The international conference "Building Peace Starting at Local Level" opened today in Donostia, Basque Country.

The conference hosted by the Donostia City Council, opened with the speech by the mayor of Donosta, Juan Karlos Izaguirre. Izaguirre pointed out the importance of such an international meeting and the importance of building peace beginning from local level and citizens.

After the Donostia's mayor it was the turn of the mayor of Belfast, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir. He underlined how only a few years ago nobody would have bet on peace in Belfast. Yet, he said, today we are looking at a very different city. "When I first entered Belfast city council - he recalled - I was thrown out after five minutes by police, yet today I am sitting in the mayor office. I am not throwing anybody out, and I talked to everybody". 

Ó Muilleoir underlined that building peace means, among other things, being "creative, generous and comitted to dialogue. We want to build a real and lasting peace - he added - and for this reason we are aware of the place the victims hold in any peace process".

Underlining the main changes Belfast went through in the last years, he noted that today "former political prisoners from both side of the conflict are peace builders throughout the city. Belfast today has being reborn: equal opportunities are there for anybody to grasp. Belfast is today atracting besiness and it is the biggest Irish speaking city in Ireland".

The conference continues this afternoon with the first 2 workshops: Working from the local domain: the aim is to analyse the work that can be carried out in the local domain to foster national dialogue and reconciliation and Cities, conflict and peace processes: viewpoints of mayors from cities currently involved in processes of conflict transformation.