SECOND OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, FROM ITALIAN MOVEMENTS FOR NONVIOLENCE
COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 18 Jan 2010
Dear Mr. President,
We welcome the news that you have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with joy and hope.
Immediately after your election, we sent you our first letter in which we asked you to reduce your nation’s military budget, which represents almost half of the world’s military spending, and to commit yourself to a politics of peace and environment-friendly reconversion of the economy. We have been pleased to note some of the measures you have taken that evidence a significant turnabout compared to the militaristic politics of your predecessor, George Bush Jr., who launched the idea of a “preventive war against terror”. At the same time, we urge you to reconsider your positions concerning the enlargement of the US contingent in Afghanistan and the roughly 300 billion dollar increase in the Pentagon budget.
We have particularly appreciated:
1) your commitment – even if it has not yet been fully carried out – to close down the appalling prison at Guantanamo, where people merely suspected of terrorism have been treated in ways that cannot be called anything but inhumane;
2) your willingness to dialogue with the Islamic world, considered the arch-enemy by your predecessor;
3) your decision not to build the anti-missile satellite shield against Russia, which threatened to reopen old conflicts between East and West;
4) your attempt to open discussions with Iran’s Ahmadinejad in the attempt to achieve effective international controls over that country’s nuclear plants;
5) your speech at the Assembly of the United Nations, and your chairing of the latest meeting of the Security Council;
6) your unanimously-approved proposal that all nations abolish nuclear arms, commit themselves to impede their proliferation and work towards disarmament;
7) the removal of 40 B61 atom bombs from the military airport at Ghedi (Italy), which were planned for use on the Italian Air Force’s Tornado fleet.
Now, to give full meaning to the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize awarded to you, we feel it is indispensable that you take at least three further steps towards a politics of world peace:
1) accept the proposal advanced by the former Italian government and re-proposed by some of the countries of Europe to hold a UN Peace Conference on Afghanistan, with the participation of all the groups involved in this war, including the Talibans, and of all countries interested in peace. The conference’s purpose would be to study all the problems existing in that geographical area in the search for a fair and peaceful solution to the conflict;
2) your nation’s endorsement of the International Criminal Court, established in Rome in 1998 in accordance with several resolutions of the United Nations (in particular n. 52/160 of 1997), with the purpose of bringing to trial and sentencing those guilty of crimes against humanity, such as war crimes and genocide. As of this moment, 162 countries around the world have endorsed this Court. The country of which you are President, the United States of America, the greatest democracy in the world, has not yet done so. Why not? Your country’s endorsement would greatly aid the Court to move forward from the anarchy reigning in the jurisprudence regarding military conflict to a more responsible system in which a neutral International Court would judge criminal acts and have at its disposal a “UN International Police Force” to guarantee that its sentences are carried out. For this reason we ask you to adopt a policy which recognizes the UN’s role as a super-national institution able to intervene fairly and justly in international conflicts, an indispensable condition for keeping world peace.
Our newspapers have twice published the news that the Talibans had offered to hand over Bin Laden on the condition that he be judged by a neutral International Criminal Court. Your country has disdainfully refused this proposal, insisting on your right to act as both judge and police force. The result is that the war in Afghanistan continues, producing the deaths of innumerable civilians, widespread corruption and the strengthening of terrorism, while Bin Laden is still free to inspire a “holy” war against the US and its allies in the West;
3) the third request, whose acceptance would demonstrate a real change of strategy on your part as well as a sincere intention to implement peace policies, is your acceptance of the proposal we made in our previous letter to give up the idea of building a new US base in Vicenza. This Italian city has been declared by UNESCO “a world heritage site” thanks to the importance of its architecture, the work of the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio. Nonetheless, a considerable part of its territory has been occupied for over fifty years by numerous US military installations. The American army has decided to double its presence (from approx. 326,.000 sq.m. to approx. 3,049,000 sq.m.) in order to reunite in Vicenza the 173rd Airborne Brigade, currently divided between Italy and Germany. The construction site for the new base is only 1.5 km from the city center. The majority of the population opposes this new base. Although the Italian central government has accepted your request, in a town referendum held on 5 October 2008, 23,000 citizens of Vicenza (99 % of those voting) said No to the new base. Vicenza deserves a present and a future of peace.
