Former UN ambassador’s unlikely friendship with Elie Wiesel to bring her to Charlotte

It was an unlikely friendship that will bring Samantha Power to Charlotte Monday night.

As a teenager, she was deeply moved by Elie Wiesel’s book about surviving two German concentration camps during World War II.

Years later, after writing her own book about genocides, she sought him out. That started what became a long friendship and collaboration in the cause of human rights.

Now Power, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration, is coming to speak to The Echo Foundation, a Charlotte-based group that Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, helped found 20 years ago.

The foundation’s mission is something Wiesel made his life’s work after surviving Auschwitz and Buchenwald: to guard against indifference in a world where evil still exists.

On Monday night the foundation will honor Power with the Levine Medal For Life “for her unparalleled work for social justice.”

It also will present Charlotte advertising and public relations executive Steve Luquire with the Echo Award Against Indifference “for his passionate commitment to equality, philanthropy and economic opportunity.”

Before becoming U.N. ambassador in 2013, Power was a special assistant for human rights on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council. Before that she wrote extensively about genocides in Rwanda, Darfur and elsewhere. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2003 book, “A Problem from Hell,” about America’s response to such genocides.

Power told the Observer that she plans to talk about the power individual people have to make change, just like Wiesel, whom she called a “complete hero of mine.”

She also discussed other issues, including what may be the closest thing to genocide today: the refugee crisis in Myanmar that has sent hundreds of thousands of Rohinga Muslims into exile.

In Myanmar, North Korea and other trouble spots, Power is an advocate for diplomacy, something she sees too little of under the current administration. She believes diplomacy can help contain if not stop atrocities.

“You can’t take the hate out of man’s heart,” she said, “but you can change the calculus of the people that are perpetrating crimes on the basis of that hate.”

Here’s what Power said about other subjects:

▪ Myanmar: The country once known as Burma is seeing one of the world’s greatest refugee crises as security forces, in the words of U.N. officials, “deliberately and massively targeted civilians.”

“What is really lamentable is that there’s no real diplomacy being done,” Power said, adding that the U.S. could bring together countries in the region to pressure the Myanmar government.

“Unfortunately we’re at a time now where the U.S. government doesn’t really invest much in diplomacy,” she said. “There’s tweets and there’s a lot of talk of military force but it requires a kind of pounding of the pavement. It’s unglamorous to pull together other countries.”

▪ The State Department: Power noted the wave of departures of senior State Department officials. Last month seven of State’s top nine jobs were vacant.

“Secretary (Rex) Tillerson, who I actually thought was a very interesting and creative choice, seems more interested in managing the budget and bookkeeping than launching a good diplomatic initiative,” she said. “Right now the stage for international diplomacy is vacant.”

▪ Russia: After Russia interfered with American elections in 2016, a nearly unanimous Congress agreed to slap more sanctions on the country. But the Trump administration has not done it.

Now, with Russia poised to get involved in this year’s elections, Power said Trump “personally is very ambivalent about putting this threat atop the list of priorities.”

▪ North Korea: Power spoke before the announcement that Trump plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But she talked about the earlier, post-Olympics outreach offered by the north.

“It’s encouraging,” she said, “and I hope that our president can keep his Twitter account in check and just allow this process to play itself out.”

▪ Her successor: She called U.N. Ambassador and former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley “a voice for human rights.”

“It’s very challenging to represent the United States at this time,” she said, alluding to the president’s own penchant for seemingly forming foreign policy in tweets. “I would not want her job.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2018 at 2:31 PM with the headline "Former UN ambassador’s unlikely friendship with Elie Wiesel to bring her to Charlotte."