PRESS CONFERENCE ON NON-VIOLENCE

A special event was held at Headquarters this afternoon to mark the end of the 2002 Gandhi-King Season for Non-violence, it was announced at a press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations.

Briefing correspondents at the press conference were Arun Gandhi, founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Non-violence and grandson of the late Mohandas K. Gandhi; his sister Ela Gandhi, a Member of Parliament in South Africa; Yolanda King, an actress and oldest child of the late Martin Luther King Jr.; and Michael Beckwith, Director of the Gandhi-King Season for Non-violence.

Mr. Gandhi said the Season for Non-violence was the period between the memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. King -- 30 January and 4 April respectively -- when people from all communities sought to bring the world closer to the shared dream of the two visionaries.  The Season had been marked for the last five years.

Noting that conflict was part of everybody's life, Ms. Gandhi said the message of nonviolence was far more important today, when there was so much violence and bloodshed, than it had ever been.

Ms. King said that during the 64-day Season, simple, concrete steps were presented that people could do in their lives to promote peace and spread non-violence.

Mr. Beckwith said today's event was an opportunity to celebrate the many thousands of people who were doing something to honour the principles taught by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. King.  While the voice of peace and non-violence may be lost from the headlines, millions of individuals wanted to add their voices to a non-violent solution to planet's problems.

Asked what advice Dr. King would give at this time of conflict in the Middle East, Ms. King replied that he would be encouraging legal and political dialogue.  Violence and war, so often the first resort today, would be his absolute last resort, she said.

Also responding, Ms. Gandhi said violence was a self-generating cycle as had been seen between Israel and the Palestinians.  Both sides must agree on a ceasefire and resume negotiations.  Many on both sides who wanted peace were being killed.  They must be heard, she added.

Mr. Gandhi said that both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. King would have drawn attention to the need to be proactive in defusing and heading off crises before they turned into conflicts.  Non-violence was not just about conflict resolution, he pointed out.

Asked what could have been done in the past to avoid the Middle East conflict, Mr. Gandhi recalled that his grandfather had said in 1947 that the partition of any country along religious lines would never work, whether in India, Ireland or Palestine.