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Yahoo! News UN calls for halt to fighting during next year's Athens
Olympics UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The General Assembly called for a worldwide truce during next summer's Olympic Games, and the UN chief said he hoped people in conflict zones from Iraq to Congo will heed the message. Greece sponsored the resolution and the General Assembly's 190 other countries signed on as co-sponsors. Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou praised the effort and said he hoped peace would last beyond the Aug. 13-29 games. He said the roots of both the truce and the Olympics itself go back to the eigth century BC in ancient Greece when a Delphi oracle declared the best way to stop war was to organize games and call for a halt to fighting. The idea for a truce was revived in 1993 to allow athletes from war-torn Yugoslavia to participate in the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway. The assembly has adopted similar resolutions for each Olympics since then. "We want to revive what the basic principles of the Olympics were - which is to become a peace project," Papandreou said. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged anyone caught up in a conflict to listen to the UN call. "It sends a powerful message, telling the warring parties to stop and reflect . . . even if it is for 24 hours," he said. "I hope that people in all conflict areas - from Iraq to Afghanistan, to Liberia to the Congo will really listen to the message." Papandreou conceded that making the Olympic Truce a reality may seem to some "like a utopian dream." "We have no illusions as to what we can achieve through the Olympic Truce; it is not a universal remedy that will miraculously heal the rifts that ravage so many regions of the world," he said. "But surely if we can stop even a single conflict, this is worth the effort." Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, said the decision to adopt the truce would give "the youth of the world the chance to show how we all can peacefully coexist, just as they do in the Olympic Village." The General Assembly also adopted a resolution declaring the year 2005 the International Year for Sport and Physical Education. It calls on governments to promote the role of sports "as a tool for health, education, social and cultural development," and urges developing countries to promote physical education. |