Diplomacy, from the beginning

For many years, as Director General of UNESCO, created to “avoid war” and “build peace in the minds of men,” I have underscored the need to come together in dialogue and conciliation before conflicts arise or, at least, as soon as they commence.

Instead of seeking the Security Council’s permission last hour to reduce Gaddafi by force, the United Nations’ Member States should have unanimously supported earlier the UN as the major negotiator in preventing the conflict.

Maximo’s cartoon in the March 25th issue of ABC is excellent. It says so much in so few words! (and it certainly stands out among so many words that say so little.)

LIBYA: NOT ONLY WITH THE STICK!

Yes, we should stop Gaddafi’s deadly acts against his dissident citizens. This has been authorized by the United Nations Security Council. But simultaneously we must do what should have been done a long time ago: talk. Talk under the supervision of the United Nations. There have been proposals for mediation from Venezuela, Russia, Brazil, BRIC…

The United Nations, which authorized this military action, should now force the parties to mediate. This is essential. And this is the UN’s principal role.

And it should be made quite clear for the future that the “world’s leaders” cannot continue to attempt to govern through the G-8 or the G-20, only seeking the United Nations’ “placet” when there is no other option.

From now on, instead of turning to the United Nations as a last resort, that’s where we should start. All countries must unite with the United Nations… instead of permanently alienating the UN.

In that regard, it is simply immoral to compare a military action such as this one, limited exclusively to stopping an intolerable repression, with the invasion of Iraq, based on lies and on energy and geo-strategic ambitions. Those who promoted it knowing that no arsenals of mass destruction existed will be seriously accountable to history.

LIMITLESS INSULTS?

Democracy should not tolerate such abuse

In today’s ABC, Gabriel Albiac published a column entitled “An Honorable Exit”. It was devoted to the President of the Government, to whom he referred in different paragraphs of his article as a “smiling nobody”, a “fool armed with resounding nonsense” and the “dumb one in the tribe”. He ends the article by saying, “I don’t know whether it’s true that he is planning to resign now, after having botched everything in both word and deed, to later return home as if nothing had happened. In his place, the least I would do would be to blow my brains out. With dignity.”

This is intolerable. This final paragraph borders on the criminal, and demands rectification and apologies.

Mr. Albiac should not have written this. ABC should not have published this.

As a tireless promoter of a culture of peace, I respect all types of criticism –and praise!-, all points of view and all opinions, although they may be radically opposed to my own. But violence, no. Imposition, no. Threats, no. Given the extent of this defamation, it is obvious that Mr. Albiac’s brain isn’t functioning properly. I trust that his mental disorder will only be temporary.