Archive 1986 – 2017

“The military provisions in the Kosovo Agreement onthe table in Paris has nothing to do with peacekeeping.Neither the civilian nor the military provisions will helpbring about peace among Serbs and Albanians. It will furtherantagonize the 10 million citizens of Yugoslavia and theinternational community. There is simply nothing in it forthe Yugoslavs and that’s why I am deeply afraid that we arelikely to see something very bad happen very soon. Thiswhole affair has nothing to do with violence prevention, theappropriate term would be: peace-prevention. Leading media, commentators, scholars and diplomatsjoin in condemning the Yugoslav side in the Paris talks onKosovo and thus legitimate subsequent NATO bombing and defacto NATO control over the territory. Who can be soungrateful, stubborn or scoundrelly to refuse an offer ofpeace? However, no one asks: what does the Kosovo Agreementin Paris, the “peace” plan, actually contain? I don’t think this is necessarily deliberate,” saysDr. Jan Oberg, head...

“Odredbe Vojnog dela Kosovskog sporazuma stavljenog nasto u Parizu nemaju bas niceg zajednickog sa mirovnommisijom (ocuvanje mira – peace keeping). Kao ni civilni,tako ni vojni deo ovog sporazuma nece dovesti do mira medjuSrbima i Albanacima. On ce samo dodatno antagoniziratimedjunarodnu zajednicu i 10 miliona gradjana Jugoslavije. Unjemu Jugosloveni nece naci nista dobrog za sebe i stoga seplasim da cemo svi uskoro biti svedoci neceg vrlo ruznog stose sprema. Citava ova prica nema niceg zajednickog sasprecavanjem nasilja, ustvari – odgovarajuci naziv za ovobio bi: sprecavanje mira (peace-prevention). Vodeci mediji, komentatori, akademici i diplomateujedinjeni su u osudama jugoslovenske delegacije napregovorima u Parizu cime daju legitimnost buducem NATObombardovanju i de-facto NATO-ovoj kontroli nad tomteritorijom. Ko bi se usudio da bude toliko nezahvalan,bandoglav i siledzija pa da odbije ponudjeni mu mir?Medjutim, nema nikoga da se zapita: sta to Kosovskisporazum, tzv. “mirovni” plan, u sustini sadrzi?” “Mislim kako ne mora biti da se sve to...

“NATO’s build-up in Macedonia is incredible, and goesvirtually unnoticed – except in that country. The MacedonianParliament has not even discussed the deployment of morethan 12.000 heavily armed troops and NATO bars journalistsfrom investigating what is going on. NATO is now strongerthan the country’s own defence. It took the internationalcommunity, read OSCE, 5 months to get 1500 civilian monitorsinto Kosovo, but it took only a few weeks to get themilitary build-up underway in Macedonia. When does some oneinvestigate how this happened or who pays for this and theNATO build-up around Yugoslavia? Or ask what MacedonianPrime Minister Ljupco Geogievski was promised by U.S.Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, when the hadbreakfast recently in Washington?” – says Jan Oberg, TFF’sdirector and co-founder who has just visited the country. “Here is another reasonably relevant question: SinceChristopher Hill, the main author of the Kosovo Agreement onthe table in Paris and the diplomat who prepared the groundfor...

“Read the so-called Kosovo Peace Agreement beingdiscussed these very hours in Paris and you are in for a fewsurprises,” says TFF director Dr. Jan Oberg. “I do notthink that any recognised, sovereign state would accept allthe CIVILIAN provisions and the MILITARY implementationon its territory of a plan like this. No state likes toreceive “sign or be bombed” ultimatums – particularly notwhen the said plan implies the de facto end of its status asa sovereign state with territorial integrity. The standard story with CNN, BBC, and leading papersconveys the impression that the Serbs are just stubborn andstall the peace negotiations, whereas the Albanian side isco-operative, as evidenced by a letter from their delegationleader of March 15. Yugoslavia deserves punishment whileAlbanians are praised for their “courage to compromise forpeace.” That’s virtual reality and virtual truth. Realreality is way more complicated,” says Oberg. “You must have noticed that no one has raised the simplequestion: Could there...

“Procitajte tzv. Sporazum o Kosovu, isti onaj o kom seupravo ovih sati raspravlja u Parizu i budite sigurni da cevas puno toga sto on sadrzi zaista iznenaditi”, kaze Dr. JanOberg, direktor TFF-a. ” Mislim da ni jedna suverena drzavane bi prihvatila sve CIVILNE odredbe a tako ni VOJNUimplementaciju predvidenu ovakvim planom. Nijedna drzavanije odusevljena kad joj prete ultimatumom tipa “potpisi ilicemo te bombardovati” a pogotovo ne kada takav navodni planu sebi de-facto sadrzi i kraj nje same kao suverene drzavesa vlastitim teritorijalnim integritetom. Uobicajeni izvestaji CNN-a, BBC-a i vodecih listovaprenose svetskoj javnosti utisak kako su bas Srbi ti kojitvrdoglavo odugovlace pregovore o miru, dok je Albanskastrana kooperativna, sto se vidi i iz pisma sefa njihovedelegacije od 15. marta. Jugoslaviju treba kazniti dokAlbance treba pohvaliti zbog njihove “hrabrosti da napraveustupke kako bi se doslo do mira.” No to je samo laznaslika, opsena i obmana. Prava slika je kudikamokomplikovanija od ovoga” kaze...

