Davao Peace Conference Calls for `New World’

BY COLETTE KUIZON
Bulatlat

Delegates to the People's Forum on Peace for Life in Davao City

DAVAO CITY -- "A new world is possible."

In a week-long international gathering Nov. 29-Dec. 4 in this major city in Mindanao, the People’s Forum on Peace for Life stressed that this “is being built through people’s movements, through solidarity among people of differing faiths and convictions, and through our common struggle to realize for all humanity and all creation.”

The conference saw the participation of 300 delegates from 17 countries, which are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the US.

The forum called on people of differing faiths and convictions to campaign for an end to hostility done in the name of religion, to reject war and to reject so-called national security measures that promotes militarization and that is driven by fear, and to strive for lasting genuine peace based on justice.

The Peace for Life participants also expressed solidarity with the struggle of the Mindanao people, including the displaced families in the Pagalungan refugee center, whose homes and communities – including schools and mosques – were destroyed by the military. Other situations discussed in the conference were the small scale miners of Diwalwal whose health and lives are endangered and who now face mounting pressure from transnational mining corporations, as well as Moro women whose relatives and friends were illegally detained and even tortured by the military. Bulatlat

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