Archive 1986 – 2017

USA:s utrikespolitik tycks hålla på att röra sig bortom sfärerna för statskunskapens läroböcker. Washington i dag innebär ett alltmer krigslystet grupptänkande.* Det är en scen för det absurda. Uttalanden utan innebörd för andra yttras i ett moraliskt tomrum. Med den eskalerande integrationen av paranoia och storhetsvansinne, blir man snarare tvungen att vända sig till läroböcker i psykologi för att få en tolkning. Vi lever i allt farligare tider. Hur ska vi reagera, intellektuellt och emotionellt? Hur ska vi till exempel reagera på en surrealistisk nyhetssnutt som denna? “USA har planer på att upprätta en USA-ledd militär administration i Irak, liknande ockupationen av Tyskland och Japan efter kriget, som kunde pågå i åtskilliga år efter Saddam Husseins fall. … Saddam skulle ersättas av USA-generalen Tommy Franks. ….” Nej, det är inte fiktion. Läs historien här: New York Times den 10 oktober 2002 USA har en plan för att ockupera Irak, rapporterar...

Statement at the European Parliament, October 22, 2002 Thank you for inviting me to speak today. I have come here to urge you all, individually and collectively, to do everything in your power to oppose a US war against Iraq a war that can have no good end. I believe that we have within our reach the ability to stop this war before it begins.  If we succeed, we will save the lives of innocent Iraqis who have suffered enough, and also the lives of young American soldiers, who enlisted in the military with the primary purpose of obtaining the resources to go to college. We will also prevent the creation of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of new terrorists, whose activities will undoubtedly affect Europe as well as the United States.  America Does Not Speak with One Voice The Bush administration would have the world believe that America speaks...

by Brian J. Foley (1) Necessity has been called “the mother of invention.” Although the precise relationship between these concepts may be open to debate, they are certainly closely related in international law: The requirement that force may be used only when necessary should compel a search for alternatives to force and violence. After September 11, however, no such search occurred. There were and are alternatives to the U.S. war against Afghanistan, but the U.S. and the UN failed to work together to find any. As such, the war against Afghanistan is illegitimate under international law. (2) This short paper argues that the search for alternatives to violence in international responses to terrorism is not merely an idealistic whim: it is a legal requirement. This paper thus also argues that U.S. and UN Security Council should have worked together to seek, and try, alternatives to force and violence. More generally,...

Introduction There are at least two problems with the phrase “Agenda for Human Rights workers in Southeast Asia”, apart from the usual politics of agenda setting. First, the term “human rights workers” is purposively selected to both emphasize the human side of working for human rights and to undermine the increasing tendency in some corners to relegate human rights activities to mainly be in the hands of experts. Second, the term “Southeast Asia” as a complex topography can hardly be discussed in general without essentializing it. But while there may be no underlying unity nor Southeast Asian essence which is shared by all Southeast Asian societies, to assume a total absence of broad family resemblance in the area would also be contrary to common experience. (1) One of the direct implications of this understanding then, is there could be no uniformed agenda for human rights workers in Southeast Asia, though...

New Delhi – The slumbering giant may be about to awaken again. The danger of returning to the Hindu growth rate will be washed away at next year’s election. The era of indecision and drift, with only the decision to become an open nuclear weapons state as evidence of decisiveness, will hopefully be consigned to the dustbin of history. This is how senior members of the Congress party would like it to be – and maybe they are largely right, although very few in the electorate of the largest democracy in the world will forget that while Congress, the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, led their country to independence from the British, it also produced the “emergency” of Mrs Indira Gandhi (Nehru’s daughter) when democracy was suspended and when it finally was allowed to return she was swept out of office, and the corruption of the administration of Rajiv...

Helsingborgs DagbladIraq 2 This is what one can expect to see when zapping through the TV channels on a random night in Baghdad. TV1 shows an English-American action movie with axe murderers. TV2 transmits a live football match. Another channel offers an interview with a British activist who brought medicine to Iraq and discusses how important it is to inform the people at home. The interview is going on in English without any translation. As the logo pops up on the screen, I learn that I am watching Iraq Highlight, one of the two programmes that I have seen with an international profile. Here, viewers are briefed on what happened during the day: diplomatic meetings of various leaders, the regime’s political focus, and of course, whom Saddam Hussein has met, written a letter to or received a letter from today. Another evening I hear him praise the air force’s heroic...

London – At first the news from North Korea seemed like an almighty setback to thoIse who believe we can deal with grave security problems more by engagement rather than confrontation. Not only did it appear to knock the shine off Jimmy Carter’s Nobel Peace Prize, since his greatest achievement, apart from Camp David, was his successful diplomacy that brokered the 1994 freeze on the country’s nuclear bomb making, it appeared it might well open the doors again to those Republicans who eight years ago were arguing for the U.S. to bomb North Korea. A strange thing appears to have happened in those eight years. For all the bluster with President George Bush’s notion of an “axis of evil”, no longer is the talk this wild. The accent is all on diplomacy and an emphasising of what is still apparently being honoured in the old 1994 agreement, the freezing of plutonium...

