DAVAO CITY – Timor-Leste President and 1996 Nobel Laureate for Peace Jose Ramos-Horta will kick off this month the 2009 series of the second ASEAN “Bridges-Dialogues Toward a Culture of Peace” facilitated by the International Peace Forum (IPF) with two engagements here in the Philippines.
IPF chairman Uwe Morawetz said Ramos-Horta, who will be the featured keynote speaker of the Jan. 12-17 dialogue series, will tackle “Is long lasting peace an attainable dream?”
IPF has lined up other equally prominent speakers for the rest of the year in its series of peace dialogues to be held also in other ASEAN countries.
Ramos-Horta will first address a peace forum at the Ateneo de Davao University on Jan. 14 and at the De La Salle University on Jan. 15.
Ramos-Horta, 59, won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, for his active pursuit of peace, freedom and democracy in Timor-Leste.
With the funds he received as Nobel Peace Laureate, Ramos-Horta was reportedly able to establish a successful microcredit fund for the poor in his country. – Edith Regalado