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THE
Vienna-based International Peace Foundation (IPF) that
will bring Nobel laureates to the member-countries of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for a
series of dialogues for peace has expressed concern on
the worsening situation in military-ruled Burma and the
continued detention of Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi.
The IPF
launched the “Bridges” program on Wednesday, a
seven-month series of dialogues to promote a culture of
peace, with Nobel laureates visiting the Philippines and
Thailand.
Uwe
Morawetz, IPF chairman, said at the formal launch at the
Dusit Nikko Hotel: “We are saddened and not happy at
all [with the situation in Burma and continued detention
of Aung San Suu Kyi]. But we hope in the course of
these events, through dialogues for peace, something
will change and Burma will be able to participate in the
program.”
He said
the program to bring Nobel laureates to Burma/Myanmar,
one of the member-countries of Asean, has been turned
down by the military junta.
Filipino
businessmen Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and
chief operating officer of Ayala Corp., and Washington
Sycip, founding chairman of the SGV group as well as the
Asian Institute of Management (AIM), are supporting the
dialogues for peace or the “Bridges” program of the IPF.
The dialogues for peace will be held from November 2007
to April 2008 in key schools in the Philippines and
Thailand.
Nobel
laureates set to attend the dialogues for peace in the
Philippines include Professor Robert Alexander Mundell,
who won the 1999 Nobel for economics. Mundell prepared
the first plan for a common currency in
Europe and is known as the father of the theory of optimum currency
areas.
James
Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank from 1995 to
2005, was awarded the Nobel prize for his initiatives on
debt reduction, environmental sustainability and AIDS
prevention programs. |
