FVR joins int'l body of peace, dev't experts

Former United Nations Undersecretary General Maurice Strong, president of the United Nations University for Peace's council of advisers, has recruited former President Fidel Ramos to help UN experts in untangling the web of global and regional strife.

Ramos, a general before he assumed the country's top civilian posts, joins other peace warriors like Robert McNamara, former World Bank president and the US Secretary of Defense in the Vietnam war period.

Amid the mayhem generated by regional wars and unrest, former warriors are emerging as the most determined peacemakers, whether in the Middle East, Latin America or Asia.

In Costa Rica, the United Nations University for Peace quietly labors to clear bottlenecks in conflict mediation, forecast potential hot issues, and draft creative measures to prevent political, social and economic disagreements from escalating into violence.

The peace university, created by the UN General Assembly to support the international body's peace and security mandate, counts among its eminent advisers experienced negotiators and people who presided over some of the worst Cold War stands-off -- and walked away, convinced in the futility of violence as a shaper of human history.

Strong cited Ramos' central role "in effecting a peaceful transition to democracy in the Philippines and presiding over a highly successful process of national reconciliation, economic development and social progress."

Strong also acknowledged Ramos' experience and insights as valuable aids in developing special UN programs, and stressed his "continuing leadership in the cause of peace since leaving the Presidency."

He cited the launching in August 1999 of the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation, which aims to advance the cause of global peace by serving as "a catalyst for constructive change and a medium for fostering unity, stability and progress."

Since he handed over the reins of power to President Estrada, Ramos has taken on both domestic and international responsibilities linked to his peace initiatives: as keynote speaker of the UN Development Program's first global forum on human development, and as a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization's policy advisory commission, the World Commission for Water for the 21st century, and the World Bank East Asia-Pacific anti-corruption advisory board.

After half a century of public service, Ramos leads an informal group of retired generals who worked to steer the Filipino and Asian military mindset, away from the tunnel vision of power as solely the product of might, to a holistic framework of soldiers as partners in development.

This conviction prevented a bloodbath during the 1986 EDSA people power revolt that toppled 20 years of dictatorship under the late Ferdinand Marcos.

It also secured former President Corazon Aquino's frail coalition against rightwing military rebels and a raging communist insurgency.

The same commitment to peace allowed the Ramos administration to forge settlements with the would-be putchists and the separatist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The latter achievement led UNESCO to award him and MNLF chairman Nur Misuari the 1998 Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize.

More importantly, Ramos took over a highly polarized nation in economic shambles and presided over five years of unprecedented growth, before completing the democratic transition with a smooth turnover of power to his predecessor.

After two years, the former chief executive still stands behind his UNESCO acceptance statement: "Of all the titles a public servant can aspire for, there is none greater than that of peacemaker."

And, he adds, that prize can only belong to a whole people, "because in this century of conflict, peace -- whenever it is achieved -- is never the work of just one or two men. It is always the collective achievement of many."