Archive 1986 – 2017

LONDON – If it’s eight years since the Gulf War and Saddam Hussein still rules then it is as well not to forget it’s 46 years since the end of the Korean War and Kim Il Sung still rules. Well, although dead, he is still “Eternal President”, whilst his son, Kim Jong Il manages day to day mortal affairs from his position as Secretary General of the Korean Workers’ Party. In terms of danger posed to the outside world North Korea is a much greater threat than Iraq. North Korea is much further ahead in the outcasts’ rush to produce an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. It clearly has the capacity to develop–and may well have long ago built–nuclear weapons. And it is not far short of being able to construct an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Last August it sent a three stage rocket hurtling over Japan–in an attempt to launch...

In a large interview with the leading Kosovo-Albanianweekly “ZËRI” on December 22, TFF director Jan Obergchallenges the international community’s whole approach toconflict-resolution and peace. He also believes that thepolicy of positioning and the focus on formal status pursuedby the parties is counterproductive. It’s time, he maintains, to listen to the needs ofcitizens, to address real issues of daily life and tointroduce some new ideas and actors. Governments have failed on all sides. Their diplomatsmay be great lawyers but they lack professional knowledgeand training in conflict analysis, conflict psychology,social issues and mediation techniques. This is simply notthe way to proceed if you want to help people to live inpeace.” Read theinterview in its entirety Here follow excerpts: “Modern history is full of conflicts at least as bad asthat in Kosovo that have been overcome by nonviolence.” “What I have said here applies also to the internationalcommunity’s “conflict managers”. Neither the US...

LONDON – Will historians a hundred years hence look at the end of the twentieth century much as we now look at the end of the nineteenth and say, `unfortunately the peace and prosperity of that moment was but an interlude before the bloodiest century in mankind’s history?’ Will they conclude as Aldous Huxley did, that “Every road towards a better state of society is blocked, sooner or later, by war, by threats of war, preparations for war. That is the truth, the odious and unacceptable truth.” The pessimists of our day have grist for their mill–President Bill Clinton has just announced he wants the largest rise in the military budget since the end of the Cold War build up under Ronald Reagan: the nightmare of containing and restraining Iraq and North Korea continues; civil wars that target civilians more than soldiers are all over the place; and nuclear weapons are...

Peace Information Center, Faculty of Political ScienceThammasat University On August 7, 1998 two bombs exploded at the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 263 people and wounded approximately 4,000. Two weeks later , on August 20, the US navy launched 75 to 80 Tomahawk cruise missiles from its ships in the Arabian and the Red Sea at targets the American government believes to have been a chemical weapons plant somewhere Northeast of Khartoum, Sudan and a training camp for terrorists 150 Km. Southeast of Kabul, Afghanistan. Thirty people were reported killed by these missiles. Soon after the attacks, US President Bill Clinton said they were not aimed against Islam, but at “fanatics and killers who wrap murder in the cloak of righteousness”. Supporters of the attack include Newt Gingrich, the Republican House Speaker, who said the US “did exactly the right thing”, traditional allies such as Chancellor Kohl of...

PressInfos 1999 No 83 (December 31, 1999)Time For Forgiveness. End of the Year Statement No 82 (December 16, 1999)Preventing Peace – New Report No 81 (November 22, 1999)Questions to Clinton in Kosovo No 80 (November 22, 1999)A Bouquet of Ideas for Peace in Macedonia…and Kosovo No 79 (October 31, 1999)Your Ideas for Peace in Macedonia Wanted No 78 (October 3, 1999)Misleading UN Report on Kosovo (B) No 77 (October 3, 1999)Misleading UN Report on Kosovo (A) No 76 (August 20, 1999)The World Needs Reconciliation Centres (Serbo-Croatian version) No 75 (July 30, 1999)NATO’s Psychological Projection (Serbo-Croatian version) No 73 and 74 (July 14 and July 30, 1999)Some Ethical Aspects on NATO’s Intervention in Kosovo. Part A.andPart B. (Serbo-Croatian version – No 73) (Serbo-Croatian version – No 74) No 72 (June 18, 1999)NATO in Kosovo – Failed Peacekeeping (Serbo-Croatian version) No 71 (June 18, 1999)Read UN Resolution 1244 and Watch NATO in Kosovo(Serbo-Croatian...

LONDON – Writing in 1751 Voltaire described Europe as “a kind of great republic, divided into several states, some monarchical, the others mixed but all corresponding with one another. They have all the same religious foundation, even if divided into several confessions. They all have the same principles of public law and politics unknown in other parts of the world.” At 11.30 pm. Central European Time, on December 31st, European Union central bankers will send their currency rates versus the dollar to the central bank of Belgium. The “Big Bang” of currency union can then be set underway as midnight strikes. In a way that Charlemagne, Voltaire, William Penn and Gladstone, the early advocates of European unity, could only dream, a united Europe becomes an almighty reality. A single currency is the most dramatic of the steps taken so far towards what surely one day will be a single political entity....

