Kalla: Mutual trust key to peace building

Former vice president Jusuf Kalla underlined on Friday the need for mutual trust and understanding to build peace in the world.

Kalla, a leading peace broker, said conflicts in the world were mostly triggered by political or religious issues, but insisted that religious conflicts were more difficult to resolve.

“Therefore it’s important for people to understand their own religious teachings and learn in order to understand those of other religions if they are to end a [religious] conflict,” Kalla told audience of the 3rd World Peace Forum in Yogyakarta.

Religious leaders would provoke conflicts if they “sell heaven at a very cheap price” to their followers, Kalla warned, referring to narrow-minded and intolerant religious figures.

Kalla was the driving force behind peace process to end sectarian conflicts in the Maluku town of Ambon and the Central Sulawesi town of Poso between 1999 and 2001, which claimed thousands of lives. He also mediated historic peace talks between Indonesian government and Aceh rebels in 2005.

Chairman of the forum’s steering committee Rizal Sukma said participants of the event had agreed to develop peace education in their respective countries through school curriculum or extracurricular programs.