Werner Daum

Werner Daum, (born 1943), is a German diplomat and author, specialising in the cultural history of the Middle East. From 1992–1995, he was Head of the Human Rights Department in the German Mission in Geneva. As such, he represented Germany in the Commission on Human Rights and various other Human Rights organisations of the United Nations in Geneva. After having served as minister-counselor at the German embassy in Tirana, Daum was Germany's ambassador to Sudan from 1996 to 2000. Further, he is the author of several publications on the cultural history of Yemen, Sudan or the Arabian Peninsula.

Author on political events and art history of the Middle East

In 2000-2001 he was a Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.[1] In Summer 2001, Daum wrote an article for the Harvard International Review entitled “Universalism and the West — An Agenda for Understanding”, in which he criticised the US government for destroying the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum during the 1998 bombing campaign codenamed Operation Infinite Reach. Having worked in Sudan as ambassador of Germany during the time of the attack, he wrote that there was no evidence that the factory had produced precursors to chemical weapons and that Ghazi Sulayman, an internationally respected Sudanese human rights advocate, was a credible witness to this. Furthermore, Daum claimed that the attack caused a serious shortage in medication and that a "reasonable guess" for the deaths of civilians in Sudan caused by this shortage was in the "tens of thousands".[2] - According to an article in the New York Times of Oct. 20, 2005, U.S. officials later acknowledged that the evidence cited by the U.S. in its rationale for the Al-Shifa strike was weaker than initially believed: The facility had not been involved in chemical weapons production, and was not connected to bin Laden.[3]

In 1999, the Museum für Völkerkunde, now Museum Fünf Kontinente, (Museum of Ethnography) in Munich, Germany, published Daum's comprehensive catalogue for its exhibition on the cultural history of Yemen. Apart from this book, Daum is the author of several other works on the cultural history of countries in the Arabian Peninsula, of Sudan or Albania.[4]

Publications
  • Daum, Werner. Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix. Innsbruck: Pinguin-Verlag, 1987.
  • Daum, Werner. Im Land der Königin von Saba. Kunstschätze aus dem antiken Jemen; 7. Juli 1999 - 9. Januar 2000. Eine Ausstellung des Staatlichen Museums für Völkerkunde München. 1999. (in German)
  • Daum, Werner. "Universalism and the West", The Future of War, Vol. 23, Summer 2001
  • Daum, Werner. “Democracy, Human Rights and Secure Oil Supply” Weatherhead Center Fellows' Papers

Sources
  1. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/09.21/weatherhead.html
  2. Daum, Werner. "Universalism and the West: An agenda for Understanding". search.proquest.com. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  3. Lacey, Marc (20 October 2005). "Look at the Place! Sudan Says, 'Say Sorry,' but U.S. Won't (Published 2005)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  4. "Daum, Werner". WorldCat Identities. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.