Rigoberta Menchú Tum Reflects on Working Toward
Peace
In
every corner of the globe the anguished cries for peace
can be heard. Millions of people cry in silence, carrying
on their shoulders the burden of our tragic, never-ending
drive toward confrontation, conflict, and war. These same
millions are also bearers of hope, of the unfulfilled quest
for peace-a peace that will benefit us all by according
dignity to all human beings.
This need for peace is universal. From north to south
and east to west, each day, with increasing frequency, people
are speaking of peace. In some it appears as a speech; in
many it is a vague wish or hope; in
so many more it manifests itself as the ever-present search
by men and women, young and old, to attain humankind's most
cherished principles. Yet despite this need, the utopia
of peace continues to be little more than a distant point,
barely visible on the horizon of our future, of our hope,
of our vision.
For one of the threads that winds through the history
of our peoples is, without a doubt, the recurring and chronic
absence of peace. Be it because of greed, injustice, aggression,
disrespect by some for the rights of others, or countless
other reasons and causes, human beings, whole peoples, and
countries have found themselves under attack-albeit in different
ways in different places and times. War has been so prevalent
that, if we add up all the armed conflicts and declared
wars, we realize that throughout history humankind has blissfully
enjoyed the silence of weapons for only a very short time.
Even so, the mere absence of armed conflict does not necessarily
mean there is peace. Peace is not synonymous with the absence
of war; it isn't just the silencing of weapons. For me,
peace is a way of life, both for the individual and for
all humankind; it is a form of coexistence among peoples,
lands, and nations, the deeper meaning of which we might
call mature human development, with total equality for everyone-men
and women, children and adults. It is equal access to development
for all nations and lands, so they may choose their own
futures without anyone interfering and telling them what
to do.
So peace is built on a collective basis; it is a utopia
that daily grows stronger and more tangible. Everyone talks
about it; everyone seems to want it. To build it, however,
is a long, complicated, and difficult process, and peace
cannot be without content. The absence of peace, and indeed
all conflict, results from the terrible injustice that has
characterized relations between countries, peoples, and
cultures, between the ruling elite and the vast majority
condemned to wretched poverty.
That is why building peace requires that we start by weaving
a fabric out of the threads of equality, justice, participatory
democracy, and respect for the rights of all peoples and
cultures; we must establish intercultural relations that
will promote harmonious coexistence through cultural pluralism.
Peace is not abstract; on the contrary, it must have profound
social, political, economic, and cultural substance. Everyone's
constant focus should be to fight for peace by helping to
seek solutions to problems and to discover the causes of
conflict. Peace, likewise, has profoundly ethical, human,
and supportive substance.
I believe that peace is a condition, an essential requirement
for the survival of humankind. For that reason, there must
be an unshakable commitment, backed by the effort and contribution
of everyone, to build a universal culture of peace sustained
by a new code of ethics that incorporates the hopes and
aspirations of all humankind as we face this new millennium:
There is no peace without justice;
There is no justice without fairness;
There is no fairness without development;
There is no development without democracy;
There is no democracy without respect for the identity and
the dignity of all cultures and peoples.
I have said repeatedly that we must cross the threshold
of this new millennium with the hope of those who have learned
to resist, who have learned to build and dream of a brighter
future-a future in which a sense of community and a respect
for nature become parameters for coexistence, a future in
which cultural and linguistic diversity is seen as the great
wealth of humankind.
It is our deepest desire that this new millennium be based
in equality, in justice at both the national and international
levels, in the free self-determination of all peoples, and
in a harmonious relationship with nature. Only then will
it be possible to nurture sustainable development as well
as an equitable distribution of wealth.
Thus will peace sustain itself.
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