Press release
Rome, 23 September 2022 - The delegation of Italian civil society led by the NGO Un Ponte Per and the Nonviolent Movement will leave on 26 September and will remain in Ukraine until 3 October as part of the initiatives of the "Stop the War Now" network, set up to build an alternative to the current war from below and to contribute to the immediate cessation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to the start of negotiations between the parties to resolve the current disputes through diplomacy.
After two delegations and several exploratory missions in the past months, the organisations of the 'Stop The War Now' caravan will return to Ukraine to hold a series of meetings with civil society engaged in humanitarian support for the victims of the conflict, peace building, support for conscientious objection and non-violent resistance actions.
Activists and representatives of Italian organisations will be part of the delegation: ARCI, ARCS, Anche Noi Cittadinanza Attiva, Casa della Donna - Pisa, COSPE, Coop. Mag4 Piemonteed, Gruppo Abele, EQUA, Libera, Pax Christi, JEF Europa, Movimento Nonviolento and Un Ponte Per.
The objectives of the mission include laying the foundations for partnership agreements between the more than 175 Italian organisations that are part of the "Stop the War Now" network and Ukrainian civil society organisations, including trade unions and local universities; the possibility of establishing agreements for youth exchanges between Italian and Ukrainian universities; and the relaunch at an international level of the campaign to support Ukrainian conscientious objectors currently on trial or under investigation by the Ukrainian General Prosecutor's Office, accused of high treason. A similar campaign of support for conscientious objectors is also being carried out on the Russian side, all the more so in the light of an ever-increasing mobilisation to arms of young Russians decided by Putin.
The delegation's aim is to build bridges and networks between all those subjects, both secular and religious, who pose the problem of coexistence between different people, respect for linguistic and cultural pluralism, and support, including psychological support, for the victims of violence and war.
The delegation will also be an opportunity to launch an awareness-raising and fund-raising campaign to support the legal and court costs of the Ukrainian activists under investigation, and to support their valuable peace-building work (more information at this link: www.unponteper.it/ucraina-stop-the-war-now/).
The programme of meetings is dense, including a stop in Chernivtsi, a city where the university has welcomed hundreds of displaced persons and is in dire need of humanitarian aid, and numerous exchanges with representatives of associations, including the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, and trade unions in the city of Kiev. The Italian delegation will also bring to the country a load of humanitarian aid destined for the population.
For information, contacts and interviews
Un Ponte Per Press Office
stampa@unponteper.it
339 6641600
Movimento Nonviolento Press Office
redazione@nonviolenti.org
328 3736667
***
Un Ponte Per is a non-governmental organisation for international solidarity that has been engaged in peace building in the Middle East and Italy for over 30 years. https://www.30anni.unponteper.it/
The Nonviolent Movement is the association founded by Aldo Capitini in 1962 for the promotion of organised nonviolence. The MN is a section of EBCO-BEOC and War Resisters' International. www.azionenonviolenta.it
#STOPTHEWARNOW is a network of over 175 Italian organisations committed to peace-building and international solidarity through non-violent peace and humanitarian actions, created to launch a message of solidarity and opposition to the conflict in Ukraine. https://www.stopthewarnow.eu
Press Release
On 19 July 2022, a serious attack was recorded in the village of Parakhe, near Zakho (in the Kurdish province of Duhok); the attack left 9 dead and 24 injured. For the past seven years, Turkey has been responsible for attacks of this type, which directly target civilians: to date, they have caused a total of at least 98 civilian casualties, as well as forcing thousands of people to be displaced.
Research conducted by the international civil society coalition End Cross Border Bombing Campaign (ECBBC) details for the first time the civilian impact of an often forgottenaggression.
Since 2015, Turkey's armed forces have launched more than 4,000 military actions on Iraqi territory (adding up air, ground and artillery attacks); of these, 1600 were recorded during 2021 alone, according to the report.
The report shows that these operations have not only fuelled the conditions of insecurity and instability in the area, but have also disproportionately impacted the lives of the civilians living there.
Some of the most relevant and interesting observations in the report:
Turkish military actions have killed between 98 and 123 civilians, in the course of at least 88 attacks.
