6.3.- LETTERS |
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THIS
DOCUMENT CONTAINS THE TRANSCRIPTION OR TRANSLATION OF Translation
-from Catalán- of the letter of the Island Council of Mallorca
ISLAND
COUNCIL OF MALLORCA (the highest governmental body in Mallorca) Presidential
Secretary Sir The
plenum of the Island Council of Mallorca, in ordinary session held on the
3rd of May 1999, adopted the following agreement: “In
attending to the petition of the ‘Campaign in favour of the candidature
of Juan Carrero Saralegui for the Nobel Peace Prize of the year 2,000’,
and backed by the enclosed documentation,
this corporation celebrates the fact
that a Mallorcan citizen is to be proposed for honorary mention. The
Mallorcan Council, representing the Mallorcan community, is proud to give
its support to the candidature of Juan Carrero and is grateful for the
great work for solidarity realized throughout his life and, in particular,
his personal contribution to awakening the conscience of public opinion
and of the European institutions in regard to the African Great Lakes
region. For
the above reasons the undersigned groups of Councillors present the
following motion: 1)
The Mallorcan Council adheres to the proposal for the nomination of
Juan Carrero Saralegui for the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2,000”. It
has been our wish to communicate, for your knowledge and use, the above
information. Palma,
1st of July 1999 THE
PRESIDENT
Signed
Maria Antónia Munar i Riutort Mr. Bermat Viçenç Vich., Spokesperson for the launch of the Campaign in favor of the Candidature of Juan Carrero for the Nobel Peace Prize of the Year 2,000.
Translation
-from Spanish- of the letter of Vicens Ferrer
FROM
VICENS FERRER
WINNER
OF THE ‘PRINCE OF ASTURIAS CONCORD’ PRIZE
TO
THE COMMITTEE IN FAVOR OF THE CANDIDATURE OF JUAN
CARRERO
SARALEGUI FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE OF THE YEAR 2,000
Palma,
3rd of May 1999
Having
knowledge of Juan Carrero’s path during all these years, one dedicated
to the unconditional defence of justice, liberty and human rights, and
recognising his direct involvement in what has been the public
denunciation of the pain being suffered by the human beings in the African
region of the Great Lakes, I firmly believe in his nomination for the
Nobel Peace Prize.
The
awarding of this prize would authorise an important support for the
present denunciations, by a minority group, of the massacres and
continuing violence which is taking place in the area of the African Great
Lakes, and it would open the doors to the hope for a humanitarian
intervention in those places affected.
Vicens
Ferrer
Translation
-from Spanish- of the letter of the Bishop of Mallorca
The
Bishop of Mallorca TO
THE COMMITTEE IN FAVOR OF THE CANDIDATURE OF MR JUAN
CARRERO
SARALEGUI FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE OF THE YEAR 2,000. With
these words I would like to give my full support to the candidature of Mr.
JUAN CARRERO SARALEGUI for the Nobel Peace Prize of the year 2,000. This
support arises from my personal acquaintance with this person and my close
following of his peace initiatives, especially in reference to the grave
conflicts being endured in the African Great Lakes region. I
well know the candidate’s thoughts on the urgency of working for
justice, liberty and human rights as the best path for securing peace,
alongside his admirable and generous dedication to this cause for many
years and his irreproachable personal conduct. All this is in accord with
the best spirit of the greatest pacifist teachers of all time and in all
places. I
would also like to note that the long-standing presence in the countries
of the Great Lakes of missionaries, Mallorcans amongst them, and my own
repeated journeys to the area, have afforded me a direct knowledge of the
tragedy being enacted in those villages and of the urgent necessity of a
humanitarian intervention by the international community in favour of
justice, reconciliation, respect for human rights, and the coexistence of
democracy and peace in that region. These factors bring me to value very
highly all that the candidate has already done and continues to do in
favour of this cause of the African countries of the Great Lakes. The
award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Mr. JUAN CARRERO SARALEGUI,
besides being a recognition of his merits in the fight for peace, which I
believe to be worthy of this distinction, would open a new door of hope
for a solution to the grave conflicts of that tormented region. Palma,
Mallorca, 15th of June 1999 Translation
-from Spanish- of the letter of Dolores Aleixandre Parra
I
met Juan Carrero in a casual manner: I visited Palma (Mallorca) to hold a
conference, stayed a further day to visit a sister in my congregation who
lives in S’Olivar, and was dazzled by the beauty and tranquillity of the
place. I consequently decided to spend a week of prayer there in one of
the hermitages in June. During this week I had the opportunity to get to
know Juan, to converse with him and to draw close to his pacifist cause in
the Great African Lakes region. Like
so many of my generation I am an admirer of Ghandi, of Lanza del Vasto who
I knew personally, and of Luther King, but the stature of such enormous
personalities, their almost mythological character, naturally enough
impeded any closeness to them other than the proximity of ‘admiring
devotion’. And, suddenly, in S’Olivar I found someone who, in the
simplest, closest, most cordial and humble manner, embodies the utopian
project of active non-violence. All this was born, in Juan’s case, out
of a mystic experience. I
can say that I had not found until this moment such an evident
confirmation of my conviction, born out of the study of Biblical prophecy,
