Dutch peace activist Mient Jan Faber, a figure of the European peace movement of the 1980s, renowned at the time for his fight for nuclear disarmament, died on Sunday at the age of 81, reported the NGO PAX.
"
The significance of Mient Jan Faber extends far beyond his role in the Dutch peace movement
," the organization said in a statement.
Read alsoThe editorial of
Figaro Magazine
: “Dangerous pacifism”
"
During the 1980s, Mr. Faber was one of the undisputed leaders of the European peace movement
" which "
contributed to the fall of the Wall
" in Berlin, according to PAX, which descends from the Christian peace activist association IKV which Mient Jan Faber directed.
A collaboration with Vaclav Havel
The Dutchman had in the 1980s tirelessly lobbied the Dutch authorities and even NATO for nuclear disarmament, and organized demonstrations which brought together several hundred thousand people in the Netherlands.
Mient Jan Faber had also collaborated with the Czechoslovakian writer Vaclav Havel - who will become after the fall of the Wall the first democratic president of Czechoslovakia - on an alternative to the Cold War and to division in Europe.
The pacifist was later very involved in the "
campaign for truth and justice
" of relatives of victims of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 in the former Yugoslavia (8,000 dead).
The enclave had been declared a UN “
safe area
” in 1993 and was, in principle, under the protection of a battalion of some 200 peacekeepers from the Netherlands.
The Dutch state was found partially responsible.