Press Release

Ukraine crisis, UPP: 'Italy chooses active neutrality, peace does not fall from the sky'

Despite the faint news of de-escalation in recent hours, the conflict between the United States and Russia in Ukraine is undermining world peace, threatening the lives of millions of people. The Italian NGO Un Ponte Per demands urgent action from governments following the principle of active neutrality.

Rome 18 February 2022 - As Un Ponte Per, an Italian NGO active in peace building since 1991 in Iraq, we do not take sides with any of the contenders in Ukraine. On the contrary, we ask our government and the European Union for urgent and meaningful actions for a position of active neutrality and non-alignment. Active neutrality does not mean standing still or on the sidelines waiting for events to unfold, but actively working to lower tensions, to create channels for dialogue, to take strong initiatives that bring peoples closer together and allow for a negotiated and just solution to the crisis. Active neutrality means that our government must:

1. Declare Italy'sunwillingness to participate in the conflict by withdrawing the military currently deployed in Eastern Europe.
2. Formalise its opposition to the further eastward extension of NATO.
3. Launch a new foreign policy based on multilateralism.

"We call on the mayors and mayoresses of our cities to summon their colleagues and colleagues from the cities of the disputed areas in Ukraine and Russia to Italy, and to call on the mayors and mayoresses of other European cities to convene a summit for peace and dialogue between those peoples. It is only by building bridges, mobilising consciences and uniting peoples that the warlords can be stopped,' the two co-presidents of Un Ponte Per Angelica Romano and Alfio Nicotra jointly state. "Our idea is that of those who fight for a continent, from the Atlantic to the Urals, free of nuclear weapons, in which every wall, border and barrier is torn down, in which all peoples are equally free. A united and united continent where everyone can speak their own language and where all languages can be taught in their schools because linguistic pluralism is a heritage of humanity that no people should have to give up,' the two co-presidents continue.

Nationalism has already led Europe to tragedy in the past, pitting peoples against each other in arms.

We consider military pacts, their very existence and further extension, a threat to the security of peoples. Already today, the cold war climate imposed on our continent by the NATO/Russia confrontation has caused spending on armaments to double, taking precious resources away from the fight against inequality, disease, poverty and a true ecological conversion of the economy. We want the logic of power blocs to be replaced by the concept of shared security, with a revival of the United Nations and the OSCE as the main proponents of common security and cooperation.

The war raging in the East is the direct child of those who destroyed peoples' aspirations for peace after the fall of the Berlin Wall and those who forgot the lesson of the global wars of the last century: the failure of governments that cleared the way for war as a system for resolving international disputes, in violation of the UN Charter and for us Italians of Article 11 of the Constitution. From the rubble of those wars, the world has found itself more insecure and unjust.

We want for our continent multilateralism, peaceful coexistence, and citizenship rights for all those who inhabit it without any discrimination.

We who are accustomed to looking at wars through the eyes of the victims, those who receive bombs on their heads, those who suffer mourning, deportation, rape, enslavement, we cheer neither for Moscow nor for Washington but we fight for peace. Because only peace creates a future and security.

Un Ponte Per will participate in all mobilisations for peace and against the war between NATO, Russia and Ukraine planned for the coming days. We will participate regardless of the platforms of convocation because we believe it is important that in these hours a strong voice is raised from civil society to prevent a new and senseless carnage on our continent.

At this link the full appeal: https://www.unponteper.it/it/2022/02/ucraina-mobilitiamoci-per-la-pace/