12/09/2005

Guebuza Attends International Ecumenical Event

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza arrived in the French city of Lyon on Saturday to take part in an international ecumenical event organized by the Italian Sant'Egidio religious community.

As the guest of honour, Guebuza will be the main speaker in the service, that will bring together leaders of different creeds across the world.

Meetings of this kind have been held since 1986, as an initiative of the late Pope John Paul II.

Because the initiative was considered fruitful, the Sant'Egidio Community decided that these meetings should be held every year.

Sant'Egidio is well known to Mozambicans because this Catholic community hosted the talks in Rome between the Mozambican government and the then rebel movement Renamo, that led to the signing of the General Peace Accord, in October 1992, ending the war of destabilisation. Two Sant'Egidio leaders were among the four mediators at the talk. Guebuza, who was then Transport Minister, headed the government's negotiating team.

The idea of the annual gatherings is to help bring about peace across the world, and thus the meetings include not only religious leaders of different creeds, but also politicians and other influential personalities.

Among the guests to this year's meeting are former Portuguese President Mario Soares, and prominent philosophers and writers from several countries.

Speaking of the importance of these meetings, Chiara Turrini, of the Sant'Egidio leadership, said that war should be prevented at all costs. "There is no such thing as a 'holy war'", she said.

She explained that these meetings aim at bringing together and promoting interaction between different creeds to help overcome differences and hostility between them.

"With these meetings we find that tensions between the different creeds have been declining", said Turrini.

After Lyon, Guebuza will fly to the United States to take part in a special session of the United Nations General Assembly that will assess the work done so far towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), approved at the Millennium Summit of 2000.

Alongside the New York Thursday's General Assembly, that coincides with the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, Guebuza is to hold bilateral talks with some of his counterparts and with representatives of the Mozambican community residing in New Jersey.