Attacks on civilians are growing steadily: at least 40 incidents occurred in the period 2020-2021 alone.
More than 55 farmers and cattle breeders were injured or killed by Turkish forces while they were working the land or tending their livestock.
13% of the victims were women,87% were men. Children were also involved, with a total of 6 children killed and 14 injured.
An estimated 500 villages were abandoned during the reporting period.
"Every story published in the report is important, and we cannot wait any longer to collect and document more stories like these. Rather, as human beings we must collectively work for the peace of the Iraqi people. United we can act so that the tragedies of history do not repeat themselves," said Mohammed Salah of Community Peacemakers Teams, a member organisation of ECBBC.
"The disastrous US-led invasion of Iraq has been widely discussed, but in many ways this is the forgotten invasion of Iraq," he added.
>> DOWNLOAD THE REPORT IN ENGLISH>>
For more information, write to:endcrossborderbombing@gmail.com
A rich mosaic of communities populates the region of Iraqi Kurdistan and the governorate of Nineveh; most of them live in mountain villages, where they engage in agro-pastoral activities. For many, air strikes pose a tangible and all too frequent risk to their livelihoods and lives. An unspecified but substantial number of families have been forced to abandon their homes as a result of the devastation caused by the bombing, or fearing for their lives, and move to nearby towns or IDP camps where there are no basic services or infrastructure.
For more than 30 years, under the pretext of fighting Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, the Turkish air force has been conducting cross-border military operations within Iraq's borders. To date, Ankara has faced few consequences for these aggressions. According to local sources, more than 60 Turkish military bases have been built on Iraqi territory in recent years - from which these operations have often been launched.
Since 2015, the Turkish army has launched several military campaigns, penetrating deeper and deeper into Iraqi territory. The most recent operation, called Claw Lock, was launched in early 2022, and to date has seen the Turkish military establish itself just 40 kilometres from some of the most important cities in Iraqi Kurdistan, including Erbil - the de-facto capital of the semi-autonomous region.
The ECBBC report details the incidents and provides the numbers of civilian deaths and injuries, but also has the merit of analysing the circumstances of each incident and presenting theidentity of 155 of the victims.
The data was collected mainly through interviews with survivors of the attacks, their families and community members, local government representatives, and through precise analysis; the information obtained was consolidated by cross-referencing information on social media and widely accessible media.
The databases on incidents and casualties, produced in conjunction with the report, represent a valuable and unique archive of the civilian casualties caused by the Turkish army's incursion within Iraq's borders, and reveal the extent and severity of the crimes produced by such operations.
There is a huge gap between the scale of Turkish operations and their damage to the civilian population, which goes far beyond deaths and injuries, and the documentation of them. The impact of Turkey's operations on civilians is still poorly documented. The civilian population has no channels to report the damage suffered and receive the necessary support. It is our belief that this report will help to bridge this worrying gap.
The Campaign calls on international civil society and organisations to help urge the parties involved in the conflict to find a peaceful solution to the current situation, in the interest of the civilian population, who are forced to pay the highest price for the belligerent policies adopted by the state actors involved.
End Cross Border Bombing is a campaign born two years ago, and is a coalition of local and international actors who aim to conduct advocacy and raise awareness about the bombing in Iraq. The coalition consists of: Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative, Community Peacemaker Teams, Iraq Body Count, CODEPINK, NOVACT, Un Ponte Per, Solidarity with Kurdistan/Solkurd.
>> DOWNLOAD THE REPORT IN ENGLISH>>
For more information please contact:
Iraqi Kurdistan - Mohammed Salah alandandaro@gmail.com
Iraq - Tiba Yousif icssi.project02@gmail.com
Italy and Europe - Bianca Farsetti bianca.farsetti@unponteper.it
United Kingdom - Hamit Dardagan hamit.dardagan@iraqbodycount.org
United States - Nancy Mancias nancymancias@codepink.org
Norway - Jila Hassanpour jila-h@hotmail.com
Spain - Marta Fernandez marta@novact.org
Press Release
The Organisations, Networks and Platforms that are signatories to this appeal, urged by the Italian organisations operating in Palestine, express their condemnation and great concern over the extremely serious act of violence that took place on the morning of 18 August, when the Israeli army raided the offices of the six Palestinian NGOs (Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defence for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees) designated by the Israeli Ministry of Defence as terrorist organisations on 19 October 2021 and subsequently by the Military Commander on 3 November 2021.
