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LETTER FROM NOBEL LAUREATE RIGOBERTA MENCHU TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Honorable Mr. President:
I wish, firstly, to reiterate to you the solidarity and condolences which I expressed to your people last Tuesday the 11, after hearing of the painful events in your country, as well as to share my indignation and to condemn these acts of terrorism.
These last days, I have been monitoring the evolution of events, convinced that the best reaction to these is reflection, not rigidity; measured wisdom, not anger; the search for justice, not revenge. I have asked that the conscience of the peoples of the world, the media, the eminent personalities with whom I share the ethical mission for peace, the Chiefs of State and the leaders of international organizations, that serenity enlighten our acts.
Nevertheless, Mr. President, hearing the speech which you gave to your Congress last night, I have not been able to repress my fear for that your words may bring. You call on your people to prepare for "a large campaign as we have never before seen". And to your military to be proud, marching into a war in which you intend to involve all of the peoples of the world.
In the name of progress, of pluralism, of tolerance and liberty, you leave no option for those of us who do not share the benefit of the liberty and the fruits of the civilization which you wish to defend for your people and those of us who never sympathized with terrorism, as we have been its victims. Those of us who are proud expressions of other civilizations; who live day by day with the hope of turning discrimination and discard into recognition and respect; those of us who carry in our souls the pain of genocide perpetrated against our peoples; those of us who are fed up with placing the dead in foreign wars, we cannot share the arrogance of your infallibility nor the sole road which you wish to push us toward when you affirm that 'all nations in all regions of the world must now make a decision: or you are with us or you are with the terrorists".
At the beginning of this year, I invited men and women of the planet to share a Code of Ethics for a Millennium of Peace, declaring that:
There will not be Peace without Justice
In today's world, all of these are very scarce values and practices; nevertheless, the unequal manner in which they are distributed does little more than to fuel the impotence, the desperation and the hate. The role of your country in the actual world order is far from being neutral. Last night, we expected a sensitive speech, with reflection and self-criticism, but what we heard was an unacceptable threat.
I share with you that the "course of this conflict is not known," but when you declare that "its result is known," the only certainty which invades me is that of an enormous useless sacrifice, that of another colossal lie.
Before you give the cry for war, I would like to invite you to think about a different type of world leadership, one which must convince rather than conquer, in which the human species can show that in the last 1000 years we have overcome the idea of "an eye for an eye" which represented justice for the barbarians who took over humanity during the dark middle ages; in which we don't need new crusades to learn to respect those who have a different idea of a God and his work of creation; in which we share with solidarity the fruits of progress, we protect better the resources which remain on the planet and that no child lack bread or schooling.
With hope on a thread, I remain sincerely,
Rigoberta Mencho Tum |