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.