The military seized computers and material and sealed the doors of the six offices, all located in Ramallah, posting a permanent closure order, signed by the Commander of the Israeli Army in the West Bank. The order states that illegal activities are carried out in the offices of these organisations.
In recent months, no evidence has been provided by the Israeli government to support the designation of the six NGOs as terrorist organisations, despite repeated requests by both the NGOs themselves and numerous governments and international institutions.
The Italian government, along with eight other governments of EU member states, has also publicly declared that, in the absence of concrete evidence, the solid cooperation with six organisations that have been engaged at the highest level for decades in the defence and promotion of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory would continue.
We consider this morning's events to be an affront on the part of the Government of Israel and an unacceptable reaction to the legitimate stances of the nine European governments, which are, moreover, entirely similar to those adopted by the same states and the European Union in the past in similar situations of non-compliance with international standards of human rights protection.
The attack on those who defend and promote respect for human rights delegitimises the use of peaceful and legal means to resolve the conflict, in fact reinforcing the most extremist positions at a time of worrying escalation of violence, which leaves the civilian population on both sides further vulnerable.
In strongly reaffirming their support for the six Palestinian NGOs and their extreme concern for the safety of their colleagues working there, the organisations signing this communiqué call for an immediate intervention by the Italian government, including
AOI - CINI - Link2007 - Platform of Italian NGOs in the Mediterranean and Middle East - Amnesty International Italy - Assopace Palestine - Italian Peace and Disarmament Network
Press Release
The commitment of Italian civil society organisations to call for a ceasefire and thestart of a peace process in Ukrainecontinues.After the demonstrations, peace caravans, solidarity initiatives and appeals to politicians in recent weeks, a new mobilisation, spread throughout the country, is now being promoted for next Saturday 23 July.
The invitation to organise initiatives of various kinds is extended to all the associations, trade unions, and groups that have already been active for months, in order to converge their efforts in a national day that can relaunch a strong call for a cease-fire so that an international peace conference can be held.
The appeal is promoted by Europe for Peace, the joint initiative started last March with the mobilisations against Russian aggression in Ukraine and which gathers the adhesion of a wide range of networks, campaigns, associations, trade unions. So it is this coalition that launched the initiative on 23 July with numerous initial adhesions already received (see attachment) starting with the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network, the Sbilanciamoci! Campaign and the 'Stop the War Now' coalition.
The text circulated today states how "Russia'sinvasionof Ukraine has brought war back totheheart ofEurope and has already claimed tens of thousands of victims and is set to become a long-lasting conflict", bringing disastrous consequences "also for theaccess to food andenergy of hundreds of millions of people, for the planet's climate, for theEuropean and global economy". Reiterating its sympathy for the people affected by the war, it then recalled that "a negotiated solution must be sought, but so far there have been no political initiatives either from the States or from the international and multilateral institutions", emphasising the need "for our country,Europe and the United Nations to work actively to foster negotiations and to set in motion a path for an international peace conference that, based on the concept of shared security, would secure peace for the future as well".
The document then reiterates the fundamental point made by the Italian pacifist movement since the beginning of the conflict: 'Arms do not bring peace, only new suffering for the population. There is no war to be won: instead we want to win peace" and for this reason a national day of mobilisation for peace is proposed (150 days after the start of the war) on 23 July with initiatives all over Italy, with a clear slogan: "STOP THE WEAPONS, NEGOTIATE NOW!"
The initiatives that will be defined and planned in the near future will be communicated and relaunched by all the organisations promoting this appeal.
