First of all, let me say how happy I am to be here today.
I am in San Sebastián on the invitation of various individuals and non-governmental groups who have organized this International Conference to promote the resolution of conflict in the Basque Country.
I wish to thank them all for their courage and for making this event possible. My thanks go to Lokarri, Conciliation Resources, the Berghof Foundation, NOREF, the Desmond Tutu Foundation and the Contact Group.
I am here in a personal capacity. I am here in the name of peace and friendship. I am here to encourage the end of Europe's last armed conflict.
I know there has been so much shared history and so much shared pain over the conflict in the Basque country. But you now have the shared hope of a new beginning.
I hope that you will embrace it, firm in the belief that enmity between people does not, and cannot, last forever.
Some of us here have had a life-time's experience trying to resolve conflict. Over the years, I have been involved in various peace-making efforts, not all of which have been successful, but many have stood the test of time. And I wish to stress that each conflict is different. Each conflict has its own particularity, born of its own local history, culture, and quite often religion and ethnicity. But while there may be no "one size fits all" solution to armed conflict, I have learnt some enduring lessons which I wish to share with you today.
The first is that resolving armed conflict is a difficult task and a long process. There are no easy answers, and very few uncontested ones. I have also learnt that, by its very nature, making and building peace must be deeply rooted in local communities and local identities. Finding a peaceful settlement must be your process. Those who live with conflict understand the dynamics better than any international player. Those who live with it must be involved in the effort to end it. They must also see the benefits that justify the compromises and sacrifices involved.
Outsiders can of course encourage and support your efforts - as we are doing here today. But making peace ultimately requires the firm commitment and extraordinary courage, on the part of all sides, to ensure a permanent end to violence.
It also requires the determination and imagination of all parties to seek solutions, and build trust between communities who have been at loggerheads for decades. Without such leadership and commitment, peace will neither take root nor endure. I have often seen how the difficulties encountered at the last stages of conflict are usually the most difficult to overcome. The stakes are high but so are the rewards.
That final step could be challenging, even frightening, but eminently rewarding. Yes, it is difficult - psychologically and in practice. No one should ignore the injustices of the past, or the lessons of history. But too often I have seen that one person's history has been another person's myth. And yet, time and again, I have been privileged to witness acts of courage as leaders have refused to be prisoners of history.
Ladies and gentlemen, to make peace, violence must be replaced by dialogue and politics as the means through which communities relate to each other and settle their differences. It isn't easy but I remain a stubborn optimist that when parties to conflict have travelled a long way down a peace process, they are capable of securing a final settlement.
In doing so, they herald an end to the tragedy of lives lost and families devastated throughout the years of violence. So it is in honour of those lost, and our responsibility towards future generations of children yet to be born, that you must strive to build a lasting peace. I have also seen -most recently in Kenya- that building a durable peace requires tackling the underlying causes of conflict.
The people in those fractured societies must be helped to work together to reconcile, heal, and build strong institutions rooted in democratic governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law. And in this task, all actors of society must play their part: government, local authorities, religious leaders, business, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, women and youth groups, academia and the media. Finally, because the road to peace proves long and hard, I have also learnt it is essential to manage public expectations.
The various elements of peace-building -- transforming suspicion into trust, turning promises into deeds, re-crafting State institutions, promoting national reconciliation and healing, reforming economies and building cohesion -- can take years or decades to accomplish. During that time people's hope, and their faith in the process, need to be sustained. Ladies and gentlemen, a sustainable peace is of course more than the absence of war.
As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I had the profound privilege of leading the organization from the 20th century into the 21st. In doing so, I became deeply aware that humanity knows no divisions. Each of us yearns for dignity, security, opportunity and a voice in how we are governed.
Peace belongs not only to states or peoples, but to each and every member of those communities. Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence of every individual in need. Peace must be sought, above all, because it is the condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security.
Thank you.
First peace is a process not an event. You don't create trust over night. Conflicts carry a huge burden of history and ending the hatred and escaping the pain they engendered takes time. Peace has to mature, to put down roots and to be allowed to flourish. Both sides need to take small steps to convince other that they really are going to do what they promised and gradually build confidence. It took us nearly nine years after the Good Friday Agreement had been concluded to build that trust and implement the agreement in full.
The process of building trust can however only begin once you have put violence behind you for good and accepted that the only way to achieve your aims is by political and exclusively peaceful means. So the first and crucial step is to end the armed conflict irreversibly.
Second conflicts create consequences that need to be dealt with. In Northern Ireland dealing with the decommissioning of weapons took us more than a decade and the issues of prisoners and exiles were difficult and delicate which required political courage to tackle. The security situation needed to be normalised, prisoners rehabilitated and the needs of victims addressed. A conflict can only be ended and the consequences resolved if political leaders are prepared to take risks. If both sides are timid and stay in their comfort zone there will be no agreement and no lasting peace. Of course the end of the conflict also brings a peace dividend and in Northern Ireland we were able to redirect the billions we had spent on security to more productive uses for society.
Third, extremists will try to disrupt the peace but you cannot let peace become a hostage to the most extreme, as it has been for example in the Middle East where every suicide bombing disrupts the process. After we had concluded the Good Friday Agreement we faced the worst atrocity of the whole period of the Troubles when dissident republicans blew up the centre of Omagh, killing over thirty people, some of them visiting Spanish tourists. That horrific attack could easily have pushed the peace process off track for good, but thanks to the political leadership shown by both Republicans and Unionists it did not and in fact perversely had the effect of reinforcing the search for a lasting peace.
