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International Day of Peace Observed in Slovakia
Written by Barbara Grabner, UPF-Slovakia
Monday, September 23, 2019
Bratislava, Slovakia—A well-known international security expert was the main speaker at a UPF event titled “The Russia-Ukraine Conflict and New Prospects for Peace.”
To highlight the International Day of Peace, UPF-Slovakia organized a presentation with the journalist and international security expert Igor Cibula, PhD. The former Director of Intelligence of the Slovak Information Service has also been an adviser to the Slovak Prime Minister on issues of security. Thanks to the prominence of our guest speaker, there was huge interest and the lecture hall was filled to capacity.
UPF-Slovakia Secretary General Miloš Klas began the meeting with a talk about the International Day of Peace. He went on to speak about the peace activist Paul K. Chappell, who graduated from West Point, was deployed to Baghdad and left the U.S. Army in 2009 with the rank of captain. Chappell has been a guest speaker of UPF in Vienna and is the author of the Road to Peace book series. He campaigns for the abolishment of war in the 21st century. Since many of the guests at our UPF event are interested in military strategy, Chappell’s views seemed appropriate to mention. One of his notable remarks is: “Is it possible to fight for peace? It depends on how we define the word ‘fight.’ If we define it not as violence but as struggle, then we must fight for peace.”
Afterward our guest speaker Igor Cibula took the podium and explained in detail the cause of the conflicts in the Crimean and the Donbas regions, including the historical and ethnic background. Regarding the International Day of Peace, he said that the recent exchange of prisoners of war is a hopeful sign of de-escalation.
His brilliant presentation cast a spell on the predominantly male audience of 43 persons, which covered the political spectrum from left to right. Miloš Klas made sure that the ensuing discussion was fair to every viewpoint. Finally, Igor Cibula, who has been a friend of UPF for decades, was awarded an Ambassador for Peace certificate.
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