The proposal we are making to you is truly worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize: give up the idea of a new base for war and reconvert this military project to a civilian one, with the creation of a Center for conflict prevention and non-violent civil intervention under the aegis of the UN and financed by the countries of Europe, the US and Canada, with a percentage of their respective military expenses reconverted to civil use. The Center would develop UN Civil Peace Keeping according to the concept of “human security”, searching for civilian modes of crisis resolution and prevention of violent escalation, and training a civilian peace corps for unarmed intervention. In this way instead of becoming a new military citadel Vicenza would become a center for the formulation of the politics of peace and the non-violent solution of conflicts.
The Italian organizations for non-violence that signed the previous letter – many of which have organized an international congress during which it emerged that we currently spend only € 1 for the prevention of armed conflict for every €10,000 spent to wage wars – ask President Obama for a sincere commitment to conflict prevention and a refusal to increase military expenses, starting with the reconversion of the planned new base to a school for peace and non-violence. To further this goal, we would be pleased to have you visit our city, so that you can personally witness the contrast between its artistic beauties and the US military installations that already exist here. It is clear that these installations make the place an important strategic target for possible enemies, while it is our duty to preserve and protect it as a treasure for all humanity.
This 8 November an ”ambassador” of the World March for Peace and Non-violence will pass through Vicenza, throwing a spotlight on the heavy militarization of the territory. Several of your Nobel Peace Prize colleagues have already announced their support for this March 3 In the certainty that you will pay just attention to our proposal, we wish to express our support and encouragement for the politics of peace that you are trying to carry forward.
With sincere esteem,
The Undersigned organizations:
Casa per la Pace- Vicenza, Tavolo della Consultazione No Dal Molin. – SìAmo Vicenza (made up of the following associations: AltraVicenza, ANTERSASS, ASOC, APRIRSI, Associazione 5 ottobre-No Dal Molin, Associazione Vicenza Capoluogo, CGIL, Circolo Legambiente di Vicenza, Comitato Più Democrazia e Partecipazione, Comitato Senegalese per la Riconciliazione, Comitato Solidarietà Immigrati S. Pio X, Coordinamento Comitati Cittadini, Coordinamento Cristiani per la Pace, Coordinamento dei Soci di Banca Etica-Circoscrizione di Vicenza, Donne in Rete per la Pace, Ecoistituto del Veneto, Equistiamo, Famiglie per la Pace, Federazione Verdi Vicenza, Fileo onlus, Fronte della Cultura, Granello di Senape, Gruppo Presenza a Longare, Laboratorio della Convivenza Civica, Movimento dei Consumatori, Movimento Gocce di Giustizia, MIR-Movimento Internazionale della Riconciliazione, Movimento Nonviolento, Pax Christi, Progetto Sulla Soglia – Coop. Soc. Tangram, Rete Famiglie Aperte, Coop. Soc. Insieme-, Rete Lilliput, Sinistra e Libertà, Unicomondo, Vicenza 2020).
Also (in the order of adhesion): Berretti Bianchi, Fucina per la Nonviolenza (Florentine section for the Nonviolent Movement), Comunità per lo Sviluppo Umano e Movimento Umanista of Florence, Movimento Internazionale per la Riconciliazione, Movimento Nonviolento,“Azione Nonviolenta”, Casa per la Nonviolenza e Il giornale “Il grido dei Poveri” di San Ferdinando di Puglia (Foggia), Tavola per la Pace del Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Comunità dell’Arca di Lanza del Vasto in Italia, IPRIRete Corpi Civili di Pace, Associazione Tamburi di Pace di Prato, Centro di Documentazione del Manifesto Pacifista Internazionale-CDMPI di Casalecchio sul Reno (Bologna), U.S. Citizens Against War of Florence-Italy.
Exp:
Casa per la Pace
Contrà Porta Nova 2
I 36100 Vicenza (Italy)
Mail: casaperlapace@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 18 Jan 2010.
Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: SECOND OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, FROM ITALIAN MOVEMENTS FOR NONVIOLENCE, is included. Thank you.
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