69th CISM General Assembly & Congress in Quito (Ecuador) - 2014
The 69th General Assembly is open
The authorities were present in the opening ceremony with the vice-president of the republic, Jorge Glass, the ministry of Defense, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, the ministry of sports, José Cevallos and some others Ecuadorian representatives. The national anthem of Ecuador and the CISM anthem were played and the flags were raised up. The CISM president, Colonel Kalkaba, has thanked Ecuador for organizing the general assembly and the Cadet Games in 2014. He has awarded the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of sports with the medal of Grand Officer in the CISM order of Merit and the general Garzon with the medal of Grand Knight in the CISM order of Merit. The national orchestra of chamber has played some music before the vice-president took the floor. He has talked about the history and the geography of his country, its main points, its development and the role of sports in the society. At the end, he declared open the 69th CISM Congress and General Assembly. The traditional ballet made some dances and the representatives of the 80 countries met them during a cocktail.
Souvenir Ceremony
The colonial style of the houses gave another aspect to the manifestation. The place was totally full. We could only see the column in honor to all the Ecuadorian military people killed during a war for the nation. The honor guard was on each side of the path to the column. Welcome by the general Garzon, chief of staff of the Ecuadorian army, on the “Grand Place” in front of the presidential palace located in the old city of Quito, the CISM representatives have saluted the troops before standing at the bottom of the column to salute the national flag and to lay flowers. The military band has interpreted the Ecuadorian anthem singing by all the people and the CISM anthem. After the ceremony, the Ecuadorian and CISM authorities went to the Presidential Palace to visit different salons. They were invited to take place on the balcony to see the changing of the guard with the Ecuadorian vice president, Jorge Glass and the minister of Defense, Maria Fernanda Espinosa. When the band of the presidential guard was entering on the place, some lancer brigades with the national flag made a parade.
On road to the Games
The admiral Moncayo, president of the Ecuadorian military sports federation has presented in details all the aspects of the 2nd edition of the Cadet Games that will be held in Quito and Salinas from the 30th of August to the 6th of September. He has focused on logistics, transportation, sports calendar, cultural issues, sports regulations and the 3 conferences about educational program, sport and peace environment and antidoping. The Korean organizing committee has talked about the 6th edition of the Summer games. First of all, the chairman of the organization, general Kim Sang Ki, gave to the CISM president and to the 4 vice-presidents, the invitation file. A video has shown the support of the people and of the institution to promote the Games and Peace. Olivier Verhelle, chief of project of the Games, has insisted on the registration on line and the delay to respect. The Colonel Marcio Potengy has presented the solidarity plans for 2014-2015 and the actions to realize, the allocated budgets especially for the travel plans for the disadvantaged countries. So theirs athletes can compete at the international level and we could have more participants. Concerning their big events, CISM is looking for candidate to organize the 3rd edition of Cadet Games, The Winter Games in 2017, the Summer Games in 2019. The CISM HQ will send once again a letter to all the delegations to find some candidates.
A new CISM president and a new CISM Secretary General
After 2 days of congress, the CISM General Assembly was held to elect the new CISM President and Secretary General. Before starting the works, the assembly made a tribute to Christiane Durieux who has founded CISM in 1948. Madame Durieux passed away on the 2nd of April at the age of 92. After, they made the roll call of the 76 present active nations. The three candidates for the presidency took the floor to explain their vision about the future of CISM. The only one candidate for the secretary general, colonel Dorah-Mamby Koita, made a speech on his project. For the presidency, in the first round, Lieutenant-colonel Al Shino (Bahrain) became 33 votes, Colonel Cerit (Turkey) 23 and Colonel Kalkaba (Cameroon) 19 votes and 1 abstention. The victory in the 2nd round with 44 votes for and 27 against and 5 abstentions went to Lieutenant-colonel Al Shino. He immediately thanked the BoD members. The former CISM president gave to the new one the highest CISM decoration: the Grand Cordon. Colonel Kalkaba thanked the new president: “It’s a link between the old and the new CISM generation. I will stay in the CISM family. I will thank also Palestine for joining us. It’s a good example given to the world and to the peace.” The new secretary general, for a 4 year mandate, is colonel Dorah-Mamby Koita from Guinea with 43 votes.
The Palestine 134th CISM member nation and the Colonel Schwede, Europe President
Each country must give their opinion about Palestine joining CISM and also for the new CISM president for Europe with only one candidate: colonel Schwede (Germany). Palestine became the 134th CISM member nation with 62 votes Colonel Schwede is the new CISM president for Europe with 62 votes.