“This is yet another publication from TFF – ‘Violence,Postwar Reconstruction and Civil Society – Theory andYugoslavia.’ It’s main focus is civil society in war andpeace. It relates this concept to the economicglobalisation, to international conflict-management and tothe case of Yugoslavia and the Dayton agreement,” says JanOberg, TFF director and author of the study. It reflects the fact that everything TFF does is based ontriple-thinking: We have three types of activities –academic analyses, field work and advocacy. We do threethings in conflict regions – conflict analysis/earlywarning, conflict-mitigation and peace and reconciliationeducation. We offer three perspectives – analyses, criticismand constructive alternatives. We believe that conflictsdeserve three steps – diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.And we work with three conflict regions – former Yugoslavia,Georgia in the Caucasus and one more conflict,” saysOberg. The first chapter deals with civil society andviolence-prevention; the second discusses various conceptsof ‘civil society’ and relates it to various types of power.It...

Nyligen antog FN på bl a Sveriges initiativ en Deklaration på väg mot en kärnvapenfri värld. Men USA, Ryssland och NATO-länderna, också Danmark, röstade mot. Viktiga frågor som dessa kan Sverige driva precis därför att det inte är NATO-medlem  Klyftan mellan kärnvapen och mänskliga rättigheter är avgrundsdjup. 50-årsjubileet av FN:s mänskliga rättigheter har nyligen firats, men i det sammanhanget nämndes aldrig kärnvapnen. Rätten till utveckling är väsentlig, rätten till liv är fundamental. I dag styr Västvärlden en enda globaliserad ekonomi, som systematiskt undergräver hundratals miljoner människors grundläggande rättigheter, som rätten att fritt söka och välja arbete. Militarismen och kärnvapenstrategin kostar ofantliga summor som kunde användas bättre. Mänsklighetens själva existens hotas härigenom, liksom folkgrupper runtom i världen. Alla säkerhetsrådets fem permanenta medlemmar alla kärnvapen. Och tillsammans kontrollerar dessa stater 85 procent av all vapenhandel. Världens mäktigaste stat USA leder både korståget för (västliga) fri- och människorättigheter ˆ och det ekonomiska och...

in Kosovo-Albanian “ZËRI” in Pristina by Blerim Shala 1. DR. OBERG, HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE PRESENT SITUATION IN KOSOVA, ESPECIALLY REGARDING THE OSCE OBSERVER MISSION WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE ESTABLISHED IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS? Compared with one or five years ago, the present situation is worse for all parties. Innocent civilians – about 10% of the Kosovo-Albanians and 10% of the Kosovo-Serbs – have lost their home, belongings, human rights and safety. No politician ever asked them and I am sure they did not want this to achieve any political goal. Second, Serbia/FRY has lost important parts of its control and sovereignty and it has more international interference than ever – what all Serbia was directed out to vote against just a few months ago. And the Albanians in Kosovo are worse off too – they no longer obtain the sympathy, solidarity and admiration for their nonviolent policies from...

“There cannot be just one way to describe the problem with Iraq. Or one way to handle it. However professional CNN is, it exposes the American foreign policy and security establishment to an extent that borders on monopolising“truth.” We need more than American media to cover the bombings of Iraq. We need more than bomb coverage, we need an understanding of that the underlying conflict is about. War and violence IS not the same as the conflict but the result of conflicts mismanaged by the parties and the so-called international community,” says Dr. Jan Oberg. “In situations like this it is essential to gather manyand varied facts and interpret the issues through otherlenses than those of the mainstream media. Internet permitsyou to combine many sources and perspectives, find the lesswell-known facts and construct your independent opinion. Idon’t believe we can know what is really happening and whyby watching CNN alone...

To Finding Solutions Denis Halliday says destruction is not the way to deal with Iraq. A peaceful solution can come from recognising the roots of problems The Irish TimesDecember 19, 1998 Question: So, apart from speaking out and taking a moral stand, what do we do? That is a question I am asked frequently. Of course, there is no simple answer. However, we could start by controlling arms sales and build-up everywhere, including in the Middle East and in Iraq. I would support that 100 per cent. Meanwhile, drop the sanctions that are so devastating to the Iraqi people. For the longer term, we could recognise some of the root causes of the conflict between Kuwait and Iraq. Maybe we could acknowledge that Kuwait had been an integral part of Iraq for 3,000 years before some British cartographer carved it out for geopolitical reasons in the 1890s. We might recognise some...

Vi får stadigt større enheder, mere komplekse problemer og kortere tid til at tage beslutninger, hvis konsekvenser tenderer at vokse mod uoverskuelighed. Når det går sådan mister vi opmærksomheden på og følelsen af sammenhæng. Noget vitalt afvikles under “udviklingen,” verdensbilleder krakellerer. Der hersker en afgrundsdyb modsætning mellem kærnevåbnene på den ene side og menneskerettighederne på den anden, men vi ser den ikke. 50-året for FN’s Universale Erklæring om Menneskerettigheder er netop blevet fejret, men hverken medier, regeringer, skoler, folkelige bevægelser, debattører eller humanister påpegede deres modsigelsestyngede sammenhæng. Retten til udvikling er essentiel, retten til liv fundamental. Der er bare to ting, der står i vejen herfor, nemlig a) den omstændighed at Vestverden styrer og er afhængig af én eneste “globaliserende” økonomi, der systematisk undergraver hundreder af millioners helt grundlæggende rettigheder, f.eks. retten til frit at søge og vælge et arbejde. Og b) militarisme og især nuklearisme, kærnevåbnene og mange andre...