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GENEVA : Switzerland's foreign minister on Monday broke with the country's tradition of studiously discrete diplomacy by raising the possibility of direct talks with Osama bin Laden to tackle global terrorism.
Micheline Calmy-Rey, who has raised both eyebrows and hackles with her controversial style, told Swiss ambassadors gathered in the capital Bern that they needed to talk to "heavyweight political figures" on the world stage even if they are considered persona non grata by other powers.
"It is important to get away from a Manichean view of the world in black and white, where peoples and countries can only be allies or enemies," she said.
If this view prevailed, Israel would never have held talks with the Palestinians, Nepal would never have talked to Maoist rebels - and the international community would have boycotted the Olympic Games in Beijing, she said.
"So should we listen to these 'wise figures'? Or should we continue dialogue without discrimination - even sitting down at the same table as Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden?," she asked rhetorically.
Calmy-Rey told more than 170 Swiss ambassadors and consular officials meeting this week in Bern that she always favoured dialogue over sanctions and isolation.
"The refusal of dialogue is always a sterile choice," she said, adding that for Switzerland, "the only force we have ever had is that of words."
Switzerland does not have any list of banned organisations to which it will not talk, unlike other countries.
"We talked to Hamas and Hezbollah and other Islamist organisations, we talked to the most diverse groups in Kosovo, because they clearly expressed the legitimate interests of the population," she said.
"By doing this, we did not legitimise their methods, but pushed them towards ending violence," she added.
Calmy-Rey said that groups as diverse as Hezbollah, the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda are all "essential in the search for a resolution" of different conflicts worldwide.
She stressed however that dialogue did not mean "accepting the unacceptable," and conceded that it could sometimes lead to tensions and "complex political blockages."
Switzerland has played a high-profile role in negotiations with the FARC in Colombia which has caused strains in its relations with Bogota.
Colombian authorities began an inquiry earlier this month into the role of Swiss mediator Jean-Pierre Gontard, suspected by Bogota of handing over a 500,000-dollar (323,000-euro) ransom to the FARC in return for the release of two Novartis employees in 2001.
Both Gontard and the Swiss foreign ministry deny the allegation.
The foreign minister's style has sparked a high degree of criticism among domestic political opponents, who have accused her of jeopardising Switzerland's standing in the eyes of key allies.
The United States for example was fiercely critical of a visit by Calmy-Rey to Iran in March for the signing of an energy deal with Iran's state gas company, saying it sent the "wrong message" to Tehran.
But Calmy-Rey said that Switzerland still enjoyed "good and constructive" relations with Washington.
"Our strength is dialogue, promoting dialogue, and our capacity for taking reasonable risks," Calmy-Rey said. - AFP/de
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