August 2000

Pyongyang, August 2000 – PeaceBoat, a Japanese NGO of which Japan can be very proud, just concluded its voyage No. 3 to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), with more than 200 participants. I conducted workshops on reconciliation and had the occasion to have dialogues with a number of well placed DPRK officials. My focus was on how North Korea sees the damage/suffering caused by Japanese imperialism, what kind of compensation they seek, and what they mean by “real apology”. Some of the answers are well known, others are not; for completeness they are all included. They mention six forms of damage/suffering: one million killed/tortured (also hibakusha); six million forced into war service including 200,000 comfort women; economic looting; cultural treasures seized or destroyed; the zainichi situation in Japan; and Japanese responsibility for the division of Korea between the USA and the Soviet Union, as a Japanese colony. Compensation according...

COPENHAGEN- Who can get excited about a bridge? But if it were just a bridge it would have been built a long time ago. This bridge that links northern Europe with the Scandinavian land mass is a political statement, almost as powerful, if not quite, as the creation of the Euro, the single currency, to the south. Indeed, a Scandinavian decision to accede to membership of the Euro should by rights follow as a logical next step. That both Denmark, which votes on the issue next month and Sweden, the two mother countries of the bridge, have serious reservations about joining the Euro is, in modern dress, the debate they had about building the bridge, a debate that consumed over a century of argument and discussion. But the bridge is now there, opened last month, a graceful object crossing 17 kilometers of the sound that adjoins the Baltic sea. The Danish...

WIRE # 22, August 26, 2000World court – Peace in Burundi – Clinton in Africa – Truth & reconciliation – The Kursk affair – Israel: 200 nukes – China, arms seller in Africa – UN out of cash, Kosovo – NATO’s smelter takeover in Kosovo foreseen 6 months ago – Media and US elections – Pentagon hates peace in Korea – US, the worlds largest arms exporter – New report on UN peacekeeping – 20 million lives at stake in Africa, no humanitarian intervention – The world water crisis… WIRE # 21, August 16, 2000Millennium Peace Summit at the UN – Cluster bombs kill – BMD & new cold war – Vandana Shiva on poverty – UN & big business – World debt special – Globalizing NGO struggles -NATO in bed with scorpion in Kosovo – Montenegro – Where are the bodies buried? – Chomsky on Kosovo – New presidential...

LONDON – Finally, the Swiss banks are off the hook on the Holocaust. Their offerof a $b1.25 settlement with Holocaust survivors and their heirs has been accepted by an American court. Yet, as the judge observed, the banks fought all the way. At the outset the banks said there were only 8,000 accounts with links to Holocaust victims. The truer figure turned out to be over 50,000. Fifty-five years after the liberation of the concentration camps Germany still stands out head and shoulders above the other countries that collaborated with Hitler as the one that made the earliest and swiftest attempt at restitution. And 55 years later it is still Austria, Hitler’s birthplace, that has done the least to square the past. It still half believes- or at least it gives the appearance that half the country believes- that Austria was Hitler’s victim rather than his willing ally. One case now...

LONDON – Remember the summer of ’98? In the sweltering, torpid heat of a Roman august, charged with exhaust fumes, the international community gave its overwhelming approval to the establishment of an International Criminal Court that will enable those accused of “crimes against humanity” to be tried and, if convicted, sentenced. Only seven nations opposed or abstained from the motion, including Israel, China, India and the U.S.A. where the Pentagon had successfully waged bureaucratic guerrilla war to undermine the initially sympathetic stance of President Bill Clinton. Two years on we can now see what an epochal event that was. In a the stroke of 120 pens it changed the climate on political thuggery. After numerous half-starts and false starts ever since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials that convicted the war criminals of the Second World War, the world at last had agreed en masse a common set of understandings and a...

Svenska Utrikesdepartementet (UD) beslöt vid årsskiftet att dra in sitt organisationsbidrag till TFF för år 2000, utan förvarning, motivering eller dokumentation men med omedelbar verkan. Vi har blivit upplysta om att vi kan söka organisationsbidrag för år 2001, och det kommer vi att göra; fristen är 15 september och UD brukar besluta om bidrag i december. Vi ber Dig därför om att skriva på detta upprop NU så vi kan bifoga Din namnteckning, alla andras samt kopior på de personligt formulerade brev vi redan har fått under året. Vi tror det kommer att verka mest möjligt övertygande på departementet. Återupprättaorganisationsstödettill TFF ” Jag känner till en eller flera av TFF:s verksamheter, dess PressInfos, website, TFF WIRE, stiftelsens undervisare och föredragshållare, dess arbete i det forna Jugoslavien, i Kaukasus eller i Burundi. Förebyggande diplomati, konfliktlösning, fredsbyggande och försoning, som är centrala teman i stiftelsens program, är nu högt prioriterade på mänsklighetens agenda. Forskning,...

Mission To mobilize and train an international nonviolent, standing peace force. The Peace Force will be sent to conflict areas to prevent death and destruction and protect human rights, thus creating the space for local groups to struggle nonviolently, enter into dialogue, and seek peaceful resolution. Endorsed by: His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)Oscar Arias (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Former President of Costa Rica)Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from Northern Ireland)Jose Ramos Horta (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from East Timor)Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Ambassador to the UN from Bangladesh)International Fellowship of ReconciliationHague Appeal for PeaceRecommended by the Peoples Millennium Forum at the United Nations, May 2000 “There is an important need to pursue this ideal on a truly global basis, from our deep commitment to inter-dependence and universal responsibility. I wish your efforts every success.His Holiness the Dalai Lama “This is an idea that is...

Links to Facts & Views

The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs withdrew organizational support for TFF for the year 2000, without prior consultation, motivation or documentation but with immediate effect. (Background) We will apply again for the year 2001 and beyond. Swedish NGOs must apply to the Ministry for annual organizational grants by September 15. The Ministry usually decides who to support in November or early December. Therefore, please sign this NOW so we can include YOUR signature together with all the support letters we already have received with our application. That is likely to exert maximum pressure on the Ministry. Restore Support to TFF “I am familiar with one or more aspects of TFF’s work, either its PressInfos, its website, TFF WIRE, its member’s training and lecturing efforts or its work on the ground in ex-Yugoslavia, in the Caucasus or in Burundi. Preventive diplomacy, conflict-resolution, peacebuilding and reconciliation which are central in the foundation’s program have...

TFF Support Appeal The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs withdrew organizational support for TFF for the year 2000, without prior consultation, motivation or documentation but with immediate effect. (Background) We will apply again for the year 2001 and beyond. Swedish NGOs must apply to the Ministry for annual organizational grants by September 15. The Ministry usually decides who to support in November or early December. Therefore, please sign this NOW so we can include YOUR signature together with all the support letters we already have received with our application. That is likely to exert maximum pressure on the Ministry. You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the source. Would you – or a friend – like to receive TFF PressInfo by email?

Reflections on the Support Campaign in the year 2000 The campaign starts The TFF Support Appeal The ministry gives 4 reasons why TFF were crossed out TFF’s presence on Internet The Ministry’s decision helped us gain many new supporters In which countries does TFF have a constituency? Some observations What kinds of people support TFF? TFF’s three main constituencies Which organizations do TFF supporters work with? This analysis was copied and sent on September 14 to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, HE Anna Lindh and to the Ministry’s preparatory committee which recommends which organisations to give organisztional support. See also the Swedish analysis of the Ministry’s decision and the selection of what people write to us from around the world The Ministry made a decision… The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm decided to cancel the organizational support for TFF for the year 2000. The foundation had benefitted from this annual grant, amounting...