Committee Welcomes Congressman Steve Solarz
Monday, January 27, 2003, 4:00 PM EDT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chris Swift, (202) 296-5101 x134

The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) today welcomed former Congressman Steven Solarz as its newest Co-Chairman.

"We are thrilled that Congressman Solarz has joined our Committee," said Executive Director Glen Howard, "He brings a distinguished record of service to the struggle for peace in Chechnya."

First elected to Congress in 1974, Solarz served for 18 years on House International Affairs Committee. As a Congressman, he played a leading role in the Congressional effort to restore democracy in the Phillipines, abolish apartheid in South Africa and bring peace to Cambodia. Mr. Solarz also led the successful fight in the House of Representatives authorizing the use of force in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Upon leaving Congress in 1993, Mr. Solarz served as a Visiting Professor of International Relations at George Washington University and a Distinguished Consultant at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 1993, he was appointed by President Clinton to chair the Board of the Central Asian-American Enterprise Fund (CAAEF), a position he held until 1998.

In 1995, together with former Senator George Mitchell and Ambassador Morton Abramowitz, Mr. Solarz founded the International Crisis Group (ICG) a private, multinational organization, committed to strengthening the capacity and resolve of the international community to anticipate, understand and prevent man-made crises.

Mr. Solarz's appointment follows the retirement of Ambassador Max M. Kampelman, who, together with former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr., founded ACPC in November 1999.

"We will miss Ambassador Kampelman's studious counsel," Glen Howard said, "His abiding commitment to human rights set a positive tone for our efforts from the very first day."