"Give Peace A Chance" discussion forum
Protesters who have come to demonstrate against the NATO summit are not the only ones to have doubts about the alliance. Others, however, have chosen a different way of voicing their opposition. Throughout the days of the summit, a peaceful discussion forum is being held in Prague's Hotel Olsanka, which is looking at alternative ways of securing peace in the world. The "Give Peace a Chance" project was organised by several ecumenical organisations including the Ecumenical Academy Prague and the European Contact Group. Dita Asiedu has been attending the series of seminars and will be reporting from them throughout our special NATO summit programmes:
The idea of holding a discussion forum alongside the NATO summit may be a good one but the timing is bad. In a hall that can seat up to three hundred people, only about twenty showed up for Wednesday's seminars. That's mainly because most people had left the city, some preferred to stay home to avoid getting caught in possible protest demonstrations, and others were more interested in the summit itself. NATO Enlargement and Security in Central and Eastern Europe was the topic of the first seminar. With the lack of an audience, though, it became more of a one-sided lecture. However, interesting points were raised. Jorgen Siil from the Estonian Atlantic Treaty Association believed that most Eastern and Central European countries are eager to become NATO members not just because they see in the alliance a guarantee of protection but rather an opportunity to come closer to the West:
""For Estonia, and I think also for the other eastern and central European countries, NATO and the EU are equal to the western structures. We were in the East and we want to be integrated into the West and these are the organisation we want to be in, besides the OSCE or the UN which are loose organisations.""
Another argument for the need for alternative options to NATO was made by Czech journalist Miroslav Polreich who believed that the importance of the NATO summit had weakened significantly after the attacks on the United States on September 11th :
""There is a summit in Prague that was prepared for enlargement but it was prepared in a different atmosphere, before September 11th. That means that this summit is practically without a subject. It is not important whether NATO will be enlarged by five, seven, or fifteen nations. This is because everything is already settled by co-operation between those two responsible countries, between Putin and Bush. I hope that we can look into the future and I think that we should look for any points, which could help to secure this state and its relationships.""
Although the speakers stressed that an alternative to NATO was important, they felt challenged when asked to name concrete alternatives to the alliance. Aurel Duta is a peace activist in Bucharest, Romania:
"Well, first we have to see how many countries will think of alternatives, whether they exist, I hope they exist. There is a lot to think and talk about. Today we just talk about one thing. There are no alternatives. It's either joining or not joining NATO. It's a kind of fear of the countries, the governments to say anything critical."