Press Release
Un Ponte Per adheres to the demonstration on 2 June in Coltano (Pisa) and invites all citizens to
participate numerous
Pisa, 30 May 2022
2 June is the feast day of the Republic that repudiates war as a means of settling international disputes and as an offence against the freedom of other peoples. For too many years, attempts have been made to change the meaning of this holiday by transforming it, with military parades, into something profoundly different.
2 June must once again become a people's holiday in which we remember the affirmation of the Republic at the institutionalreferendum of 2 June 1946, when the majority of Italians preferred it to the Savoy Monarchy, which had given Italy the carnage of two world wars, several colonial wars, the use of gas against civilians in Ethiopia and the infamous racial laws in Italy.
'Empty the arsenals and fill the granaries': the statement by partisan President Sandro Pertini is as relevant today as ever. The Russian invasion of Ukraine adds to the more than 30-year-long 'world war in pieces' that has bloodied so many countries on the planet and caused global military spending to double in the last 20 years. The more one spends on arms and armaments the more insecure and unjust the world becomes. The more you increase the military budget, the more you sow death and destruction for humanity. A change of course is needed.
The path chosen by the Italian government to build a new military base in the San Rossore nature reserve is certainly not the right one to follow , all the more so as it subtracts resources from the PNRR, money that was supposed to be used for the ecological reconversion of our economy and to relaunch public health after the Covid-19 pandemic.
These are the numbers of the operation: 190 million of public money subtracted from social spending; 73 hectares of land subtracted from the community; 440,000 cubic metres concreted over to build runways, terraced houses for the military of the Tuscania Regiment, swimming pools, gyms, and other buildings.
A new base that will rise in an already unbearably militarised territory, which is becoming a strategic hub of war, decided secretly in the rooms of the Palace that are increasingly distant from the demand for peace that comes from the majority of the Italian people.
We must stop the war in Ukraine and wherever it is being fought against the peoples of the world. We must invest in peace and start a true season of disarmament. Less military pacts and more bridges of solidarity and peace.
Let us make this popular will be felt loudly on 2 June in Coltano!
More updates on the No Base Movement's Facebook page.
Press Release
Kutub Hurra, a bridge of books between the Mediterranean, kicks off
The new project "Kutub Hurra. Books in Open Ports', the result of the collaboration between the NGO Un Ponte Per, the Guarantor of Prisoners of the Municipality of Livorno and Tuscan associations, begins. Books from Tunisia to Italian prisons to create spaces for dialogue and cultural exchange. The start is in Livorno with the objective of extending the initiative to the whole of Tuscany, one of the regions with the highest foreign prison population.
Livorno, 16 May 2022 - This morning, the first step of the project "Kutub Hurra. Books in Open Ports" project. A day in which an agreement was signed between the Director of the Livorno and Gorgona Island prisons, the Guarantor of persons deprived of their liberty of the Municipality of Livorno and the association/ong Un Ponte Per.
Through this agreement, the first important part of the project, i.e. the arrival of books in Arabic from Tunisia in Tuscan prisons, is launched. The books are donated by the Tunisian association in memory ofLina Ben Mhenni (Association Lina Ben Mhenni), the activist protagonist of the Jasmine Revolution who collected many books in Tunisia with the aim of bringing them to the country's prisons.
The collaboration between the Association Lina Ben Mhenni and Un Ponte Per has given these books a second life with a journey across the Mediterranean, a sea reduced today to a non-place of death. The project aims to rethink the Mediterranean space as a place of connection, cultural exchange and cooperation for the peace of peoples.
Thanks to this agreement - thanks to the collaboration between Un Ponte Per, ARCI Livorno, CESDI and the Prisoners' Guarantor - books will enter prisons and can finally be enjoyed by Arabic-speaking inmates, in deference to the rehabilitative function of punishment as set forth in Article 27 of the Italian Constitution. No rehabilitation is possible without culture, education, sharing. Deprivation of freedom cannot and must not coincide with deprivation of culture.
Arabic-speaking detainees in Italy represent the largest linguistic community - after the Italian-speaking one - in our prisons (data XVIIIth Antigone Report on detention conditions). Despite this, prisoners often only have access to the text of the Koran as a reading in their mother tongue. Bringing more books in Arabic means being able to do cultural activities, training and exchanges, giving the right also to those who do not speak Italian to have different reading opportunities and creating an inclusive prison climate.
