Dear colleague,

The First International Conference on Psycho-Social Consequences of War will be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, April 26-30, 1998, organized by the World Veterans Federation, the association of the former war participants which assembles more than 27 million members in 78 countries worldwide. Official auspices of the Conference is the European Society of Traumatic Stress Studies. Sponsored by the government of Croatia, the conference will bring together scientists, practitioners, decision-makers and war veterans.

The Conference president is general Bjorn Egge, past president of the World Veterans Federation and former president of the Norwegian Red Cross. He will also deliver a key note lecture. After being a war participant and prisoner of war in W.W. II. he studied conflict resolution at Harvard University and has been assigned to UN peace-making and conflict-resolution task for nearly 50 years. Among the other prominent key note lectures a representative of the International Criminal Tribune for the Former Yugoslavia will address the Conference.

The conference has four main objectives:

1. To broaden international understanding of psycho-social problems concerning war veterans and victims of war.

2. To review current knowledge and new developments on PTSD and other psycho-social sequelae of war and war-like situations, as well as to identify new areas of research in this field.

3. To stimulate the development of adequate social and health services, legislation and rehabilitation programs, based on research.

4. To determine the role of organizations of war veterans and victims of war especially with regard to relationship problems between former conflicting parties

Calls for papers have been distributed world-wide.

In concordance with the conference sponsors, the scientific committee wishes to extend a cordial invitation, and hope to see you at this first conference on a topic of undeniable importance, and to receive your input in an ongoing debate on current topics.

Yours sincerely,