British amb. hopes political progress in Iraq brings permanent end to violence

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: British Ambassador in Baghdad, John Jenkins, urged all political blocs in Iraq to make compromises to achieve stability, expressing hope that the recent political progress in Baghdad would put an end to violence in the country. “The British Embassy in Baghdad held our annual Remembrance Ceremony at which we remembered those who died in the two World Wars and in subsequent conflicts,” the ambassador said in his blog. “These ceremonies are deeply moving: they create a time and a space to reflect on the meaning of conflict and the losses it causes. My own family was directly affected by the conflicts of 1914/18 and 1939/45. I have a great-uncle who died as a soldier in Basra in 1919. Today I also thought of those who lost their lives in the almost continuous conflicts – external and internal – involving Iraq since 1980,” he said. “In the end, conflicts have political causes and political solutions. I hope that the political progress towards forming a new government for Iraq that we witnessed last week will bring a permanent end to conflict and violence here. This will need compromises on all sides. But it is through compromise that we reach stability. And stability brings peace, which is what most people desire above all,” the ambassador noted. “I was reminded of this again by the events in Rangoon over the weekend, with the release of Daw (the Burmese equivalent of Sayyida) Aung San Suu Kyi. When I was Ambassador there, Suu became a friend. I admire her enormously. She is a powerful advocate of the politics of consent, of non-violence and of national reconciliation. Her message works not just for Burma but for the world.” SH (S) 1