Archive 1986 – 2017

LONDON – Imagine for a moment that the U.S. gave up all its nuclear weapons, a totally farfetched idea but one supported by such luminaries as former secretary for defense, Robert McNamara, the late Paul Nitze, Ronald Reagan’s hard-line negotiator on nuclear arms and General George Lee Butler, the former chief of U.S. strategic (i.e. nuclear) forces. As his successor, General Eugene Habiger, has said, “We have reached the point where the senior military generals responsible for nuclear forces are advocating more vocally, more vehemently, than our politicians, to get down to lower and lower weapons”. But imagine if it did happen what effect this would have on Russia. It would then move immediately to close down its decaying early warning system and its hair-trigger nuclear posture, which former senator Sam Nunn sees as a likely cause of accidental nuclear war. Imagine what effect it would have on Iran, Syria,...

Fallujah den 14. oktober 2004 Hans Excellence, Hr. Kofi Annan, generalsekretær for De forenede Nationer, New York Deres Excellence. Det står helt klart, at de amerikanske styrker begår folkemord hver eneste dag i Iraq. Nu, mens vi skriver til Deres Excellence, begår de amerikanske styrker disse forbrydelser i byen Fallujah. De amerikanske krigsfly kaster deres kraftigste bomber mod de civile i byen og dræber og sårer herved hundredvis af uskyldige mennesker. Samtidig angriber deres tanks byen med tungt artilleri. Som De ved, er der intet militær i byen. Fallujahs modstandsbevægelse har ikke haft nogen aktioner gennem de sidste uger på grund af forhandlingerne mellem byens repræsentanter og regeringen, som gik godt. I den atmosfære får vi USAs nye bombardement, mens borgerne i Fallujah forbereder sig til Ramadanens faste. Mange af dem er nu fanget under ruinerne af deres ødelagte huse og ingen kan hjælpe dem, mens angrebet fortsætter. Alene i...

Are you sick and tired too of just hearing and seeing negative stuff about the world? Do you feel powerless, losing hope?Then be inspired and charge you social change batteries by reading some of these stories … people can make a difference! John Hughes, The Christian Science MonitorA people-to-people defense against terrorism Arie Farnam, The Christian Science MonitorHelpt to Ukraine’s street kids from two US women The Great News Network, GNNGNN spreads inspiration and good stories for a better worldGNN The British Ministry of PeaceYes, it exists – and here is what it does International Alert, LondonWomen building peace The interview with God…A moment of reflection of why we live the way we do – and what God (presumably) thinks about it William Rivers Pitt, TruthOutThe ethics of total opposition BBCDeadly foes embrace in Ambon, IndonesiaBut Muslims and Christians at the rally – who rarely mix – expressed optimism that the violence would...

LONDON – The upheavals in the Ukraine have many roots but one of them undoubtedly is the lack of a well thought out long term attitude by the Western powers to post Cold War Russia. Since the days of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, both Europe and the U.S. have failed to be clear either to themselves or to the outside world what exactly they wanted beyond an end to communism. Although Gorbachev was much lauded in the West as a great reformer there was little offered in the way of economic help so that he would be strong enough at home to preside over a more carefully measured transition than the one that in fact occurred under the impetuous Boris Yeltsin who rode the break up of the Soviet Union on his way to power. Then in 1992, at the time of Yeltsin’s first government...

Af  Solveig Czeskleba-Dupont Lektor & centerleder CNAS, Hvalsø 1. december, 2004 I september 2002, da USA begyndte at true Irak med en militærinvasion, stødte jeg på bogen Sunkne Paladser – historien om Orientens opdagelse af Mogens Trolle Larsen (Gyldendal 1996). Forfatteren er lektor i assyriologi ved Carsten Niebuhr Instituttet ved Københavns Universitet og har selv deltaget i flere udgravninger i Mellemøsten. I sit værk gennemgår Trolle Larsen på 400 sider historien omkring det 19. årh.s store udgravninger langs Eufrat og Tigris , blandt andet udgravningerne af oldtidsbyerne Babylon og Nineve, der er kendt fra Bibelen. Sunkne Paladser er en spændende og rigt illustreret bog, der til fulde viser Iraks særstilling inden for vores kulturhistorie, og som sætter Iraks senere dramatiske udvikling i perspektiv. Som bekendt er det siden efteråret 2002 gået grueligt galt for den irakiske befolkning. I slutningen af marts 2003 blev landet angrebet af en koalition med USA...

