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 Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, was the keynote
speaker at Elon University's Spring Convocation for Honors April
2. Earlier in the day, he held a news conference with members of
the regional media in McEwen School of Communications Studio B.
Students and faculty members mixed with media people from Raleigh,
Burlington and Greensboro at the gathering.
Tutu smiled
as he entered the news conference and greeted his audience. But
the Nobel Peace Prize winner quickly turned his thoughts to the
war with Iraq. "This is a war that should not have happened," Tutu
told reporters. "But the war is happening and one wants to express
condolences with all those who have lost love ones in this country
and in Iraq."
When asked
about reconstruction after the war, Tutu said, "I would hope that
the United States would allow the United Nations to play a prominent
role in that."
Tutu said young
people should be encouraged to promote peace. "We need to keep reminding
them that they are not yet cynical," he said. "They can say, 'We
are pro-peace.'"
Tutu became
the first black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg in 1985 and was
named archbishop of Cape Town in 1986. He continued to call for
an end to forced segregation until apartheid collapsed in 1994,
following the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa.
Mandela appointed Tutu to head a Truth and Reconciliation Commission
to investigate human rights violations.
Several local
and regional media outlets covered the event, including WFMY-TV
(CBS), WGHP-TV (FOX), WXII-TV (NBC), Time Warner Cable's News 14
in Raleigh, Elon Student Television, The Pendulum and WFDD-FM in
Winston-Salem.
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