Bangkok Post - Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Bush “undoing” UN peace efforts.

The US-led war against Iraq would create a culture of war and undermine UN efforts to establish world peace, Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein said yesterday.

To establish a culture of peace, importance should be given to changing the behaviour of people around the world and the United Nations had taken up this long process by declaring this decade “a culture of peace and non-violence” he said.

But a group of conservatives around the Bush administration and a handful of other governments now wanted to undo all these efforts, said Prince Alfred, also chairman of the Advisory Board of the Vienna-based International Peace Foundation.

The IPF, created in 1999 under the patronage of 21 Nobel peace laureates, is working in collaboration with King Prajadhipok’s Institute, Thailand Peace and Cultural Foundation, Thailand Research Fund, National Defence College and a number of academics and social activists to launch “The Dialogue Towards a culture of Peace” here later this year.

The independent foundation, he said, has joined hands with several NGO’s and governments in creating a new world security order.
,br> “We will have to wait and see what happens over the long term as the US has acted against public opinion. Now that the overwhelming majority of the people in the world are opposing a war, the consequences could be enormous,” said the prince, here on a 10-day visit.

“Whether the war comes or not, the anti-war rallies have already created the biggest ever peace movement around the world, which is much stronger than the protest against the Vietnam War,” he said.

The world was debating not only about Iraq but about how it wanted the world to be governed and how to resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner.

By Achara Ashayagachat, Bangkok Post