The Mangwana association and the Controluce association (which already carries out activities in the Pisa prison) collaborate on the project, thanks to which there is hope of extending the books to the Pisa prison as well.
This morning, after signing the agreement, the project's partner associations met at the ARCI Livorno headquarters to define the specific programme of prison activities that will take place thanks to the books that have arrived.
Two other fundamental project partners are represented by the University of Florence Prison Pole (thanks to which the books will arrive in the Sollicciano prison in Florence and La Dogaia prison in Prato), and the patronage of the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the same university. A sponsorship that will allow university students to support the translation and linguistic/cultural mediation of activities with prisoners.
Press Release
North-East Syria. Italian Cooperation and UPP protecting women and minors in Raqqa
The "Darna Al-Aman" project, financed by AICS and implemented by Un Ponte Per (UPP) to increase access to protection services, health and psychophysical wellbeing for the most vulnerable population in the Raqqa area, comes to an end. Many results and satisfactions.
Rome, 10 May 2022 - After 15 months of intense work, "Darna Al-Aman" (Our Protected Home), the third phase of the protection, psychophysical and social health, women's empowerment and child protection programme financed by the Italian Cooperation and implemented by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP), together with local partners DOZ and the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) in North-East Syria, comes to an end.
Raqqa remains one of the areas in North East Syria most affected by the decades-long hostilities, the severe economic crisis and the impacts of the pandemic. Out of 330,000 people living in Raqqa, around 230,000 are in dire straits. Of these, boys and girls continue to be among the most severely affected population groups: child labour and early marriages record very high rates and are among the main causes preventing children from going to school. Gender-based violence also continues to disproportionately affect the lives of women and girls: only 7 per cent of communities across Syria, as reported by the United Nations, have access to services dedicated to handling cases of gender-based violence and child abuse, neglect and exploitation.
For these reasons, in the third year of the project UPP set up two Safe Spaces in cooperation with the local partner DOZ:
- A first "Women and Girls Safe Space" with a women's empowerment approach where women can access information on rights and health and rebuild through social activities̀ a network of mutual support between women. Here, workers provide psychosocial support and integrated non-stigmatising individual services for women and girls who are survivors of gender-based violence. During the year, 1,239 accessed the space's̀ activities, with 3,702 total accesses and 493 group activities. The greatest challenge was to be able to involve adolescent girls, making families feel secure about their participation.
- A second'Child Friendly Space', where children and their families can receive protection, psychosocial support and information on rights and health, develop self-esteem and creative and social skills, play safely with key messages to prevent child labour, early marriage and discrimination. A total of 1,564 children and adolescents were involved in thè activities, with 9,268 total accesses and 792 group activities.
In both Centres, case management services were provided by specialised case workers, involving 116 women and girls survivors or at risk of gender-based violence and 36 cases of minors exposed to the risk of abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Both spaces were established close to the Raqqa Al Hilal public hospital, where Un Ponte Per and the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) continue to provide reproductive health, paediatrics and newborn health services, ensuring free pre/postnatal visits to 991 pregnant women and postnatal visits to 732 newborns this year. In addition, the Mobile Units for Reproductive Health carried out 8,718 gynaecological, pre-natal and paediatric visits in rural Raqqa, with a total of 9,450 people reached . Since January 2021, UPP and KRC have started to provide psychological support in the same hospital, strengthening the integrated model of health and protection services to promote people's overall psychosocial well-being.
In fact, to crown this year's celebration of International Women's Day on 8 March 2022, DOZ organised and hosted the first official women's football match in the history of Raqqa. "The match represented a strong moment of equality and inclusion of women and girls in public spaces," says Marta, a protection specialist.
"Darna Al-Aman" is part of a broader framework of interventions that UPP, thanks to the valuable support of the Italian Cooperation, has been carrying out in North-East Syria, and in particular in Raqqa Governorate, since the beginning of the humanitarian emergency in 2015.
