Archive 1986 – 2017

The moral cost of the Nato war on Yugoslavia is only beginning to become plain. The material costs were far from negligible, and have revealed considerable weaknesses in the military preparedness of most Alliance members. More than one thousand aircraft flew more than 38,000 sorties, and cost dozens of billions of dollars. Twenty-eight countries have subsequently deployed 38,000 peace keepers, many of who will be needed to stay in place indefinitely in conditions which are highly insecure. Endemic ethnic violence rages through Kosovo, and even the most robust optimism blenches in the face of such ungovernable turbulence. Murders are commonplace. Former guerrillas, once subject at least to token disarmament, are now commonly armed again. Nato forces suffer continual attacks, sometimes from minority Serbs and at other times by majority Albanians. The real Government of Kosovo is frequently said to be in the hands of the Kosovo Liberation Army, but its...

Photos © TFF 2000 Read PressInfo 90 “Lift the Sanctions and Bring More Aid to Yugoslavia” See Pictures of the Humanitarian Situation in Serbia © TFF 2000 Please reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the source.

At a meeting in the European Parliament on 11/12 May 2000 to consider the proposal for a European Conference on Peace and Human Rights, the following appeal was agreed. After the war in Yugoslavia, and the sidelining of the United Nations, there has been a marked deterioration in international relations. This adverse development has not been offset by gains in human rights, either in the Balkans or further afield. To the contrary, ethnic divisions have been intensified, crime and lawless behaviour have increased, and people have fewer rights, and less control over the course of their lives, than ever before. At the same time, new threats have widened. In particular, the threat to peace is now fearfully increased by nuclear doctrines of first use. This long-held and dangerous commitment in the USA and Nato has been matched by the Putin Doctrine in Russia, ratified on 21st April 2000. Henceforward, the...

6 LONG-TERM GOALS – to abolish war as an accepted social institution, precisely as we have done with slavery, cannibalism, child labour, rape, genocide,etc.; – to provide survival, security and protection without causing an arms race and threatening other societies; – to deal with conflicts and create peace by peaceful means, in accordance with the UN norm; – to permanently secure the existence of the Earth and humankind, never put it at risk; – to enable present and future generations to live in a world where the norms of the UN Charter are implemented; – to preserve pluralism in all aspects of life, unity in diversity, respect for life, and – to live in partnership with Nature. Lesson 1 to implement:In the militarised world system and the nuclear age, we can not afford to wait until war breaks out and then react with military force. We need an active peace...

LONDON – The private schools of Britain, the Etons, Harrows, Winchesters et al produce the Tutsis of my land. I grew up as a rank and file Hutu, part of the majority, graduating from the city high school of Liverpool- along with my classmate, Paul McCartney- and then on to the red brick university of Manchester. The Tutus in large numbers colonized Oxford and Cambridge- and still do despite a generation of educational reforms- taking a good half of the places. All my journalistic life I’ve struggled against the Tutsi. They take most of the top jobs in the BBC and the classier papers. If it hadn’t been for the American paper in Europe, the International Herald Tribune, I might never have made it. Yet not for one moment did I consider rallying my putative majority to fight the Tutsis. Years of conditioning bred me to accept the virtues of a...

“What does it mean to defend modern society? What does security mean? 99 per cent of the public information and debate as well as research on defence and security policies omit every philosophical problematic and plunge directly into the issues of what weapons or military budget a country should have. The only armament the world needs, it seems to me,” says TFF director Jan Oberg, “is a philosophical and intellectual armament in academia, in politics and in the media.” OF COURSE THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES “If we need military defence, that military must be fundamentally different from the one we see around today. But more importantly, the world – ‘we, the peoples’ – needs something the militarist elites and the military-industrial-bureaucratic complexes can’t deliver: innovative, comprehensive models with mixed civilian and military components and structured according to each country’s and region’s needs, not to the needs of these elites, complexes or to the needs of...

