CRI听力:Development Is the Key to Prevent Violence

Focusing on peace and development, particular attention to gender equality and building up judicial systems can be provide a solution in social reconstruction and violence prevention efforts.

Emilia Pires, Minister of Finance from East Timor said the government has made great efforts to ensure that they do not go back to conflict.

"There is no development without peace and without peace there is no development."

Pires said that one can avoid violence by giving people alternatives. If there are shops, entertainment, business, farmlands, schools and hope for tomorrow, poeple will not be drawn to destructive acts of violence.

Organizers also invited well-known Chinese Kongfu player Jackie Chan to East Timor to speak about how to use martial arts in the right way.

Zainab Hawa Bangura, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict from Sierra Leone said promoting gender equality and strengthening the judicial system are very important in fighting sexual violence.

She called on the international community to support African governments to build up their own police and judicial systems so that they can better investigate cases.

Hans Blix, former Director-General of the International Atomic Energy agency and former head of the UN Inspection team in Iraq also made a speech at the forum.

"Small arms are the ones that really kill many people."

Having anaylzed the conflict history of the world, Blix has drawn the conclusion that establishing an inclusive society is key to preventing violence. He also called on various governments to reduce their military budgets, emphasizing that the disarmament process should go on.

The forum was jointly held by Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute and Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

For CRI this is Chen Xuefei reporting from Stockholm.