Martí Olivella speech to meeting<br>“A Call for Peace, the End of Wars and Respect for International Law”<br>16–18 October 2025, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dear friends of Sarajevo, brothers and sisters united in the building of peace,

To stand here — in this city that endured one of the longest and cruelest sieges in Europe — reminds us of something essential:
WAR IS NOT DESTINY.
War is a human decision.
And what humans decide — humans can also abolish.

The genocide and ethnic cleansing are war crimes.
But war itself is an abominable crime.

War is a business for the few; war is based on lies.
Peace is not only the absence of war —
It is the absence of violence.
But war is the mother of all violence!

With half of the world’s military defense spending, we could reduce and mitigate the current climate chaos — and lessen the millions of deaths it causes.

If we want to abolish war, we must first dismantle the myth of the “just war.”
No war is just.
Every war destroys lives, communities, and the Earth itself —
and it almost always causes more harm than it claims to prevent.

The only justice we can claim is the one that defends without killing,

protects without destroying, and heals without hatred.

Yes — we have the right to defend ourselves.
But let us learn, and train, to defend ourselves WITHOUT KILLING.
Defense does not have to mean weapons.
It does not have to mean violence.
We can protect people and communities in other ways:
through civil resistance, nonviolent disobedience, unarmed civilian protection, networks of support, and international solidarity.

To abolish war, we must build

real alternatives to armed military defense.
Today, that military defense is still called a “last resort.”
But that “last resort” is, in truth, the failure of all the others.

Fifty years ago, many of us young people were sent to prison for refusing military service.
Now we reject weapons, armies, and war.

Let’s invest our energy, our creativity, and our public resources in NONVIOLENT CIVILIAN DEFENSE — defense that prevents, deters, and resists aggression without reproducing it.

And yes — this also means demilitarizing our minds.
Let’s stop believing that security comes from armies, or weapons, or walls.
True security grows from respect, cooperation, justice, and trust among peoples.

That is why we invite you to take part in creating a global network of NONVIOLENT SELF-DEFENSE groups — in every neighborhood, every city, every country:
Small communities and movements trained to defend life and peace, to face conflict with courage and creativity — not with weapons.

It is also worth recalling the words spoken 90 years ago by General Butler:

“War is a racket.” War is a lie for profit, it creates a few multimillionaires at the cost of countless human lives.

That is why we invite you to make a concrete act of coherence:
to practice TAX RESISTANCE TO WAR and TO MILITARY SPENDING, and to redirect those funds to projects of NONVIOLENT CIVILIAN SELF-DEFENSE and UNARMED INTERNATIONAL CIVILIAN PROTECTION.
Every euro diverted from war is a seed of peace planted in our shared conscience —

a small act of courage.

Yesterday I listened to the prayers for peace of religious leaders. Please excommunicate the arms manufacturers and traffickers — and the media, financial and political leaders who call for war! “No war in the name of God.”

Sarajevo teaches us that even under fire, humanity can resist — without hatred.
Let’s make that possible again — together — from every country, every neighborhood, every heart.

People of the world, let us unite against the war lobby and strengthen the peace lobby.

Because either we abolish weapons and war — or war is already abolishing us!

Thank you. Mir i sloboda — peace and freedom – pau i llibertat.