Af Professor dr.juris Ståle Eskeland NORGES FREDSRÅDNorwegian Peace AllianceMember of the International Peace Bureau, IPB 25 oktober 2002 New York, 16. oktober 2002 Utenriksminister Jan Petersen Oslo I egenskap av Norges Fredsråds observatør i den norske delegasjon ved FNs 57. generalforsamling, i dagene 8. – 18. oktober 2002, vil jeg gjerne få takke for den store innsats den norske FN-ambassaden gjør for at alle tilreisende delegater og observatører får best mulig utbytte av oppholdet ved FN. Jeg har i de senere år arbeidet mye med folkerettslige spørsmål som gjelder krig, fred og FNs rolle. Iraks mulige besittelse av masseødeleggelsesvåpen (det er i øyeblikket uvisst om Irak har masseødeleggelsesvåpen) og mulig bruk av dem, skal drøftes i en ekstraordinært møte Sikkerhetsrådet onsdag den 16. og torsdag den 17. oktober 2002. Forslag til resolusjon som mer eller mindre klart autoriserer USA til å gå til militært angrep på Irak vil trolig om kort...

Helsingborgs Dagblad Irak 3 Demoniseringen av fienden inför kriget är bastant. Svenska medier tar för givet att kriget kommer. Irak har också i svenska medier blivit synonymt med Saddam Hussein, inte med 23 miljoner medmänniskor. Irakiska folket tillhör numera tystnadens zon. Det ska framför allt inte krypa in något litet element av mänsklighet i vår syn på landet. De ska inte framstå som människor, mödrar, fäder, barn med hopp och fruktan, fattiga och rika. Det är ju bara Saddam och hans palats och militär vi ska pulverisera i ett överlägset teknoinferno! Inget om de tänkbara konsekvenserna av ett storkrig: miljoner av flyktingar, tiotusentals döda och skadade (såväl irakier som amerikaner, inte minst om kemiska stridsmedel tas i användning); miljöförstörelse, oljeprisets himmelflykt, möjlig spridning av kriget till Israel-Palestina, behov av hundratusentals miljarder dollar till återuppbyggnad under kanske 10-20 år, eventuell upplösning av Irak i tre delar, krig i Turkiet mot kurderna...

Helsingborgs DagbladIrak 3 Demoniseringen af fjenden, med krig i sigte, er bastant. De svenske medier tager det for givet at der bliver krig. Og også i svenske medier er Irak blevet synonym med Saddam Hussein, ikke med 23 millioner medmennesker. Det irakiske folk er blevet fortrængt til den lydfri zone. Der må frem for alt i verden ikke smyge sig det mindste lille element af menneskelighed ind i vores syn på landet. De må ikke fremstå som mennesker, mødre, fædre, børn med håb og frygt, fattige og rige. Det handler jo bare om Saddam og hans palads og militær, som vi skal pulverisere i et overlegent teknoinferno! Intet om de mulige konsekvenser af en storkrig: Millioner flygtninge, titusinde døde og skadede (såvel irakere som amerikanere, ikke mindst hvis der tages kemiske kampmidler i brug); ødelæggelse af miljøet, oljeprisernes himmelflugt, mulighed for at krigen breder sig til Israel-Palestina, behovet for hundredetusinde...

The Problem of Cultural Paranoia My topic today is Terrorism and Cultural Diversity. The tragic events of September 11 are still reverberating around the world. I am sure that the question of the role of cultural diversity in providing the breeding ground for “terror” is on many people’s minds. Does “terror” arise from cultural distance? Is it the “foreigners”, those people we do not understand, who are the “troublemakers”? To be anxious about strangers in our midst is a natural reaction. In times of fear and panic, the “aliens”, the “foreigners” become suspect. We must be very careful to distinguish between realistic threats to security from those paranoid reactions against all foreigners. The very great danger in times of crisis is the focusing of anxiety and anger on outsiders. This leads to “ethnic profiling”, or “stereotyping”, and then, as a direct result of this, the “scapegoating” of innocents. Such times...

This table contains quotes from three sources concerning two Iraqi biological weapons production facilities. Below please see von Sponeck’s contrasting on-site observations.  Al Dora Foot & Mouth VaccineProduction Unit Al Fallujah IIICastor Oil Production Plant IISS:”Work appears to have started. The facility has about 25% of its 1991 capacity.” (1a) IISS:”Plant destroyed in Dec. 1998. Current status unknown.” (1b) US Government:“One of two known bio-containment level-three facilities that have an extensive air-handling and filtering system.” (2a) US Government:No reference. UK Government:“Facility of concern”. (3a) UK Government:“Facility of Concern. The castor oil plant was damaged in UK/US air attacks in 1998 but has been re-built. The residue from the castor bean pulp can be used in the production of the biological agent ricin.” (3b) NOTES: 1. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS): “Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction – A Net Assessment.”, London, 9 Sept.2002, (1a) & (1b), p.30 2. US Government.:”A...