Habibie Center talking shop calls for world peace

Habibie Center talking shop calls for world peace

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

World religious leaders and former heads of government will
prepare a joint statement calling for world peace during a two-
day meeting beginning here on Tuesday and hosted by The Habibie
Center.

Participants of the meeting, including former Australian prime
minister Malcolm Fraser and former Dutch prime minister Andreas
van Agt, declined to reveal details of the statement.

But Habibie Center director Ahmad Watik Pratiknya said the
statement would focus on a call by religious leaders and former
heads of government to strive for world peace.

"It will be a recommendation about actual conditions. It will
touch on a number of issues, including terrorism," Watik said on
Tuesday afternoon.

The meeting, called Bridging the Divide, was held behind
closed doors on Tuesday. A press conference will be held on
Wednesday after all of the participants have met with President
Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace.

Former president B.J. Habibie, the center's founder, said
earlier the international forum would also discuss the roots of
terrorism.

Habibie, who has resided in Germany since 1999 but will be in
Jakarta for one month for the meeting, said violence in the world
was the result of a decline in morality and ethics.

Habibie aide Dewi Fortuna Anwar said the joint statement to be
presented on Wednesday would put moral pressure on states across
the globe.

"It calls for world peace and better relations among followers
of different religions," Dewi, who is a political analyst, said.

Nearly 25 people, including religious leaders, scholars and
former heads of governments, are attending the meeting.

Dewi said the joint statement also would recommend the
avoidance of violence in international relations, a timely point
with the U.S. looking poised to attack Iraq.

Meeting participant Lee Seung-Hwan of the Korea University
emphasized that the war on terror was an ideological construction
to camouflage the desire of the U.S. for control of the Middle
East's oil.

There is no clash of civilizations involved in the war between
U.S. and Iraq, Lee said. Under the veil of such discourse, a
desire for hegemony and a desire for conquest is hidden.

"Discourse on the clash of civilizations is just camouflage to
conceal the U.S. strategy to gain economic and military holds in
the Middle East," Lee said on the sidelines of the meeting.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif, the chairman of the Muhammadiyah Muslim
group, said the joint statement would not specifically mention
the U.S., which would make it ambiguous.

Syafii, however, said he could understand the decision not to
name the U.S., which was not the only target of the statement.