Retired archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said he hopes South Africa’s experience in coming to terms with apartheid will be an inspiration for a new peace centre bearing his name to be built later this year.
Construction of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, which aims to be a place where warring parties can meet to resolve their differences as well as offer training on conflict resolution and economic development, will most likely begin in August in Cape Town, South Africa, organisers at a press conference in New York said.
”The peace centre is something that will be available to help train people in how we work for peaceful resolutions to conflicts, how can we help people who were enemies before become friends,” Tutu said.
As chairperson of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Tutu oversaw two years of testimony from people who committed atrocities during apartheid, including accounts of kidnappings, torture and death squad killings. Perpetrators who gave a full account of their crimes were granted amnesty.
”When people thought there was going to be an orgy of retribution [in South Africa], we walked the path of reconciliation, working for restorative rather than retributive justice,” Tutu said.
While retributive justice looks ”only to punish,” restorative justice seeks healing for both victim and perpetrator, Tutu said.
”An offence does not define a person. We don’t say once a murderer, always a murderer,” he said.
”There is always the possibility of a person becoming better.”
Tutu said that during a trip to Colombia earlier this month, he invited the parties in conflict there — the government, leftist rebels and right-wing militias — to come to the peace centre to seek a resolution to the country’s four-decade civil war.
”This is where the entire global community can learn from the experience of South Africa,” said Nadine Hack, chairperson of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation and one of the centre’s organisers.
The centre has collected $15-million in donations, and needs another $5-million to complete the facility, organisers said. It will be built on land donated by the Cape Town city council.
By the year 2010, the centre aims educate more than 1,5-million people about the strategies of nonviolent peace-making. It eventually plans to have a staff of 50 to 60 people and an annual budget of $20-million to $40-million, said Dr Sanjeev Khagram, a professor at Harvard University who will join the peace centre’s management team.
In addition to programmes on conflict resolution and economic development, the centre plans to have an interactive exhibition that traces the history of the region, from the dawn of civilisation to overcoming apartheid.
Asked about the deteriorating health of Pope John Paul II, Tutu said, ”I’m sure everyone in the world wants to pray for the Pope’s recovery. And we all want to do that, and to give thanks for his life and the tremendous work he’s done for peace in different parts of the world.”
”It’s a very difficult time, particularly for the Roman Catholic church,” he added. ‒ Sapa-AP