelance writer based in Melrose, Mass. She can be reached via e-mail at kath.carr@gmail.com.