that it is those men or women most intensely seduced by God who are those
most committed to the human cause, those most infected by God’s passion
for His world. It
is for this that I give my unconditional support to the nomination of Juan
Carreo Saralegui for the Nobel Peace Prize, just as it is my desire to
bring to everyone’s knowledge, by all the means within my reach, the
cause that he carries in his hands. Dolores
Aleixandre 17th
of June 1999 Dolores
Aleixandre Parra is a Sister of the Sacred Heart and Professor in Sacred
Texts in the Theology faculty of the ‘Universidad de Comillas’
(Madrid). Translation
-from Spanish- of the letter of the Sisters of Charity of St Vicente
de Paul
SISTERS
OF CHARITY TO
THE SUPPORT COMMITTEE IN FAVOUR OF THE NOMINATION OF JUAN
CARRERO SARALEGUI FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2000 For
many years I have had the personal acquaintance of Juan Carrero and his
path in the defence of peace, in particular the peace of those countries
of the Great Lakes. His modest and constant work together with his
admirable personal honesty makes him a true teacher in favour of human
rights, justice and peace. As
Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity I have visited Burundi several
times, as a group of my congregation’s sisters works there. I have been
able to confirm for myself the situation of suffering and misery that the
people are living in this zone of the Great Lakes. Juan
Carrero has worked, and works, incessantly in order that human rights be
respected in those countries, in favour of justice and peaceful
co-existence. I
have obtained unconditional support from my General Council for the
nomination of Juan Carrero Saralegui for the Nobel peace Prize 2000, who
gave their unanimous approval to the appeal. Palma,
Malllorca, 22nd of June 1999 Maria
del Pilar Bosch Cladera Mother
Superior Sisters
of Charity of Saint Vicente de Paul Translation
-from Spanish- of the letter from Carmel Bonnín i Cortés
CARMEL
BONNÍN I CORTÉS Lawyer TO
THE COMMITTEE IN FAVOUR OF THE CANDIDACY OF JUAN
CARRERO SARALEGUI FOR
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE OF THE YEAR 2,000 Dear
Sirs: For
years I have had the privilege of being chosen by Juan Carrero —I still
do not know quite why— as a confidant and interlocutor in projects and
investigations. From
his option of contemplation and non-violence, he has been able to listen
to and heed the cries of the world’s poor, and so has become a force for
change and intervention. I
believe that, around the time of the war in Bosnia, over five years ago,
Juan Carrero took a decisive step in the incarnation of the intercessory
witness he bears. And he is faithfully determined to continue showing us
the bloody side of human pain in Bosnia, the Great Lakes and Kosovo. I
have always admired his ability to combine delicacy and radicalism in the
defense and promotion of what he believes is right and will serve to
defend the victims of all the tragedies that have in recent years, as
always, shaken so many countries of the world. Juan
Carrero is capable of solidarity, and of drawing us all towards
solidarity, from his simplicity, from the most complete independence and
guided by the interests of the victims, putting himself in their places. It
is for these reasons that Juan Carrero is for me and certainly for many
others a symbol of what must be done here and now and I gladly give my
support to his candidacy of Juan Carrero Saralegui for the Nobel Peace
Prize of the Year 2,000. Carmel
Bonnín i Cortés Lawyer Acting
President, Justice and Peace Secretary,
Mallorcan Solidarity and Cooperation Fund Palma,
29 June 1999 Translation
-from Spanish- of the letter of the Diocesan Mission Delegation of
Mallorca
DIOCESAN
MISSION DELEGATION TO
THE COMMITTEE IN FAVOUR OF THE NOMINATION OF JUAN CARRERO SARALEGUI FOR
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE OF THE YEAR 2,000 Distinguished
Sirs It
is my pleasure to address you in order to support the nomination of Juan
Carrero Saralegui for the Nobel Peace Prize 2000, recognising his efforts
in defence of peace, human rights, justice and freedom for the most
underprivileged people, working from the standpoint of non-violence to
which he has been dedicated throughout his life’s path.
As
a missionary in Burundi from 1976 to 1997, I have been a witness to
Juan’s concern, his efforts and his work realised in favour of peace in
the Central Africa Great Lakes region. […] At
present, as the Missions Delegate for the Dioceses of Mallorca, I continue
with a lively interest in all that is problematic in those countries,
above all in Rwanda and Burundi, given that our missionaries are working
there and that at no point, despite the enormous problems they have had
during recent years, have they abandoned their post in the mission. One
of Juan Carrero’s merits has been that of being the ‘Voice for those
who are without voice’. In many European countries he has created a
conscience in favour of human rights for the underprivileged and
unrecognised men and women of those countries, always raising the flag of
peace and non-violence. In
the present circumstances, and knowing the mentality of those African
peoples, polarised by the Hutu-Tutsi problem, the awarding of the Nobel
Peace Prize to an outsider, a ‘Mushingantahe’(a Kirundi word of such
deep significance in the mentality of the Burundian people) could help the
people enormously in finding peace once again and co-existence in justice
and liberty, all of which values are to be found in their traditional
culture and which, disgracefully, have been torn out. In
my own name and in that of the Missions Delegation of the Bishopric of
Mallorca, I give my support to the nomination of Juan Carrero Saralegui
for the Nobel Peace Prize of the year 2,000. Palma,
14th of july 1999 Jaume
Mas Julià |