***
Safe Spaces will continue to operate thanks to funds from Un Ponte Per.
Press Release
Pacifists to Draghi: 'No to the new maxi barracks. Pisa remains a symbol of Peace'
The NGO Un Ponte Per is against the new military citadel wanted by the government: a huge concrete casting inside the regional park, thanks to PNRR funds.
Pisa, 11 April 2022 - The news came a fortnight ago in Pisa. The alarm was raised by the 'Una Città in Comune' civic list: the Draghi government has decided to use part of the PNRR funds to build a military citadel at Coltano that will cover 730 thousand square metres of protected area inside the San Rossore regional park, with 440 thousand cubic metres of new buildings. A project worth hundreds of millions of euro, intended to build shooting ranges, a landing strip for helicopters, barracks, training centres, swimming pools, terraced houses and much more, to serve three armed corps: the Special Intervention Group (GIS), the Tuscania parachutist regiment and the dog-killing unit stationed in Pisa.
Pisa is a city with a strong pacifist vocation, home to the coordination of the Network of Universities for Peace, where dozens of male and female students graduate in Peace Sciences every year, yet the government evidently seems to have other plans.
The NGO 'Un Ponte Per' expresses outrage at a decision taken by presidential decree, skipping ordinary procedures and thus avoiding even considering the opinion of the Natural Park. Park Authority President Biani had already expressed a negative assessment of the project to the Committee for the Regulation of Military Servitudes (CoMiPar) a year ago. A project that Biani still assesses as 'devastating' in terms of environmental impact.
Then no one spoke about it any more and the Defence decided to proceed without consulting either the Region of Tuscany or Biani. On the other hand, the San Rossore park is the most militarised protected area in Italy, already hosting two firing ranges, the headquarters of the Inter-Forces Centre for Military Applications Studies (Cisam), the Col Moschin Incursor Training Centre and the Army Special Forces Command, which was inaugurated two years ago and cost the State 42 million euro. Not to mention the recently expanded American base at Camp Darby.
We wonder how it is possible that the Draghi government - while increasing military spending to 2% of GDP - decides without opposition to divert PNRR resources from Italy's economic recovery (and ecological transition) to military infrastructure, to the detriment of the ecosystem of a park that should generate sustainable tourism. This is the umpteenth proof that military spending, besides raising tensions by generating flows of armaments and troops to countries at war, is directly detrimental to the economic and ecological well-being of our territories. Many political forces and associations in Tuscany have realised this and are mobilising to oppose this project: a convergence of pacifist and ecologist instances, refusing any 'compensation' with other projects that benefit the park.
Un Ponte Per joins them in condemning the project and instead asks the government to keep faith with other commitments that have been made and reaffirmed many times, but never respected: to reach 0.7% of the Gross National Income in Public Aid for Development(now it is 0.22%), increasing the funds for cooperation, dedicating resources to civil peacebuilding projects in fragile states, and completing the experimentation of the Civil Peace Corps within the Universal Civil Service.
We want Pisa to remain a forge of peace, the city in which volunteers and cooperators are trained and which develops many of our peacebuilding programmes, peace education, and support for the participation of women and young people in peace processes. For the security of Europe we need less weapons and barracks, more cooperation and peace operations built by civil society.
Press Release
Caravan for Ukraine, Nicotra: 'Stop the war-mongering single-mindedness'
The co-president of Un Ponte Per, Alfio Nicotra, travelling to Ukraine on behalf of the NGO taking part in the caravan for peace, issued the following statement this morning from Gorizia.
Rome, 1 April 2022 - "We left this morning from Gorizia for Lviv (UKR) with a caravan of hope and solidarity that features that Italian civil society unjustly put on the index because it is pacifist, by so many politicians and too many mass media. The war-mongering single thought risks leading Italy to a witch-hunt unprecedented in the history of republican Italy. Hunting the pacifist, the CGIL, the ANPI, the director of Avvenire. The Pontiffhimself is censured and mocked.
A little less than 30 years ago I was among the 500 pacifists who violated thesiege of Sarajevo, and today I relive that spirit, that being, as Don Tonino Bello called us, 'the UN of the peoples' that opposed the sloth of the UN of the powerful.
