Archive 1986 – 2017

UNICEF launched a campaign in Colombia this week that aims to bring together more than 2 million Colombians to promote peace, reports Bogota’s El Pais. The “Manos a la Paz” (Hands For Peace) campaign, which began Monday and runs through Sunday, has recruited 100,000 youth between the ages of 14 and 18 to act as “peace builders.” After receiving training, the youth deliver messages on peace building to families, schools, businesses and unions in more than 1,000 towns. According to its promoters, the campaign supports the Colombian peace process and is intended as a “push” to resolve the Colombian conflict with negotiations. It also teaches “tolerance and respect for others, reconciliation, solidarity and participation” (Ignacio Tena, Bogota El Tiempo, 4 Nov, UN Wire translation). At least 35,000 Colombians have been killed in just the last decade of Colombia’s 40-year civil war. “Kidnappings and extortion are common, and 1.5 million Colombians...

By Chris Black Lawyer, Toronto Private justice replacing public justice The indictment of Slobodan Milosevic for alleged war crimes raises important questions about the impartiality and, ultimately, the purpose of the International Criminal Tribunal. For centuries, the independence of judicial bodies has been considered one of the fundamental precepts of the quest for justice. As Lord Hewart stated in 1924, it is “…of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.” It has also been said that there is nothing more important than the public administration of justice. But in the case of the International Criminal Tribunal a compelling argument can be made that private justice has replaced public justice, that even the appearance of fundamental justice has been replaced by an open contempt for justice. It is clear that from the beginning American, British, French and German interests...

Some comments on the second war, NATO’s propaganda war, and how it was reflected in Western media “Oh what a lovely war!” was the headline of an article in the April 24th issue 1999 of the British magazine The Economist. The NATO bombings of Yugoslavia had then been going on for a month. The magazine published the results of an interesting and in my opinion rather shocking opinion poll, made by the polling firm Argus Reid Group – http://www.angusreid.com – at the request of the magazine. 8.575 people in 17 countries had answered questions related to the NATO bombings. One of the questions was: ” Are you for or against NATO’s decision to bomb Serb military installations?” Croatia was the country in which the largest part of the asked people was in favour of the bombings, almost 80 %. That is maybe what you could expect. But the second highest figure in...

The German Holocaust and the Genocides in Rwanda and Somalia (1999). Love, Holocaust and Humiliation. The German Holocaust and the Genocides in Rwanda and Somalia. In Medlemsbladet for Norske Leger Mot Atomkrig, Med Bidrag Fra Psykologer for Fred, 3 (November), pp. 28-29. (Dr. med. Evelin Gerda Lindner, University of Oslo, Institute of Psychology, P.O.Box 1094 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway, Tel. +47 91789296, e.g.lindner@psykologi.uio.no, www.uio.no/~evelinl) Abstract Historians usually describe the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War (28th June 1919) as ‘humiliating’ for Germany (‘Schmach,’ ‘Schande’) and argue that this humiliation ‘pre-programmed’ Germans for the Second World War (see for example Norbert Elias 1989). The ‘humiliation’ imposed by the Treaty of Versailles was the starting point for my current research project at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Oslo. In this project in the field of social psychology I am studying the genocide in Rwanda (1994) and Somalia...

Links to Facts & Views A NEW COLD WAR ?  Are nuclear policies shaping a new Cold War era?• New U.S. policies anatagonize Russia and ChinaThe Clinton administration appears to be heading for a confrontation with Russia and China on its plans to develop an antiballistic missile (ABM) system capable of warding off blows from rogue states like North Korea and Iran. High-level Chinese diplomat sees the United States developing into a rogue state.• The U.S. is drunk with its own powerWashington seems to be developing a stubbornness against abiding by weapons’ control pacts and a greater penchant to use armed force against its real or perceived enemies. This is not the era of peace it could have been, says the director-general of the Arms Control and Disarmament Department of the Chinese foreign ministry. Russia’s warfare in Chechenya, just an immitation of NATO’s in Yugoslavia?• On Winning Battles And Losing WarsRussians who want to...

LONDON- On Saturday, Guatemala will hold its first general election since the signing of the peace agreement in December 1996 which ended a 36 year long civil war that claimed the lives of some 200,000 people, many of them victims of army death squads. For most of the indigenous Indian population, who have been at the brunt end of the violence, it will seem like a non-event. They have a choice between two parties of the right. One is close to business; the other to the army. Turnout is likely to be low. Yet the election is significant. It takes this mercurial country – the one that its Nobel laureate for literature, Miguel Angel Asturias, described in 1920 as “steeped in violence”- one more step away from its terrible past. Of course, so many countries in Latin America have been consumed by violent uprisings and savage army repression over the last...