 Om Teknologisk fascisme En debatt mot Habermas Av Hans Ebbing* Krigen mot Jugoslavia representerer det fenomenet som filosofen Arild Haaland har kalla teknologisk fascisme. Det teknologiske overherredømet til USA og Vesten har sitt ideologiske uttrykk i ein teknologisk-kulturell arroganse. Denne arrogansen er det sentrale kjenneteiknet i alla former for fascisme: forakten for viekskap. I Filosofi i NATO Den kjende tyske filosofen, Juergen Habermas, har i kronikken Bestialitet og humanitet i Die Zeit og Bergens Tidende i mai 1999 gjort seg refleksjonar over krigen i Jugoslavia. Stykket er viktig fordi det er typisk for den måten mange intellektuelle og politikarar argumenterer på når dei skal rettferdiggjere NATO si bombing — anten dei har lest Habermas eller ikkje. Argumenta er symptomatiske for ein større, men løynd logikk som eg med filosofen Arild Haaland har kalla teknologisk fascisme. Habermas kunne etter 1 månads luftkrig gle seg over at den “offentlige diskusjonen og stemningen...

Burundi, hvor er det nu det ligger? Det er noget med Hutsier og Tutuer – eller hvad de nu hedder – der laver folkemord med machete-knive på hinanden, noget med fattigdom, korruption, militærdiktatur, nød og elendighed? Det håbløse, mørke Afrika i en bananskal, ikke? Tjah. Jeg har lige været der. Der er selvfølgelig noget om snakken. Der er en del årsager til at man ikke hører særligt meget om livet i dette lille land. En af dem er at der ikke foregår noget folkemord for tiden, ingen naturkatastrofer, intet kup. Der er ingen mislykket FN-mission, USA og EU har ingen interesser, Madeleine Halfbright har ikke sagt noget om det, NATO’s Solana ser ikke bombinger i Burundi som afgørende forud for alliancens 50årsdag. For nogen tid siden da et halvt hundrede mennesker var blevet dræbt valfartede hundreder af journalister med CNN i spidsen dertil . . . men for at komme videre til...

LONDON- Arms deals gone wrong are leaving quite a trail. The murder of Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme? The murder of Andre Cools, the socialist politician in Belgium, whose party colleague Willy Claes had to resign as secretary-general of NATO, caught up in the investigation and questions that followed? A British journalist found hanging in a hotel room in Chile, eight years ago? And now the long and tortuous saga of Jonathan Aitken, the former British minister of state for defense procurement. “If there is a more serious case of corruption in post-war British politics we would be interested to know about it”, editorialised the Guardian last week, the paper which exposed the million dollar racket. All these, bar the last, have serious question marks. Nothing has ever been proved in court. In Palme’s case we only have the circumstantial evidence that he was the front man for a controversial deal...

LONDON- If you are one of my American readers this could well be my last column for your newspaper. More and more evidence points to the conclusion that America’s interest in the outside world is shrinking faster than a pricked balloon; and the media are setting the pace, rapidly downsizing their foreign bureaus and sharply reducing the space they give to foreign affairs. Nevertheless, it does not follow that American policy makers and business pace-setters are winding down THEIR interest in the world outside. On the contrary. But this divergence–the media and the populace going one way–to bury their head in the sand–and the leadership going the other, aggressively promoting America overseas is creating serious problems. As Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University sums it up in another of his telling essays in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, “The U.S. is unlikely to become an isolationist country. But it could...

LONDON- Olesegun Obasanjo, the likely winner in Nigeria’s presidential election on Saturday, combines to a rare degree brain, brawn and charm. Of massive build, his self assurance and determination often compel others to bend before his will. His detractors would call him ruthless; he does not suffer fools, and many have withered before his unconcealed scorn. Yet he is not a self-inflated man. Arrogance is not his vice. Only released from prison last June, after three years of struggling to maintain his spirits in a dank cell, he has moved quickly to regain the presidency he voluntarily relinquished twenty years ago. It was the same self-perpetuating clique of self-enriching military officers who incarcerated him, who had turned to dust his earlier effort, when he was president in the late 1970s–and himself a military appointee–to return the country to democracy. Two summers back I went to visit his old and trusted friend,...

“The Plan being discussed at Rambouillet is aformalistic, legal document. Its provisions may be needed,but it doesn’t contain any ideas on how to make peace amongthe citizens who are to live with it when implemented. Theirvoice is not heard, their needs are not dealt with in thePlan. Most of the delegates in Rambouillet are notrepresentative of the citizens. The “mediators” have noprofessional education as mediators. The idea that Kosovo’sproblems can be solved in two weeks is absurd. Rambouilletmilitates against all we know about human psychology andtrust-building. So, once again politics fool media and media foolworld public opinion. And people in Kosovo will have to waitfor peace as long as the vagabonds in Beckett’s drama waitfor Godot…” says Dr. Jan Oberg upon returning from TFF’s34th mission to ex-Yugoslavia, this time to Skopje, Belgradeand the troubled Kosovo province. 1. The preparation When wars are fought thousands of trained soldiers aremobilised, highly trained...

Det är fredagen den 19 februari. Jag har just återvänt från nästan tre veckor i Skopje, Belgrad och Kosovo. Min analys och min intuition säger det jag inte vill höra: bombningarna rycker närmare. Det var det 34:e besöket sedan 1991. Jag är delvis utbildad i Dubrovnik, sedan 1974. Jag kan inte släppa det, det är på något sätt också mitt land, som återigen hotas av den kulturkrets jag tillhör. Radmila och Peca i Belgrad, vänner sedan 1974, intellektuella som har valt att inte lämna, har just sagt nej till ett erbjudande om uppehälle i utlandet. Dottern Anja på 9 skall växa upp här. “Jag reste ned nu,” säger jag, “därför att det antingen skulle falla bomber eller bli en sorts ‘förhandling’ och jag ville vara här om flygraiderna kommer, för jag skäms över vad Danmark, Norge och andra länder gör.” Radmila får tårar i ögonen. En diplomat på den brittiska ambassaden...