“¿Qué significa defender en el mundo actual? ¿Qué significa seguridad? El 99 por 100 de la información pública y la discusión así como la investigación sobre defensa y seguridad omiten todo problema filosófico y se zambullen directamente en temas como qué armas o presupuesto militar debe tener un país El único armamento que el mundo necesita, me parece a mí,” dice el director de TFF, Jan Oberg, “es un armamento filosófico e intelectual en cultura, en política y en medios de comunicación.” POR SUPUESTO, EXISTEN ALTERNATIVAS “Si es verdad que necesitamos defensa militar, esos militares deberían ser fundamental diferentes de los que vemos hoy por hoy. Pero más importantemente, el mundo -“nosotros, el pueblo”- necesita algo que las élites militares y los complejos militar-industrial-burocráticos no pueden entregarnos: modelos innovadores, comprensivos tanto con los componentes civiles y militares estructurados según cada país como con las necesidades de la región, no con...

It is inevitable not to react to Pressinfo # 90 “Lift the Sanctions and Bring More Aid to Yugoslavia”. To convey images with the facts and descriptions offered by TFFs conflict-mitigation team members Soren Sommelius and Jan Oberg should be the duty of responsible journalism, but it is good not to wait for that to happen and take responsible initiative. The demolition of the middle-class seems to be the priority of the global neoliberal policies that have been adopted by most developing countries and make rich elites richer and poor masses poorer. The examples are manifold. I can think of Mexico for instance, where according to Carlos Fuentes 40 million live in poverty, and 17 million in extreme poverty. Another Mexican, Carlos Slim, is one of the richest men in the world who among many businesses owns Mexico’s telephone company, Telmex. He has benefited from the privatization policies of a...

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An investigation of the role of poverty as a causal factor in war requires re-examination of three generally accepted propositions. The first speaks directly to the issue at hand; the others do so only indirectly, but are also pertinent. 1. Poverty alone, or even in conjunction with other alienating factors (ie ethnic or religious discrimination), is insufficient to spark revolt. 2. The late 1990s explosion of intra-state violent conflicts was due to the end of the Cold War (which removed the pressure cooker lid), and/or the implosion of the Soviet Union. 3. Democracies do not go to war against each other. Challenging conventional propositions There were, in fact, historic exceptions to all these ‘rules’. Now, there is an argument to be made that the exception, at least to the core, first proposition, is becoming the norm. And that this phenomenon, in turn, may be ascribed to the communications/ information revolution...

Världspolitikens Dagsfrågor 12/1999, Utrikespolitiska Institutet, Stockholm Efter nära två år av förhandlingar kunde på långfredagen 1998 sk Belfast-avtalet undertecknas. Avtalet lade grunden för en återgång till självstyre för Nordirland. För första gången någonsin skulle katoliker och protestanter gemensamt dela det politiska ansvaret för provinsen och dess relationer till grannen i söder, Republiken Irland. Det skulle dock dröja ända till november 1999 innan de institutioner som enligt avtalet skulle etableras var på plats; en provinsregering i Belfast, ett ministerråd för samarbete mellan Belfast och Dublin (North/South Ministerial Council) och ett gemensamt forum för de brittiska öarna (British-Irish Council). I februari 2000 beslutade den brittiska Nordirlands-ministern att efter endast nio veckor suspendera självstyret som fram tills dess fungerat över förväntan. Det största protestantiska partiet väntades fatta beslut om att dra sig ur provinsregeringen som därmed skulle falla. Orsaken var att de paramilitära grupper som under ett kvartsekel hållit Nordirlands befolkning i ett...

LONDON – Can it go on? Why should it go on? And, anyway, what real long run benefits does it bring? These are the still unanswered questions that fifty years of massive immigration into Europe pose. The last ten years the questioning has been relatively muted. The European economies under-performed and European governments finally, if belatedly, put into place common immigration policies that weakened a flow that was diminished anyway by the slackening of demand. But the big questions from the 1960s and 70s are back with a vengeance. Economic activity is picking up fast and some governments, such as the Spanish, are letting it be known they are more in favour of renewed immigration. The whole 60’s belief system is being dusted off: that immigration oils the cogs and wheels of the economy, especially the bit down below decks where the heavy lifting is done. Moreover, it was said, as...