Reconciling peace and justice in the aftermath of a criminal regime invariably presents difficult choices that can only be resolved within the context of each historical experience. There are no guidelines that can serve societies that have endured a governing process that included Crimes against Humanity and gross abuses of human rights, but are currently making a democratic transition based on constitutionalism and respect for the individual. Fashioning an appropriate approach is rendered more difficult to the extent that the former regime voluntarily gave up power as part of a bargain with the democratic opposition, and yet remains on the scene, even continuing to control the armed forces and internal police apparatus. The Southern Cone countries of Chile and Argentina pose this challenge in its sharpest possible form, but the same type of issue is posed for many other countries, including South Africa and several Central American countries. The complexity...

By Max Boot,the Journal’s editorial features editor. The Wall Street JournalNovember 2, 1999 PRISTINA, Kosovo–Rumors of colonialism’s demise have been much exaggerated. In recent years the United Nations has taken over the administration of Cambodia (1992-93), Bosnia (1995-present), Kosovo and now East Timor. Nowhere is this process further advanced than in Kosovo. Here, unlike in Bosnia, there has been no indigenous government at all (at least none that is officially recognized) since the Serbs left in June. So how is colonialism, U.N.-style, going? That question was on my mind as I tried to concentrate above the thacka-thacka-thacka of a big Chinook helicopter ferrying a group of journalists and policy makers from Macedonia into Kosovo. Although the Italian crew members–part of KFOR (Kosovo Force)– diligently manned their heavy machine guns as we swept in over the countryside, our journey last week was a peaceful one. Pristina, Kosovo’s capital and main city,...

Comments on the Final Report of the Tokyo Forum  The Final Report of the Tokyo Forum is entitled, “Facing Nuclear Dangers: An Action Plan for the 21st Century.” The Report, however, is not nearly as bold as its title would suggest. A clue as to why this may be so is found in paragraph 12 of the opening section of the Report where it states, “Terrorism using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons has been possible for some time, but serious policymakers have traditionally seen other threats as more pressing.” The members of the Tokyo Forum have aimed their recommendations at influencing such “serious policymakers,” particularly those in the nuclear weapons states. The Final Report ends up being short on vision, and proposes only incremental changes, the kind that might be acceptable to those who have no real desire to change the status quo. The Report recognizes, “the fabric of international...

“The UN and NATO missions in Kosovo violate Security Council Resolution 1244, which clearly guarantees the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The Security Council has just reaffirmed that Kosovo is a part of FRY. Resolution 1244 also demands the full cooperation of FRY in implementing the mission’s tasks. All this is pure pretence, as any visitor to Kosovo will learn – and mission members will tell you privately. The Report of the Secretary-General (S/1999/987 of September 16) does not even bother to mention whether KFOR/UNMIK cooperates with Belgrade. It seems pretty clear, rather, that the international community has fooled Belgrade and considers it so weak that it does not even have to be polite or give the world the impression that it respects the country’s sovereignty. This coincides with credible press analyses that U.S. decision makers think Kosovo must become independent. The international...

Links to Facts & Views There are many great initiatives – also in the field of norm-setting – to further a truly global democracy. Here is one of them:• A Charter for Global DemocracyOur call for international accountability, justice, sustainable development and democracy. In September 2000 the United Nations will hold a special Millennium Assembly and Summit on the future of the world. This Charter will be published as an open letter on worldwide and other presented to UN Representatives. Please join us. NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia was also an experiment in information or cyber warfare…• The Cyber Bomb in YugoslaviaFor specialists in this burgeoning field of information warfare, Yugoslavia merely stands as another demonstration that computer network attack will eventually become an integral part of the way warfare is waged, writes Bill Arkin in Washington Post. Bit by bit, the truth about the consequences of NATO’s irresponsible bombing comes out:•Environmental effects of...

Yahoo! News World HeadlinesThursday October 28, 1999http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991028/wl/macedonia_elections_1.htmlAP Photo By Jovana GecAssociated Press Writer SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) – As presidential elections approach, Macedonia’s outgoing president fears nationalism and ethnic intolerance sweeping the Balkans may endanger the future of the nation he led peacefully to independence eight years ago. Voters in this landlocked nation of 2 million people will choose a new president Sunday to succeed Kiro Gligorov, 83, who led Macedonia to independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. In doing so, this ethnically mixed country of Slavs, Albanians, Gypsies and others became the only former Yugoslav republic to leave the Belgrade-led federation without bloodshed. Macedonia’s long-term future, however, is far from assured. Many Macedonians fear that the recent bloodshed in Kosovo and the continuing political turmoil in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, may engulf their country once Gligorov has left office. In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Gligorov said he had...