F OCUS - American Foreign Service Association

2008 AFSA CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT AWARD WINNERS
As a first-tour political officer at Embassy Dhaka, Luke
Zahner exhibited exemplary courage and integrity while
reporting on human rights issues and setbacks for democracy
in Bangladesh. Working within the system under extremely
difficult conditions, Zahner conducted research and gathered
first-hand information documenting serious human rights abuses
by the military-backed Bangladeshi government. For his
courageous efforts to provide Washington with an accurate
account of the undemocratic activities within the country,
Zahner was selected to receive the W. Averell Harriman Award.
From left: Zahner, Political Assistant Ali Sarker and Ambassador Patricia A.
Butenis looking out on the Ganges River at the Bangladesh-India border in
Rajshahi, Bangladesh, April 2007.
Zahner arrived in Bangladesh in the spring
of 2006, during the run-up to parliamentary
elections scheduled for early 2007. As a result
of the failure of the two main political parties
to cooperate, the pre-election period turned
violent. In January 2007, a state of emergency
was declared and the military supported the
appointment of a new caretaker government,
ostensibly to level the playing field and prepare
for elections by the end of 2008. The state of
emergency suspended many fundamental civil
rights, and what followed was a spike in the
number of human rights violations, particularly
deaths and torture in custody over the course of 2007.
Zahner was involved in investigating many of those cases.
He undertook painstaking research, gathered first-hand information,
established contact with democracy and human rights
activists, and pressed government interlocutors. He courageously
challenged conventional wisdom and defended his findings to
W. Averell Harriman Award
FOR AN ENTRY-LEVEL FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER
Luke V. Zahner
Left to right: Zahner, Amb. Butenis and
Father Eugene Homrich at the Catholic
mission in Pirgachha, Bangladesh, in April
2007, hearing from a parish priest about
the torture and killing of a local indigenous
activist by Bangladesh soldiers a
month earlier.
Touring a dilapitated shelter in a Burmese Roingya refugee camp outside
of Cox’s Bazaar, March 2008.
post management. He persisted in convincing his superiors of
the necessity and importance of reporting these abuses, and of
supporting those defenders of democracy and human rights
whose accusations were often questioned by the government
authorities.
The nomination also recognized Zahner’s work on the annual
human rights report, noting that he knew how and when to
judiciously challenge efforts to dilute the report. He successfully
brokered compromise language between Washington and the
mission that upheld the report’s high standards for credibility
and worked hard to resolve differences of
interpretation between Washington and the
embassy.
Luke Zahner is from Rockville, Conn. He
was a Fulbright scholar at the University of
Bonn, Germany, and graduated from Johns
Hopkins University’s School of Advanced
International Studies. Before joining the
Service, he worked for six years (1996-2002)
in the Balkans for the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, including
service as an elections and political adviser,
as well as OSCE spokesman in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
He was a USAID public affairs officer from 2002 to 2004
and a USAID democracy and governance advisor covering Iraq
(2004-2005). He did a TDY to Iraq in 2004, where he helped
with preparations for the first elections there, in January 2005.
Zahner joined the State Department Foreign Service in 2005,
and will head this summer to a consular tour in Jerusalem.
JULY-AUGUST 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 65
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