The force of words

Ingrid Betancourt displayed her slender figure and conveyed her tenuous voice “at the primary home of democracy”, while tears kept running down her face. “We must believe in the force of words, in their power to convince and transform individuals”. The former presidential candidate, who was freed in July after being held captive in Colombia’s forests for six years, four months and six days by FARC guerilla rebel movement, is an active upholder of human rights. She brought her testimony of peace in the Hemicycle of the European Parliament, following her audience with Benedict XVI and her candidacy to the Nobel Peace Prize. Our responsibilities. On October 8, following the invitation by the President of the Assembly for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man (December 10 1948), Ms. Betancourt delivered a high-profile speech, focused on the importance of reconciliation and with hope in the future. EP President Hans-Gert Poettering opened by describing her as “symbol of freedom and courage” and recalled her children’s “long period of suffering” while proudly waiting for their mother’s release. With a broken voice and supported by the Parliament’s repeated applauses, Ms. Betancourt stressed the admiration for the role played by the Euro-Parliament in condemning her captivity and that of the other hostages, thus raising public awareness and soliciting action by the media that build up to her release. She recalled the many people still held captive in Colombia and throughout a number of world Nations and urged the EU Assembly to intervene. “Our materialistic societies don’t make us happy”, she declared. High suicide rates, drug addition and social violence “are the signs of global deregulation which remind us that the world is suffering also because of our irresponsibility”. “My captors, they are victims too”. Ingrid Betancourt said that most of her captors were young and poor coca-harvesting peasants, whose sole source of news is satellite television”, while our own children “long for I-pods, play-stations and DVD players”. For this youth, and the consumerist world they yearn for, (an estimate number of 15thousand among the guerrilla) “consumerism is off-limits”. Thus their only choice is entering the FARC rebel militia who “give them food, shelter and clothing. They are led to believe they have a career ahead of them and are handed a gun, that gives them a sense of pride”. The truth is “that they loose all they had: freedom and their families. They become the slaves of an organization that exploits them like cannon fodder”. “This youth wouldn’t be there if they had been given other possibilities”, she claimed. “Our society is producing countless guerrilla fighters in Colombia, in Iraq and in Afghanistan… Our societies annihilate people and reject them as the refuse of our societies that include immigrants, the unemployed, the poor and the sick. There’s no place for them in our world.” Rich countries ought to change their lifestyles. Richer countries ought to reflect on “the development of outcast-majority societies and if it possible to continue seeking our self-enrichment to the detriment of others”. The question is, “why not seek more rational consumerist models that will enable others to access the advantages of modernity?” Ms.Betancourt underlined that “human rights’ enforcement entails the transformation of our habits and customs”. In the world with words of peace. During the meeting with the press, Ingrid Betancourt said, “Governments ought to negotiate with terrorists for two main reasons. Firstly to save human lives, and then because rejecting dialogue means giving a motivation to their violent deeds, isolating extremists who will be led unto committing more violence still”. You are now viewed as a world symbol, in which Countries would you bring your words of peace? “First of all I would go to Africa, – she told SIR – whose tragic situations are similar to those experienced in my country, marked by fratricide wars, poverty, corruption and exploitation”. “I would go to Zimbabwe and in the Darfur, to embrace suffering mothers and children, and bring my support to the refugees. I would then go to Somalia, to convey words of respect and in Congo, to help the children-soldiers”. Ms. Betancourt recalled to SIR “the countless wars fuelled by religious and political fanaticism”, and concluded: “I would travel across world countries to bring a sign of tolerance and peace. But first of all, I would go to my home country”.