As then, instead of weapons we put our bodies on the line, our deep repudiation of war, which has always driven us to be on the side of the victims of conflict. We say No to Putin and No to NATO. We stand by the Ukrainian people, who are under the bombs. We stand by the Russian people, who are paying for the belligerent propaganda and warlike choices of their government. To our Russian pacifist brothers and sisters, who risk jail and repression to say No to war, goes our embrace and support.
Come and see us, film us, listen to those who say we are equidistant, that we put victims and executioners on the same level. Let them learn that there is another political proposal, one of bridges, of negotiation, of building communities in solidarity, of non-violent resistance to the invader, which has the undoubted power to build a common future for this land, for everyone.
We go unarmed to Ukraine not only to bring humanitarian aid and to secure as many women and children as possible. We set out so that the international community understands that it cannot allow the massacre to be carried out and the biggest rearmament plan since the end of World War II to be planned on the skin of the Ukrainian people.
We of Un Ponte Per have known in these 30 years of world war in pieces, the horror of the bombs, the crimes of the never-intelligent missiles, the white phosphorus thrown on Falluja, Aleppo gutted by cluster bombs, the buildings folded in on themselves in Belgrade.
War is always the same, and the order it claims to build carries within its bosom the reasons for new insecurities and conflicts.
We are here, in this diverse and composite caravan, to testify that only peace is a good investment. No more wars! Bridges, not Walls."
Press Release
Un Ponte Per: Stop the war, let's make peace!
After 35 days since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Caravan of peace and solidarity of Italian civil society leaves on 1 April, heading towards Lviv (UKR). The NGO "Un Ponte Per", for 30 years in the front line against all wars, will be present.
Rome 30 March 2022 - On Friday 1 April, a delegation of 200 people and 50 vehicles, belonging to 89 Italian civil society organisations, will leave for Lviv, Ukraine. The 'caravan of peace', as it has been renamed, will bring medicines, food and basic necessities for the population: a great caravan of peace and humanity to say STOP to the war in Ukraine, bringing the bodies of Italian activists into the conflict. Once in Lviv, the participants will meet local civil society organisations, religious and civil authorities. On the way back, the convoy will allow people with fragility to leave their war-torn country and reach Italy.
Below is an extract from the motivation with which the NGO 'Un Ponte Per' communicated its participation in the peace caravan:
"As Un Ponte Per we adhere to the initiative together with many organisations, associations and networks we are part of, because there is no more time. War is a colossal affair of death and madness, a denial of humanity.
For 30 years, with humanitarian actions and international solidarity initiatives, we have stood by the last: the civilian victims of armed conflicts. There come moments like this, when 'peace awaits its makers'. We do not want to remain spectators. We feel the obligation to take action ourselves. As non-violent and bridge-builders, we will travel to Ukrainian territory to bear witness on the ground to our firm repudiation of war and to allow people with fragility to leave their country and reach Italy. As Un Ponte Per in more than 30 years we have taken our delegations under the bombs many times, like to Belgradein 1999, Iraqin 2003, Lebanonin 2006, North East Syria in 2019 etc. We wanted to give a face, a name and a voice to the victims of forgotten conflicts, turning those bodies that were considered numbers back into people. For these reasons, we also want to do our part this time. No more Wars. Bridges, Not Walls."
With the delegation will be Alfio Nicotra, professional journalist and co-president of Un Ponte Per. Always committed to the peace movement, he was among the protagonists of the mobilisation against the war in former Yugoslavia and the Persian Gulf. An expert on alternative models of defence, he was among the spokesmen of the Genoa Social Forum during the mobilisation against the G8 in 2001. One of the promoters of the European Social Forum in Florence, he followed the peace negotiations between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the Mexican government. He has always combined his commitment to peace with his job as a journalist, which has often taken him to conflict zones.
Together with Alfio Nicotra, Angela Mona and Giovanna Gagliardi, members of the National Committee, will participate for Un Ponte Per.
Info and contacts for interviews: stampa@unponteper.it