Lund, Sverige og Nagoya, Japan – I forbindelse med Byrettens dom på 6 måneders fængsel til Frank Grevil udtaler statsadvokat Karsten Hjorth (Politiken 30. november 2004) at han vil “anke dommen med påstand om en skærpelse af straffen til ikke under et års fængsel.” Han citeres desuden for at “Der er så meget, som er i offentlighedens interesse, men som alligevel må holdes hemmeligt.” Straffelovens § 152 stipulerer netop 6 måneder, men 152e siger formildende at “Bestemmelserne omfatter ikke tilfælde, hvor den pågældende: er forpligtet til at videregive oplysningen eller handler i berettiget varetagelse af åbenbar almeninteresse eller af eget eller andres tarv.” Der er almindelig enighed om at Grevil har ikke afsløret noget som helst hemmeligt og rapporterne er siden blevet offentliggjort. Statsadvokatens udsagn er derfor lige så politisk som irrelevant. Danmark har imidlertid, altfor længe, haft en tradition for lukkethed, som Grevil nu har brudt netop i offentlighedens interesser....

25:e november, 2004 Idag, den 25 november är det den “Internationella Dagen För Avskaffande Av Våld Mot Kvinnor”. Generalsekreterare Kofi Annans budskap förra året, den 25 november år 2003, var (enligt UN News Update): “Könsrelaterat våld är kanske den mest avskyvärda kränkningen av de mänskliga rättigheterna. Så länge det fortsätter kan vi inte hävda att vi gör några riktiga framsteg mot jämlikhet, utveckling och fred.” Här relaterar vi det könsrelaterade våldet till frågan om mänsklig säkerhet och tankar om en ny typ av försvarspolitik. En rad ledande tidningar i Sverige har tackat nej till att publicera artikeln. FRÅN PATRIARKAL MAKTUTÖVNING TILL MÄNSKLIG SÄKERHET OCH DEMOKRATI – Vi känner ingen, varken kvinna eller man, som önskar krig och död.  99 % av klotets kvinnor och män önskar inte våld. De önskar ickevåld! Fred. En trygg framtid för sina barn, ett värdigt liv för sina föräldrar. Ett liv befriat från den  rädsla...

LONDON – Mark Palmer, the U.S. State Department’s former top “Kremlinologist”, has proposed the world’s democracies set themselves the goal of ridding the world of its 43 remaining dictators over the next twenty years. Surely this is something liberals and neo-conservatives can agree on. One would wish it so but unfortunately the means separates them. President George W. Bush said the other day that, “The reason I’m so strong on democracy is democracies don’t go to war with each other. I’ve got great faith in democracies to promote peace.” This is a great philosophical leap forward for conservatives. Not so long ago they poked fun at the human rights obsessiveness of former president Jimmy Carter and did everything they could to stymie his efforts in Latin America in particular to quicken the pace of democratic evolution. When Ronald Reagan defeated Carter he gave short shrift to human rights goals and...

The best-prepared and most successful large-scale civil disobedience action in Scandinavian history never took place. Johansen tells the remarkable story that could inspire many others. The background In 1996 the Norwegian Parliament decided to build two large power stations to produce electricity from natural gas. With a company ready to build and a decision made by the authorities, it seemed almost impossible to prevent it. Natural gas had for years been presented as “clean” and “friendly to nature.” To promote the project the company behind the plans took the name “Naturkraft” (The Power of Nature). Who could protest “The Power of Nature?” For many years, Norway has produced and consumed more electricity per capita than any other country in the world, except Canada. Most of the electricity comes from waterfalls with enormous destruction to nature, culture, fauna and flora. Opposition to high energy consumption and environmental destruction dates to the...

PressInfo # 202 Margaret Hassan has been murdered. That is the most probable conclusion from a video given to Al Jazeera yesterday. For one who met her and got to know her, even if just a little, it is hard to write and read that sentence. But Margaret Hassan – Umm Margaret – in Baghdad has been murdered. Who killed her? Desperate, fanatic people who thereby casts a dark shadow over their nationality, organisation, religion and philosophy. People who mistakenly believe that a better Iraq will emerge from such a crime and who cares nil for the welfare of the Iraqi people to whom she devoted most of her life and work. Or someone related to the occupation forces seeking to discredit the image of all Iraqi resistance. Why she of all? Because she was a courageous, principled and determined humanist who defied danger and could not be intimidated. She...

LONDON – To be blunt, there is no Israel and no Palestine. At least not in a continuous historical sense, as there is a France or an Egypt, a China or a Thailand. Without the British there would be neither a modern Israel nor Palestine. The Jews claim that they are merely returning to their roots, unwinding the clock to Old Testament times. But if every group of ethnic kin with an ancient pedigree did this where would we be? The Indians could reclaim North and South America, the Moguls Russia and the Hottentots South Africa. The Jews left what was relatively recently named Palestine a long time ago. In AD 70 after the Jewish insurrection the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple and the Jews began a new exodus to Babylonia, in modern day Iraq. This large-scale Jewish settlement of Babylonia endured until the eleventh century. Other Jews went to...