Archive 1986 – 2017

Aftalen foreskrev også at en sandheds- og forsoningskomite (TRC) og en international komite for retslige undersøgelser (ICJ) oprettes inden et valg kan afholdes. Burundierne ønsker retfærd og fred. Et studie gjort af “Observatoire de l’Action Gouvernementale” (OAG), viser at 83% af befolkningen ønske at en TRC skal oprettes, og 82% ønsker en specialdomstol til behandling af forbrydelser mod menneskeheden. Burundi har demobiliseret hovedparten af sine krigere, og tidligere børnesoldater bliver hjulpet til et civilt liv. Mange flygtninge er kommet hjem og ledere i eksil vender også tilbage. Tidligere rebeller opretter partier. Man har besluttet at oprette en sandheds- og forsoningskomite. Disse og andre skridt hen imod fred er enorme, hvis man tager landets historie og situation i betragtning. (2) Men desværre, selve fredsprocessen koster penge og kræver megen forskellig og uafhængig ekspertice. Ja, den kræver fredshjælp udefra. Man får det ikke.   Hvorfor lader det internationale samfund hånt om Burundi?...

Burundierna vill ha rättvisa och fred. En studie som utförts av Observatoire de l’Action Gouvernementale (OAG) visar att 83% av befolkningen vill att en försoningskommission ska upprättas, 82% vill ha en särskild tribunal för brott mot mänskligheten. Skulle du läsa dette just nu om du inte hade nytta av det? Få fler kvalitetsartiklar ifrån TFF i framtiden Burundi har demobiliserat majoriteten av sina stridande soldater och tar hand om barnsoldater. Flyktingar har återvänt hem. Ledare i exil återvänder, före detta rebeller bildar partier. Ett beslut om en Sannings- och försoningskommission har fattats. Dessa och andra steg mot freden är väldiga – med tanke på landets historia och situation (2). Men, tyvärr, själva fredsprocessen kostar pengar och kräver många typer av oberoende expertkunnande.   Varför överges Burundi av det internationella samfundet? Folk som slår in på fredens väg borde belönas. Men var i denna värld ska Burundis regering och frivilligorganisationerna hitta...

LONDON – President George W. Bush was right on the mark when he told the Latvians that they must put the past behind them and look to the future. Fighting yesterday’s battles over again never got anybody anywhere. If I’m now old enough that I no longer blame my parents for all my many faults it is because I know they gave me life, freedom – and a continent that no longer goes to war with itself. Let’s leave it there and get on with the job of spreading economic well-being, democracy and the substitution of military conflict by the artful use of law, arbitration and the growing awareness of common interest. Going back through the ages we see from our present perspective that the reasons wars were fought were not issues that would now engage us. In one age tens of thousands of lives were sacrificed to win succession to...

Till Klaras huvudsida

1. Efter tsunamin Tsunamins vågor drabbade också Indien. Två veckor efter katastrofen står jag på Koromandelkustens strand i Chennai (Madras), Indiens fjärde största stad. De svenska TV-nyheterna missade första dagen sexmiljonerstaden på sina kartor. Här fanns ju inga svenskar. Ett hundratal omkom här, de flesta fiskare. Längre söderut räknades de döda i bortåt tiotusen. Några dagar senare i Karaikal längre söderut, ett svårt drabbat område, ser jag en fiskebåt uppslungad på flodbanken vid en bro, som en bortkastad leksak. En annan båt ligger tilltryckt och kvaddad på botten. I vattenbrynet ligger än en barnsandal, en skolväska, ett par byxor. Den sömniga byn Tranquebarvar under 225 år till 1845 en dansk koloni. På stranden reser sig fortet Dansborg, byggt av danskarna, med koloniala stormaktsdrömmar. På kyrkogården femhundra meter från vattenbrynet, vid det som hette “Kongens gade”, har de danska gravstenarna en fuktrand som visar hur högt vattnet stod katastrofdagen. De kristna...

LONDON – No one should ever doubt Prime Minister Tony Blair’s leadership capabilities. He has the right combination of inner arrogance (friends would say conviction) and outward modesty. In the House of Commons he is rarely bested and in the country at large there is a great appreciation for what eight years of his government have done in keeping the economy on the high road, repairing the run down National Health Service, helping the poor and aged with income supplements and Africa with more aid, improving the working class housing estates and grappling vigorously, if not always productively, with the declining academic prowess of the state school sector. His government has also been a good friend of the arts and of liberalizing the British culture of the stiff upper lip and the social rigidity that accompanies it. In this and a multitude of other ways he has made the British...

