Archive 1986 – 2017

WASHINGTON DC – U.S. trade policy is in the doldrums and that is, at the least, missing an opportunity and, arguably, politically unsettling and dangerous. The Senate Finance Committee has now decided to effectively shelve its plan to debate a new draft fast-track trade bill and it is an open question whether the stalemate of the last couple of years can be broken during the Clinton presidency. Two years ago President Bill Clinton lost the battle with Congress for fast track authority to expand the North Atlantic Free Trade Area, which would have quickly brought in Chile to join Mexico and Canada along with the U.S. itself. Even when less constrained, Cinton has failed to marshal his forces to reach for new openings. His most recent fumble was the opportunity presented during Chinese premier Zhu Rongji’s recent visit to Washington. Then the Chinese leader made sufficient compromises in his bid for...

“The lack of empathy and solidarity with the 11 million citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia whose society is being destroyed is as amazing as it is deplorable. Remember when people of culture, science, politics, media and humanism flocked to Sarajevo when it was under siege? Where are they now? Journalists flock to Macedonia and Albania – admittedly for very good reasons – and they flock to NATO’s well-staged press briefings. But seeing for oneself what it means to be the object of the worst military, economic and social destruction in Europe since 1945 seems, remarkably, not to be as good a reason,” says TFF director Jan Oberg. Where are those who believe Yugoslavia is a dictatorship? Supporting fellow human beings suffering under dictatorship is a noble reason to go but those around the world who hold this view stay away. Where are the human rights activists when numerous...

“Nedostatak sazaljenja i solidarnosti u svetu za 11 miliona gradjana Savezne Republike Jugoslavije cije je drustvo izlozeno razaranju zapanjuje i zasluzuje svako gnusanje. Setite se samo kako su ljudi od kulture, nauke, politike, medija i humanizma pohrlili u Sarajevo kad se opsada sklopila oko njega? Gde su svi oni sada? Novinari su se sjatili u Makedoniju i Albaniju – priznajem, s jakim razlozima. Skupljaju se i na dobro reziranim brifinzima NATO-a. Medjutim, osvedociti se licno kako to izgleda i sam biti predmetom najtezeg vojnog, ekonomskog i socijalnog razaranja koje je Evropa dozivela od 1945., izgleda da nije dovoljno jak razlog da bi se bilo ovde” kaze direktor TFF-a Jan Oberg. Gde su svi koji veruju kako Jugoslavijom upravlja diktatura? Podrska drugima koji stenju pod cizmom diktatora izgleda mi kao da jeste plemenit razlog, ali od svih onih koji sirom sveta upravo tako misle, niko tamo da ode. Gde su ti...

Helsingborgs Dagblad 20 maj 2000-talets krig utkämpas nu mot Jugoslavien med nya vapenteknologier för svindlande kostnader. Det handlar om krig i rymden men också om krig med projektiler av radioaktiv uran. “NATOS KRIG mot Jugoslavien ger en aning om hur det 21:a århundradets krig kommer att se ut. Nya vapen har utvecklats med otroligt avancerad teknologi och till svindlande kostnader. Det som var fantasifull science fiction i går håller på att bli morgondagens svårfattbara realitet.” Goetz Neuneck från tyska Institutet för Fredsforskning och Säkerhetspolitik i Hamburg är en av deltagarna i ett seminarium om “militära teknologier och deras framtida inverkan på fred och säkerhet” under den nyligen avslutade fredskonferensen i holländska Haag, “The Hague Appeal for Peace 1999”. USA driver den vapenteknologiska utvecklingen och står för hälften av de globala militärkostnaderna. Den senaste budgeten ger Pentagon 281 miljarder dollar. Därtill kommer 112 miljarder i indirekta satsningar. Balkan har under de...

By Viktor ChernomyrdinFormer prime minister of Russia, now the Russian President’s special envoy for Kosovo. I deem it necessary to express my opinion on the Kosovo situation as the warfare escalates and the danger grows of a shift to ground operations, which would be even bloodier and more destructive. I also want to comment on certain ideas put forward by President Clinton in his contribution of May 16 to the New York Times. In particular, I am anxious to express my opinion of his premise that “Russia is now helping to work out a way for Belgrade to meet our conditions,” and that NATO’s strategy can “strengthen, not weaken, our fundamental interest in a long-term, positive relationship with Russia.” In fact, Russia has taken upon itself to mediate between Belgrade and NATO not because it is eager to help NATO implement its strategies, which aim at Slobodan Milosevic’s capitulation and...

By Jimmy Carter39th President of the United StatesChairman of the nonprofit Carter Center, which seeks to advance peace and health around the world. After the cold war, many expected that the world would enter an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Those who live in developed nations might think this is the case today, with the possible exception of the war in Kosovo. But at the Carter Center we monitor all serious conflicts in the world, and the reality is that the number of such wars has increased dramatically. One reason is that the United Nations was designed to deal with international conflicts, and almost all the current ones are civil wars in developing countries. This creates a peacemaking vacuum that is most often filled by powerful nations that concentrate their attention on conflicts that affect them, like those in Iraq, Bosnia and Serbia. While the war in Kosovo rages...

