Kenneth Bacon has died

Kenneth Bacon, formerly spokesman for the Pentagon during the Clinton administration, Wall Street Journal reporter, advocate for refugees displaced by war and active member of Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown died of complications of melanoma this weekend.

From his obit in the Washington Post

“After leaving the Pentagon in 2001, Mr. Bacon became president of the D.C.-based advocacy group Refugees International and emerged as one of the strongest voices for the dispossessed around the globe. His organization, which accepts no funding from governments or the United Nations, estimates that there are 12 million international refugees.

Mr. Bacon was among the first to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, and he helped bring to light the problems facing millions of refugees from the war in Iraq. He was instrumental in finding sanctuary for displaced Iraqis in Middle East countries and lobbied for greater numbers of Iraqi refugees to be admitted to the United States. Between 2006 and 2008, the State Department increased funding for Iraqi refugees from $43 million to $398 million.

[…]He visited refugee camps in Afghanistan, Somalia, Colombia and Cambodia, among others, and often wrote articles or appeared on television to discuss humanitarian concerns. In the final weeks of his life, he provided seed money to establish a center at Refugees International to assist people displaced by global climate change.”

Read the full article here.

According to many, it was Ken’s work that brought the issue of the situation in Darfur squarely to the world’s attention.

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