And finally the one thing I learned above all else from Northern Ireland is that no matter how ancient, no matter how bloody, no matter how difficult it is, any conflict in the world can be resolved if political leaders on all sides show courage, determination and patience and never give up. Generations of British Prime Ministers concluded the issue of Ireland was insoluble, but they were wrong. It was eventually solved by political leadership, the political leadership shown by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern and by Ian Paisley, David Trimble, John Hume and Gerry Adams.
The Good Friday Agreement was described by Seamus Mallon as ‘Sunningdale for slow learners'. And he was right that much of what was contained in the Good Friday Agreement, especially on power-sharing, had been included in the failed agreement at Sunningdale some twenty five years earlier. But the point he was missing was that sometimes the conditions are right for such a settlement and sometimes they are not. I firmly believe that the conditions are now in place here to end your conflict just as they were for us in Ireland in 1997.
A window of opportunity has opened and it should be seized by political leaders to make peace irreversible. I hope that it is.
Hola a todos y todas y muchas gracias por acudir a esta rueda de prensa.
En primer lugar queremos agradecer a todos los partidos políticos y sindicatos que han confirmado su asistencia el haber aceptado nuestra invitación. Es para nosotros un honor haber sido acogidos de una manera tan cálida.
Así mismo, queremos agradecer todas las aportaciones que hemos recibido para abordar el objetivo de la Conferencia: compartir los elementos necesarios para alcanzar una situación de normalización, transparencia e inclusión política plena, basada en medios exclusivamente democráticos y en la ausencia total de violencia o amenaza de su uso.
Queremos reiterar que nosotros, las entidades y grupos que promovemos esta Conferencia Internacional para promover la resolución del conflicto en el País Vasco, estamos aquí representando a la comunidad internacional que apoya un proceso de paz inclusivo de manera humilde y respetuosa, para alentar y ayudar para que, de manera compartida, ustedes puedan lograr la tan ansiada normalización política.
En la presentación de la Conferencia Internacional anunciamos que acudirán destacados líderes internacionales. Han confirmado su asistencia Kofi Annan, Gro Harlem Bruntland, Bertie Ahern, Pierre Joxe, Gerry Adams y Jonathan Powell.
- Kofi Annan. Ex Secretario General de Naciones Unidas.
- Gro Harlem Bruntland. Ex primera Ministro de Noruega y miembro de The Elders (grupo de personalidades internacionales por la paz creado por Nelson Mandela).
- Bertie Ahern. Ex primer Ministro de Irlanda.
- Pierre Joxe. Ex ministro de Interior y de Defensa de la República Francesa y ex presidente del grupo socialista en la Asamblea Nacional.
- Gerry Adams. Líder del Sinn Fein.
- Jonathan Powell acudirá en lugar de y para representar a Tony Blair, que no podrá participar debido a sus compromisos de trabajo en Oriente próximo.
Todo ellos tienen en común su experiencia, conocimiento e implicación directa en procesos de paz y transformación de conflictos. Todos ellos pueden enriquecer los esfuerzos que gobiernos, instituciones, partidos políticos y entidades sociales están desarrollando para lograr la normalización política.
Queremos terminar afirmando nuestro deseo de que la celebración de la Conferencia Internacional para promover la resolución del conflicto en el País Vasco sea un avance aún más significativo, una nueva aportación de la comunidad internacional en este momento en el que la sociedad vasca ha recuperado la esperanza.
Es un honor para mí presentar la Conferencia Internacional para promover la resolución del conflicto en el País Vasco que se desarrollará a lo largo de esta semana y que celebrará su jornada de conclusiones/aportaciones el próximo día 17 de octubre, lunes, en Donostia-San Sebastián. Los promotores de esta iniciativa somos 6 entidades, fundaciones y grupos que tenemos en común nuestra dedicación a la resolución y transformación de conflictos. Concretamente son la Berghof Foundation, Conciliation Resources, The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, NOREF, el Grupo Internacional de Contacto (País Vasco) y Lokarri. Además de representantes de las entidades promotoras, también participarán en la Conferencia líderes y personalidades internacionales.
El objetivo de la Conferencia Internacional es compartir los elementos necesarios para alcanzar una situación de normalización, transparencia e inclusión política plena, basada en medios exclusivamente democráticos y en la ausencia total de violencia o amenaza de su uso. Con este fin, hemos concebido la Conferencia Internacional como un proceso de aportaciones y reflexión colaborativa entre agentes sociales y políticos que comienza hoy y que culminará el día 17 de este mes.
A partir de hoy, invitaremos a todos los partidos políticos y sindicatos. Esperamos contar con una amplia representación de todos ellos desde el convencimiento de que esta Conferencia Internacional puede ser una importante aportación en este momento de oportunidades y esperanza.
Finalmente, quiero reiterar nuestro agradecimiento a todas las entidades promotoras. Su participación, implicación y colaboración es todo un privilegio. Lo que está en juego es el futuro de nuestro país y saber qué contamos con la ayuda de entidades y personalidad tan relevantes nos llena de ánimo.
De todo corazón, muchas gracias