PETITION IN FAVOR OF A PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING PEACE-KEEPING FORCE IN EAST TIMOR

Seems to make sense to me:

The Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries ("CPLC;" made up of: Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, St. Thomas and Prince Islands, East Timor) must be a community of Peace and as such an example for the world. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet reached a time in which Peace can be guaranteed without the use of Peace-keeping police and military forces. Obviously, true Peace is beyond such strategies. It must be, above all, the result of a continued activism within the civic and cultural spheres. However, in order for such activism to be effective, it is fundamental to guarantee minimal conditions of security and stability.

The recent attempt to the lives of Ramos Horta and Xanana Gusmão in East Timor left it once more clear that there is an imperative need for a Peace-keeping police and military force that, under the auspices of the UN, may act with the resources of the CPLP and with the efficacy, impartiality, independence from the geo-political interests of regional and global superpowers and understanding of the local context and cultural reality that non-Portuguese-speaking forces naturally do not have. Such intervention should obviously not exclude a larger action in the civic and cultural fields, which must be reinforced.

The CPLP has nowadays a much more bureaucratic, formal and protocol-oriented status that that which should be expected from a body which promotes the cooperation, on an egalitarian basis, between Portuguese-speaking countries. It is our conviction that a Peace-keeping police and military force should be created within the structure of CPLP and of the member countries, in order to create a body that can quickly and effectively respond to any security-related emergency.

This Peace-keeping force should include, whenever and as much as possible, police units coming from all Portuguese-speaking countries, from East Timor to Cape Verde, as well as naval units from Brazil and Portugal and Angolan, Brazilian and Portuguese special air forces. Given the multinational nature of this Peace-keeping force, there would be no space for “imperialist” tendencies, or its use for the promotion of specific economic interests, as it is often the case with missions carried out by NATO, Russia or the Anglo-Saxon countries.

This Peace-keeping police and military force could reinforce the institutional and political capacity of CPLP, as well as build a firmer ground for the integration of Brazil as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It can also prafigurate the formation, at a new scale, of a true Transnational Portuguese-speaking Community, as a space of peace and security for all the nations that destiny united in that “Ariadne thread” called the “Portuguese Language”.

If you agree with the creation of this Peace-keeping police and military force within the framework of CPLP, please sign this petition. You can access it by clicking on this link.

We hereby swear that we will present this petition to all concerning authorities, including CPLP.

Signed,

MIL: MOVIMENTO INTERNACIONAL LUSÓFONO (International Movement for the Promotion of the language and culture of Portuguese-speaking countries), The Coordinating Commission

Note: MIL: MOVIMENTO INTERNACIONAL LUSÓFONO (International Movement for the Promotion of the language and culture of Portuguese-speaking countries) is a recently created cultural and civic movement created in association with the NOVA ÁGUIA magazine (novaaguia.blogspot.com). This movement and “Nova Águia” already has more than four hundred collaborators in all Portuguese-speaking countries and beyond.

The Coordinating Commission is presided by Prof. Paulo Borges (University of Lisbon, Philosophy Department), President of the Agostinho da Silva Association, where the headquarters of MIL is located.

The list of members is public – you can access it in our blog (novaaguia.blogspot.com). It is composed by people with a wide range of political, religious and cultural inclinations, from within and beyond the Portuguese-speaking countries.

If you agree with this petition, we kindly ask you to diffuse it as widely as possible.

If you want to become a member of MIL, you can send us an E-mail with your name, E-mail address and area of residence to the following address: adesao@movimentolusofono.org