By Jonathan Granoff ETHICAL AND MORAL FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING THE ISSUE: In his concurrence with the historic opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued July 8, 1996, addressing the legal status of the threat or use of nuclear weapons,1 Judge Ranjeva stated, “On the great issues of mankind the requirements of positive law and of ethics make common cause, and nuclear weapons, because of their destructive effects, are one such issue.”2 Human society has ethical and moral norms based on wisdom, conscience and practicality. Many norms are universal and have withstood the test of human experience over long periods of time. One such principle is that of reciprocity. It is often called the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you wish to be treated.” It is an ethical and moral foundation for all the world’s major religions.3 Several modern states sincerely believe that this principle can be abrogated and...

LAGOS- Finally, at the end of this week, Nigeria will step out of the shadows cast by the single-mindedness of oppressive military rule into the uncertain daylight of democratic government. And a few days later South Africa is to re-confirm its short-lived democracy with a general election–though with mixed feelings, as President Nelson Mandela steps down in favour of Thabo Mbeki. This is the new Africa, one that pessimists have always maintained could never happen. They could still be right. Post-Mandela, South Africa may degenerate into the self-serving ways of a one party state as a triumphant African National Congress, wielding a two-thirds majority in parliament, amends the constitution to suit itself, tramples on any opposition, black as well as white, and rides the gravy train for its own benefit, alienating both foreign investors and home-bred capitalists. In Nigeria, a country where the state has already been looted dry, the president-elect,...

Outside Natoland, the situation about the war is extremely serious. The Ukraine was the only country in the world to renounce nuclear weapons and unilaterally disarm. A few weeks ago its parliament voted unanimously to revert to its former nuclear status. The deputies claimed that they had foolishly believed the United States when it had promised a new norm-based and inclusive security system. Nato’s war on Yugoslavia had destroyed all their illusions. If Kiev is angry, Moscow is incandescent. The military-industrial complex is one of the best-preserved institutions in the country. Its leaders have been arguing with the politicians for nearly two years, pleading that they be allowed to upgrade Russia’s nuclear armoury. Until March 24 this year they had not made too much headway. On April 30, a meeting of the National Security Council in Moscow approved the modernisation of all strategic and tactical nuclear warheads. It gave the...

Helsingborgs Dagblad Vad är humanitär intervention? Kan rättvisa skapas mot krigsförbrytare? Varför motsätter sig USA en permanent krigsförbrytardomstol? “Humanitär intervention” är den term med vilken Nato rättfärdigar bombningarna av Jugoslavien. Människorättskränkningarna ledde till att bombningarna blev humanitärt nödvändiga, menar man. Kritikerna menar tvärtemot att Nato vållat och utlöst en humanitär katastrof genom att bomba i stället för att arbeta med konfliktlindrande åtgärder. Ett seminarium under fredskonferensen i Haag ägnades åt att försöka reda ut vad begreppet “humanitär intervention” egentligen står för. – En grundfråga är hur man ska bemöta massiva människorättskränkningar, sa Mient-Jan Faber, från holländska sektionen av människorättsorganisationen Helsinkikommittén, HCA. Kan man hejda kränkningar av mänskliga rättigheter med bomber? Eller förvärrar bomber bara? Vehid Sehic kommer från Medborgarforum i bosniska Tuzla, en av sex städer som under kriget i Bosnien förklarades som säker zon under FN-beskydd. – Medborgarna i Tuzla försvarade sig själva. Det var varken Nato eller FN...

Aid Workers are struck by contrasts in food, shelter and health care.They cite culture, race as reasons By T. CHRISTIAN MILLER, ANN M. SIMMONS, Times Staff Writers SKOPJE, Macedonia- When veteran refugee worker Lynne Miller arrived here from Africa earlier this month, she stepped into a different world. Miller had just spent three years monitoring food supplies at a remote refugee camp in Somalia, and one of her first crises in Macedonia was anurgent request from a medical team. A diabetic refugee had crossed the border. Could she provide a special diet? She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, much less that she was able to fulfill the request. “In Africa, we don’t have special food or diets. There are no diabetics in the camps,” she said. “They just die.” The outpouring of aid in recent weeks for ethnic Albanians ripped from their homes in Kosovo has stunned humanitarian groups, which...

LONDON- The only good thing about this war with Yugoslavia is that no Nato soldier has been killed in combat. This makes the compromise now necessary to quickly end this counterproductive enterprise much more easy to realize. Thucydides listed three causes of war–interest, fear and honour. They still hold in the twentieth century. Honour was central to Britain’s single minded determination to win World War 1. Once blood had been shed it would have been considered a betrayal not to revenge those who had already died for the cause. Likewise, it is why the American people rallied behind Roosevelt once their honour had been insulted in Pearl Harbour. Fortunately for Nato this time round there is no honour at stake, yet. Passions are not aroused. There is only blood on the floor on one side of the room. Public opinion is not intensely engaged. Indeed, if anything western opinion is gradually...