Features collected by TFF • Updated regularly, April 28, 2005 News out of Africa are mostly bad news – AIDS, poverty, humanitarian catastrophes, war. Burundi today is a story about a hard struggle for peace and reasons for hope. It is about rebels laying down their weapons and demobilisation and a new post-war defence force. It is about elections, power sharing, and a truth and reconciliation committee. And it is about an absolutely essential UN mission – and a world community that still does not reward those who move to peace enough. The story about the struggle for peace in Burundi has hardly been written and certainly not reached beyond the tiny circle of specialists. Of course, there are not only good news. But hugely complex and risky, the peace process is still a story of hope. It deserves to be told worldwide. If Burundi got more media attention, it...

– “Click on the above link and see what fascinating path Gudrun has created in her life. With remarkable creativity, energy and devotion she has now spearheaded a new mass movement in Sweden, Feminist Initiative – FI – that has, in less than four weeks, put the feminist issues on the Sweden’s political and media agenda in an entirely new way and put the skids under all other parties from right to left. It’s 13 years since Gudrun joined TFF as adviser and she serves today as a board member who helps us – with other strong women Associates – to integrate the feminist perspective with our work for peace. Gudrun sees TFF as another platform for global impact – her own as well as that of Feminist Initiative. We are very happy to have such a visionary fiery spirit and like-minded sister on board,” says TFF director Jan Oberg....

LONDON – Kibera, on the outskirts of Nairobi, supposedly the world’s largest slum, home to 800,000 souls, is known for its “flying toilets”. With no sewerage system the inhabitants defecate into plastic bags, which are then thrown onto nearby wasteland. How can it be, after billions of dollars of aid to Kenya, hundreds of reports on upgrading squatters’ settlements and the headquartering in Nairobi of the UN agency, Habitat, charged with urban improvement, that no one has built Kibera a sewerage system? Most of the people I approached refused to accompany me to Kibera, known as a den of dirt and iniquity. Habitat didn’t respond to my e-mails. Finally a young man, a teacher of the Koran, agreed to show me the inside track. And so I made my first visit for 25 years. It was always bad. Now despite the signs outside a couple of shops advertising “second hand...

Prior to the 2003 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that “Gender-based violence is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace.” In this article we seek to relate the gender-based violence to the issue of human security and ideas about a new type of defence policy. (When this was written in Swedish at the time of the debate about the future of Sweden’s official defence policy, it was refused by a series of leading newspapers, right, middle and left). The Swedish edition of this article here From patriarchal exertion of power toward human security and democracy We know of no one, neither men nor women, who want war and death. 99 per cent of people on earth do not want violence in their lives...

By whom, one might humbly ask, by what circles? It is true that mainstream media often describe the ICG as prestigious or well-respected. People who are not too familiar with politics and conflicts may go for the names and public relations of an organisation, and in those terms, ICG is certain world-leading, in spite of the fact that virtually all the top names are “have-beens”. However, professionals in conflict-analysis, -resolution and peacemaking may find reasons to question the image ICG promotes of itself. In what follows, the focus is on general status and connections as well as on intellectual/research pertaining to a couple of conflicts – thus not excluding that Crisis Group may do better work elsewhere.   Non-governmental? Independent? A visit to Crisis Group’s website reveals that 40% of its funds come from governments: Agence Intergouvernementale de la francophonie, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Holland, Finland, France,...

We want to share with you the happy news that Jan Oberg, TFF co-founder and director has been awarded the “2005 Small Peace Prize” of the Swedish Peace Council. The Prize is instituted as “complimentary to the ‘big’ Nobel Peace Prize.” The Council is an umbrella organisation for the following members: Artists for Peace, the Iraqi Democratic Association, Association of Christian Humanism and Social Perspective, Women for Peace, Psychologists Against Nuclear Weapons, the Swedish Peace Committee, Swedish Women’s Left Association, and the Society of Friends (Quakers) plus 5 other associated NGOs. The Prize – which comes with 25.000 Swedish kronor – rewards an individual’s “courage and idealism in promoting reconciliation among groups in conflicts outside Sweden.” In its motivation, the Council emphasises the energy and creativity by which TFF’s international work is carried out; its integrated approach to research and activism based on about 100 highly competent people, all voluntarily...