(Simona Mengascini SIR’s correspondent in Cyprus) At the final ceremony of the Cyprus Meeting, Ingrid Betancourt read her own appeal to the nations to "have faith and do not surrender", because "we who have suffered have not lost hope”. Betancourt prayed in the name of the "victims of hatred and violence”, of all those who have been "tortured and abused", the "hostages" and those who now “cry out in pain”. She, a former prisoner, said that peace will come from the "strength of love” and that the values of our civilisation must change: “no longer power and greediness", but "serving and giving”. “Everyone she added has the power to do good or bad” and, in doing this, we must strive to see religions "not as walls that separate but as bridges that bind”. Betancourt ended by saying that "we are the builders of a new age" which is the right time "for dreams to come true. With faith, everything is possible”.” ” ” “
