Solving conflicts through rational dialogue
President Kennedy: “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
Martin Luther King: “It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and non-violence. It is either non-violence or non-existence”
Mahatma Gandhi: “War is not a morally legitimate means of achieving anything permanent”.
Statement: We scientists, members of the Mauritius Academy of Science and Technology (MAST) are AGAINST and CONDEMN ALL FORMS OF WAR, such as what is happening at present in Eastern Europe. The world must use peaceful and rational dialogue to solve any existing conflicts.
The cost of warfare, even a limited war, in terms of human lives, destruction of resources and pollution of the environment, is extremely high. We can never forget that 100 million humans (half of them, civilians) were killed during two World Wars and numerous other conflicts, in the last century, the 20th.
Most modern weapons release pollutants,which in no time spread around the world and is obnoxious to the ENTIRE PLANET. Nuclear weapons are a prime example of such weapons, so is biochemical warfare. In an era where humanity as a whole is struggling against a pandemic and is engaged in the long-term struggle to prevent global warming with all its negative consequences for life on the planet, no one has the legal, moral, ethical right to use and unleash ANY weapons as means of ‘solving’ conflicts.
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Dr Michael Atchia, Dr Yashwant Ramma, Dr Salem Saumtally for MAST
Mauritius, 24 February 2022
